I’m one of those people who is priviledged enough to have found a handful of mentors who I’m able to bug for advise and assistance when I encounter different problems, not only at work but in my personal life.

Catching up with one of my mentors and a good friend (my Mr Miyagi) yesterday gave me lots of food for thought for my run this afternoon…

He was sharing his views on people’s personalities and how, (in his humble opinion) you don’t really get far in the corporate world unless you are willing to have a voice to speak up and be heard.

The point he was trying to make is that for some people, speaking up is an uncomfortable space to be in. There are people who would much rather sit quietly in a meeting, taking notes and internalising the issues than being the loud-mouths who need to be heard. The down side to this is that these ‘quiet’ people are then viewed as not contributing to the discussion or not having an opinion.

Unfortunately, to be noticed and to grow and to be recognised as someone who has something of value to the team, you sometimes need to push yourself out of that comfort zone and become that loud voice. Especially to make sure people start noticing you and the knowledge you possess.

So many of us have special skills and konowledge which a lot of people are unaware of. The best person to sell those skills is yourself because there’s no one that knows you better than you know yourself.