Learning to say “I am Remarkable”

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to a workshop held by Google, entitled I am Remarkable. I’m ashamed to tell you that my impostor syndrome kicked in just at the title of the workshop — why was I invited? Was this some kind of mistake?

Still, I jumped at the chance to attend — having recently launched our Women in Tech Not Just Code community together, this felt like a great opportunity for my colleague Carol and I to explore more ways to empower women in the workplace.

I did very little research on the #IamRemarkable concept before our workshop day, so I didn’t know what to expect from the experience.

We entered the workshop room with a group of other women, who we had never met. I found very quickly that most of us were in the same boat — we didn’t know what to expect from the day and started getting to know each other over coffee and biscuits. At this point, I remember thinking yet again that maybe I wasn’t quite worthy of a spot in the room — all of these women were seriously impressive!

The workshop started with a round of introductions, followed by a presentation about some of the obstacles that women and underrepresented groups face in the workplace. In our group, the presentation organically turned into a group discussion at points. I found myself recognising my own experiences as the workshop unfolded:

All of the times I’ve undersold myself.
All of the times I’ve been afraid to own my achievements.
My ongoing battle with impostor syndrome.

Even some uncomfortable realisations about how I’ve fallen foul of unconscious biases myself in the past.

There was a lot to take in, and a lot of self-reflection.

After the presentation, we embarked upon an exercise (which I won’t spoil for you!). As we went through the exercise as a group, I had a few revelations about the experience:

When you’re around the right people, they will celebrate your achievements with you.

I find other people’s accomplishments impressive, even if they don’t think they’re “remarkable enough”.

I deserved my place in the room.

I am remarkable.

During the exercise, I was really moved and brought to tears at points. But I came away feeling completely empowered and motivated.

Carol and I barely had to discuss it after the workshop — we were both determined to train as #IamRemarkable facilitators as soon as possible and bring the workshop into The Telegraph.

As I write, I can report that we did it! Pretty remarkable, if you ask me. We have just co-facilitated our first #IamRemarkable workshop, on International Women’s Day.

Going through the training to become a facilitator was a really simple process, with the session taking place online one evening. Revisiting the material involved in the workshop reminded me how important it is to spread the word about #IamRemarkable.

As a Product Manager in my day job, I really value diversity of opinions when it comes to creating products to satisfy diverse audiences. No-one wants to use a product that doesn’t consider their needs. But it’s easy to ignore the fact that it’s often hard when you’re the one in an underrepresented group to get your voice heard.

Seeing that companies who embrace diversity by having more women in leadership roles are proven to be more financially successful is no surprise; but what can we do to empower women and underrepresented groups to put themselves into contention for those roles?

We can teach self-promotion skills.

And so, we co-facilitated our first workshop. Sitting in the facilitator seat felt like such a natural step after being so moved by my first #IamRemarkable experience. I was so excited to yet again be in a room with a group of open, honest and remarkable people, and to have the privilege to lead the discussion. I’m proud to say that several of our workshop attendees have already expressed an interest in training to become facilitators themselves — and so #IamRemarkable will continue to deliver meaningful experiences to employees at The Telegraph.

If you’re interested to learn more about #IamRemakable, you can find out more here.

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