How To Communicate Effectively on Controversial Issues

About How To Communicate Effectively on Controversial Issues

Learn to discuss divisive issues with clarity, empathy, and evidence-based arguments while managing emotions effectively persefonecoaching.substack.com (https://persefonecoaching.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

PersefoneCoaching

Category

education · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Oct 2025

Latest episode

18 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

34 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Aug 2026

   Authenticity: The Pursuit of Ease, Not Easy

   In this candid, wide ranging conversation, EMCC accredited transformational coach Julie Blint is joined by John Polly, known as JP, a global educator in movement and wellbeing and an identity coach, to explore the courage it takes to be seen. Together, they unpack authenticity as far more than saying whatever comes to mind. It is a values led practice of knowing who you are, responding thoughtfully to the moment you are in, and making choices that feel aligned with your identity, needs and values, even when they invite misunderstanding or disapproval. Julie and John explore people pleasing, shyness, identity, belonging, emotional expression, and the importance of finding a supportive tribe. They discuss the parts of ourselves we may hide in order to fit in, why self protection and authenticity can coexist, and how small acts of self expression can help us take up more space in our lives. Along the way, they share practical ways to begin: * Identify the values that matter most to you, and notice how those values may guide you differently in different situations. * Pay attention to the relationships, environments and activities that leave you feeling at ease, energised or fully absorbed, as these can reveal what is genuinely important to you. * Try expressing a little more of yourself in low stakes moments, perhaps with a colleague, a regular at your local café, or a trusted friend. * Notice what you feel and what your reactions may be telling you about your needs, boundaries and values. * Question expectations you may have inherited about work, family and belonging. * Seek out or create spaces where your differences are celebrated. If you have ever felt like an outsider, adapted yourself around other people’s expectations, or wondered, “What do I actually want?”, this episode is a warm invitation to live with more courage, connection, and inner ease, even when it is not easy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe (https://persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

2. 

   5 Jun 2026

   How To Build Confidence When Preparing For a New Role

   There is a common belief about confidence that most of us carry without ever examining it: that confidence is something you either have or you do not. That before you can take on something new, you need to feel ready. That readiness is a prerequisite, and that if it is absent, you should wait. This belief is wrong. And it is worth being direct about that, because it costs people a great deal. The gap between competence and confidence The more useful truth is this: most people who feel unready for a new role, a promotion, or a challenge already have the skills the situation requires. What they lack is not ability. It is an internal sense of permission. Confidence and competence are not the same thing, and they do not develop in parallel. You can be genuinely skilled and feel completely fraudulent. You can have done something ten times and still feel like you are about to be found out. This is not a character flaw. It is what happens when your sense of self has not caught up with what your experience actually shows. The question is not whether you are ready. The question is whether you have the tools to close that gap. Why identity lags behind role changes When someone moves into a new position, their internal picture of themselves often stays behind. They are still operating from an older version of who they think they are. You may be a team leader today, but inside you still feel like the junior hire from three years ago. The title has changed. The responsibilities have changed. But the voice in your head is still running on old information. How much of what you believe about your capabilities comes from actual evidence? How much comes from messages you absorbed long ago, from teachers, managers, or family members, that may never have been accurate at all? Identity change is slower than role change. Knowing this does not fix it, but it does mean you can stop treating the gap as proof that you do not belong. It is a normal part of any transition. The work is to build the internal evidence that your picture of yourself needs to update. Borrowed confidence versus built confidence Not all confidence is the same, and this distinction is one of the most useful things you can carry into a new role. Borrowed confidence comes from external sources: titles, job descriptions, approval from authority figures, validation from colleagues, past successes that others have recognised. It feels real while the context holds. But it is fragile. When the context changes, when you start something new, when the approving voice is no longer in the room, it disappears. Built confidence comes from evidence you have collected yourself. Not reassurance. Not affirmations. Concrete, specific proof of what you have done, what it required of you, and what it demonstrates you can do. A memory of handling a difficult meeting. A decision you made under pressure. A time you adapted when the situation changed. These travel with you, because you carry them. They are not dependent on anyone else’s opinion. Everything practical in this article is about building the second kind. The voice in your head is running old software In the first 90 days of a new role, most people have a set of specific thoughts running on repeat. They are predictable enough that it is worth naming them directly: I do not belong here. A more accurate version: I was hired because of what I bring. They will find out I do not know enough. A more accurate version: I know enough to start. I will learn the rest. Everyone else seems to know what they are doing. A more accurate version: everyone is figuring it out. I just cannot see theirs. I should not have to ask for help. A more accurate version: asking good questions is a sign of strength. If I make a mistake, it proves I am not ready. A more accurate version: mistakes are part of learning, not proof of failure. These thoughts are not reports on reality. They are old programmes, written at a time when you were in a different situation, probably with less experience than you have now. They can be interrupted, examined, and replaced with something more accurate. The next section covers how to do that systematically. Practical tools you can use now What follows is a set of concrete exercises. These are not motivational tools. They are not about positive thinking. They work because they are based on evidence and structure, and because they address specific sources of low confidence rather than attempting to override it. 1. The Confidence Evidence Log Before any high-stakes situation, most people try to calm themselves down or talk themselves into feeling ready. This rarely works because it is not evidence-based. Your nervous system is not convinced by reassurance. It is convinced by proof. The Confidence Evidence Log is a structured template with three columns: * What I did * What it required of me * What it proves I can do An example: I led the project review when my manager was away. It required me to present to senior leadership, handle questions on the spot, and make a resourcing decision without checking with anyone. It proves I can lead a high-pressure meeting and make decisions under uncertainty. The point is specificity. Not “I am good at communication” but “here is the exact thing I did, here is what it demanded, here is what it shows.” Fill in two or three entries now. Finish the rest over the coming week. Review it before anything important. 2. The Confidence Inventory This is a broader version of the same principle. Ten prompts to help you identify evidence you have probably been discounting: * A time I solved a problem nobody else could * A skill I have that I tend to undervalue * Something difficult I did that I was not sure I could * A time I spoke up, and it changed the outcome * A time I adapted quickly to something unfamiliar * Feedback I received that surprised me positively * A time I helped someone else succeed * Something I know more about than most people in my field * A situation where I kept a clear head under pressure * A contribution I made that I never took proper credit for Most people, when they actually sit down with this list, find more than they expected. The problem is not that the evidence does not exist. It is that we do not treat it as evidence. 3. The Body Language and Voice Self-Check Confidence is not only a mental experience. Your body communicates it, or the absence of it, before you say a single word. And more importantly, your body feeds information back to your brain. How you hold yourself physically changes how you feel. Run through this before any interview, presentation, or important meeting. It takes less than two minutes. * Feet: planted shoulder-width apart or flat on the floor. Not crossed or tucked. * Posture: shoulders back and down, chest open, full height. * Hands: visible and still. On the table or at your sides. Not hidden or fidgeting. * Space: take up room. Spread materials out. Do not shrink into the smallest area available. * Voice pace: deliberately slower than feels natural. Pause between sentences. When you feel uncertain, you speed up and pitch higher. Speaking slower signals authority, even when it feels strange. * Voice pitch: lower register. Finish sentences with a downward or neutral inflection. An upward inflection at the end of a statement turns it into a question. It sounds like you are asking for permission. A flat or falling inflection sounds like you know what you are talking about. * Breathing: three slow breaths before you begin. In through the nose, slow exhale. When you say something important, do not fidget or look away. Still eyes and a steady body communicate that what you are saying carries weight. 4. Mental Rehearsal Athletes and performers use this consistently, and there is a good reason for that. The brain does not fully distinguish between a vividly imagined experience and a real one. When you rehearse something in specific detail, you build familiarity. You are not telling yourself it will go well. You are practising it going well. There is a significant difference. Before an interview, presentation, or first day in a new role, take ten minutes and walk through the entire situation in your mind. Not a vague outline. The room, the people, yourself responding clearly. Being asked a difficult question and handling it without panic. Your voice steady. The conversation going the direction you want. Try it now with something you have coming up this month. 5. Reframing the Stakes Most people walk into an interview thinking: they are deciding whether I am good enough. A more useful frame: I am finding out whether this role is right for me. This is not a trick. It changes the balance of power in your own mind, and that changes everything downstream. When you are evaluating rather than being evaluated, your posture changes. Your voice changes. You ask different questions. You listen differently. You stop performing and start engaging, which makes you considerably more impressive. 6. The Worst Realistic Outcome When you feel anxious about a high-stakes situation, your brain tends to run the catastrophic version of events. The one where everything goes wrong, your career is destroyed, and the embarrassment is permanent. Ask yourself instead: what is the worst thing that is realistically going to happen? Not the catastrophic fantasy. The actual, likely worst case. Which is often something like: I do not get this particular role, and I apply for the next one. Or: I have an awkward first week and then I find my feet. When you name the realistic worst case out loud, it almost always turns out to be something you can manage. And once you know you can manage it, the anxiety drops considerably. You have more mental energy available for the thing itself. 7. The Three Stories Method Before any interview or important meeting, identify three specific examples from your experience and practise saying them out loud. Not thinking them through. Out loud. The difference is significant. * A competence story: what you did, what it required, what resulted. * A problem-solving story: a time you worked through something difficult under pressure, how you approached it, what you learned. * A collaboration story: a time you worked effectively with others to achieve a result, and specifically what your contribution was. Each story should cover what was happening, what you did specifically, and what the result was. Keep each one to about 60 seconds when spoken. Practise out loud at least twice before you need to use them. Starting a new role: what to do in the first 30 days The first weeks of any role set patterns that are difficult to shift later. Three questions worth answering before your first day: What do I want people to experience when they work with me? The impression you want to leave. Calm. Decisive. Collaborative. Direct. Knowing the answer means you can make deliberate choices rather than reactive ones. What boundary do I need to set early? People will treat you the way you allow them to from the start. Boundaries set in the first week feel natural. Boundaries set six months later feel confrontational. The time to establish them is now. What one thing am I avoiding that I already know how to do? Identify something you are capable of but that feels too visible, too forward, or too risky. Then do it in the first week. On visibility: the longer you stay silent in meetings, the harder it becomes. Say something in the first ten minutes, even if it is a question. It establishes you as a participant. Do not wait to feel ready. Confidence follows action, not the other way round. A note on imposter syndrome Dr Valerie Young’s research identifies five specific patterns of imposter syndrome. Most people recognise themselves in at least one. The Perfectionist sets standards so high that success never feels complete. Any gap between the result and the ideal reads as failure. The practical response: set your completion standard before you start, not after. Decide in advance what finished looks like, and when you reach it, the work is done. The Superhero equates competence with effort. Must outwork everyone to feel legitimate. The practical response: track output, not hours. At the end of each week, write down what you produced. If the output is solid, the hours are irrelevant. The Natural Genius believes that competent people find things easy. Effort feels like proof of inadequacy. The practical response: build a record of things that took multiple attempts before you got them right, and that you now do well. Effort is how competence is built, not evidence that it is absent. The Soloist must do everything alone. Asking for help feels like cheating. The practical response: reframe asking for help as information gathering. The question is not whether you need input. It is whether you are willing to get the work done well. The Expert is always one more course or one more year away from feeling ready. The finish line keeps moving. The practical response: write down specifically what you would need to know to feel qualified. Then ask yourself honestly whether you already know most of it. The answer is almost always yes. The central idea Confidence is not a feeling you wait for. It is a set of practices you build deliberately. The tools in this article are not complicated. The Confidence Evidence Log takes twenty minutes to start. The body language check takes two. The mental rehearsal takes ten. The Three Stories can be prepared in an afternoon. None of them require you to feel differently before you begin. They work because they give you something concrete to do before high-stakes moments, rather than hoping the feeling will arrive on its own. It usually does not arrive first. But it tends to follow, once you start. If you would like a copy of the slides get in touch! Julie Blint is a transformational coach based in Rome. She specialises in emotional intelligence, communication, and leadership. You can find her at persefonecoaching.com (https://www.persefonecoaching.com/) or on Instagram at @persefonecoaching. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe (https://persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

3. 

   8 Apr 2026

   The Changing Nature of Leadership

   Leadership used to be about authority and commanding “respect” or even fear from subordinates. It was a person who pushed others to perform. That used the stick more than the carrot. But this is not the most effective style and just leads to burnout and low motivation. Therefore, what is a better style? How should we lead? There are many leadership theories and styles floating around from laissez-faire to coaching. You can take a myriad of tests to find out which one you are. There is also the situational leadership theory telling us to adjust our style depending on the competence and level of knowledge of our team. In fact, even the words we use have changed from staff to team, to try and give a more human centred feeling. To try to persuade employees they are more valued and appreciated. We need more than words. So what makes a good leader in the late two thousand and twenties? In my experience, it comes down to three principles: treating your team as human beings, recognising that they are the work rather than a means to an end, and giving them the respect they deserve. The quality that holds all three together is authenticity. When I was a manager for the first time I leaned too heavily on what my boss wanted from me, implementing his style and opinions. I was not successful. I made the same mistake when I began my second and even third leadership roles. Then during COVID everything changed. I was a “remote leader”. I did not have my boss breathing down my neck telling me what to do with my team. I could finally do things the way I saw fit. The first thing I did was treat my team as human beings. This means acknowledging that they will make mistakes, they are not perfect and will not know what to do all the time. It was also about knowing that they had come from a place where a leader reprimanded them and talked down to them when they made a mistake, and where it was better to hide your mistakes than ask for support. The second was to treat them as gold. This means knowing it is them who makes the company successful. They are in touch with the clients. They make the business work. My role was really about helping them do their jobs to the best of their ability because it was really them that mattered. This also differs from the theory that the clients should be the centre of concern. The third is treating them with the respect they deserve. This meant making clear that the company was lucky to have them working at 100%, motivated and going above and beyond, and that they were free to leave if they were unhappy, so the company should value them. This was especially important as I had little influence over what their pay rate was. When I set up a suggestion box to collect my team’s ideas, my boss believed all they would do was ask for a pay raise as that was the primary motivating tool. I believed he was wrong. I was proven right, even though I know fair compensation is needed and deserved. Another lesson I learnt along the way was to not to just give them instructions and let them get on with it without checking in as maybe they would get the wrong end of the stick or not know what to do and not ask for support. Or be so demoralised from their treatment or low wages thus far that they wouldn’t put care and attention into the task at hand. Laissez-faire does not work well. Changes take time to take effect. I went about creating an atmosphere where I was not their friend (boundaries were needed), but they knew I was on their side and that it was fine to admit they didn’t know something, or to ask for help with anything from technical problems to not having what they needed. This did not mean baby-sitting them or holding their hands, so they were dependent on me. When a problem arose, I’d ask them what they thought we should do. Then I’d even say let’s do it or tell them the drawbacks. Obviously, I wouldn’t let things go on forever if they didn’t come up with the best solution immediately and if time was short. Sometimes I just had to step in with the solution, making sure they knew what it was and why, so that next time they would take the right course of action. I would also put myself in their shoes to make sure they had all the information they needed immediately. I had been in their position so I knew how frustrating it could be if you didn’t have all the information you need. I knew what their concerns would be so could pre-empt them and give them the data or calm their concerns. Another thing I’d do is let them know I was not perfect and have made, can and will make mistakes. This type of leadership is essentially about showing and owning vulnerability. This helps them own their mistakes and not be afraid to admit them. If mistakes are covered up badly, they will come back to haunt you in a worse fashion in the future. This applies for things other than mistakes. If a rule needs bending, but the employee doesn’t feel they will get the support from their leaders, they will cover it up, and this can lead to issues such as record inaccuracies that come back to bite you. Lastly, and tied into everything else I’ve said, we should talk about communication explicitly. This is another key to successful leadership whether it be written or spoken. Successful communication can be broken down to 55% body language, 38% tone of voice and only 7% the words you use (Albert Mehrabian). In written communication you only have that 7% at your disposal. You can’t transfer body language into text but we can gain the extra 38% if we concentrate on the tone which will be conveyed through our words. Think carefully how you word things. Imagine you are communicating with an intelligent, but highly sensitive person. This doesn’t mean becoming so indirect that your message gets washed away by diplomacy, but it means making sure it is respectful, considerate, clear and concise. Say what you mean or want without beating around the bush, or providing unnecessary details, but making sure it is complete at the same time. If you want them to do something that puts them out or asks them to do extra: don’t forget the why. But make the why real. No false deadlines, urgency or convoluted/invented reasons. Truth is underestimated. Authenticity is non-negotiable. An authentic leader. I think another one of my successes as a leader comes down to my authenticity. What does that mean? Beyond what you can search for on the internet about an authentic leader: “An authentic leader acts with high integrity, self-awareness, and transparency, aligning their actions with core values rather than personal gain or ego. They build trust through vulnerability, admitting mistakes, and fostering open relationships, which leads to higher employee engagement and performance. They are motivated by a sense of purpose and a desire to serve their team” (Center for Creative Leadership) It means making sure YOU are consistently present. Your voice, your values, your humour, your style. You are not conforming to what you think a leader should be (e.g. charismatic if you aren’t so naturally, or serious if you are normally a light-hearted person). There should not be a leadership mask, YOU should be fully integrated into the persona you project. This builds trust. An overly filtered, inauthentic mask does not build trust. When I resigned from my position, I received emails of “condolences” reacting to my resignation using words such as “devastated”. I also received recommendations on LinkedIn saying things like “…attentive, available and understanding. Her work has enabled me to do my job with confidence and ease, providing me with useful resources, help, and motivation whenever I needed them. I particularly valued her clear and concise communication, and her ability to pinpoint problems and come up with simple, practical solutions.” “I soon discovered her excellent people-oriented and empathetic approach to managing a team of freelance trainers and coaches. I regularly sought out her sound advice and as a result grew professionally.” I think the key words or phrases I take as feedback are: * Empathic * People-oriented * Enabled me to do my job with confidence * Understanding * Clear and concise communication * Sought out her…advice and as a result grew professionally Other feedback reflected on how my leadership style enabled them to provide the highest quality. It was a pleasure for me to work with my team and go above and beyond, because beyond them knowing I had their back they had mine. They would go above and beyond for me and therefore for the company too. Being their leader helped me grow professionally and understand what an effective leader should be. I often miss that job, despite a lot of the issues I faced in the role and within the company as a whole. That is what I now help other leaders find through my coaching: not a new management theory or another test to tell you what type of leader you are, but the courage to lead as yourself. Everyone tells leaders to put their people first. That is not quite what I am saying. I am saying your people are the work. They are what the company runs on. When they feel safe, valued and respected by someone who presents themselves as a real human being rather than a management role, everything else falls into place: the quality, the effort, the loyalty, the results. Ask yourself one question: do the people on your team feel safe enough to admit a mistake, ask for help, or push back on a decision? If the answer is no, that is where to start. If you are stepping into a leadership role or want to work on your leaderhip style, I provide one-to-one Leadership and professional skills coaching (https://www.persefonecoaching.com/book-online). PersefoneCoaching is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe (https://persefonecoaching.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

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