Presenting at work made me a wreck, until I learnt not to undersell myself
Don’t trivialise your achievements.
By Melissa Ross, Lead Marketplace Operations Manager at Tesco
One of the best pieces of career advice I’ve ever received was not to sell myself short when talking about my work.
I’ve always been involved in extracurricular activities in the office. I love participating in our culture, fun events, and learning and development opportunities. So, it might surprise people to know that speaking up in team meetings used to make me incredibly nervous. I would even write out exactly what I wanted to say for presentations, line by line.
In particular, I found it really hard to present to senior management. My manager told me that my casual presentation style was actually undermining my work. I wasn’t giving my efforts the credit and space they deserved. It was as though I didn’t believe in the impact of my work, and that was coming through in the way I presented.
The feedback was clear: I needed to back my work more confidently and say, “Look, I’ve done this really impressive, important piece – you should pay attention.”
Receiving this feedback was tough. I felt a bit embarrassed at first, but upon reflection, I realized they were right. If you have a big presentation to a director, don’t laugh your way through it and undersell yourself. Don’t trivialise your achievements.
Since then, I’ve worked hard to find the right balance between being friendly and genuine, while still taking myself and my work seriously. It’s a skill that requires practice. Tailoring your style to feel true to who you are, in a way that best represents you and your work. Ironically, while trying to find this balance, I sometimes became too formal and received feedback on that as well!
Having a supportive manager was key. My manager said, “I believe in you” alongside “you can do better,” which gave me the confidence to improve. Positive reinforcement made a huge difference. It would have been a different story if my efforts were dismissed outright, which I know can happen, or if he had never had that conversation with me in the first place – I never would have known to work on those skills.
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Caring about and valuing your own work makes you want to represent it properly. It’s also important to have the grace to accept that learning a new skill means you won’t get it right every time. You keep iterating until you find what works best for you.
Tesco was my first full-time job. I started as an intern and have been here nearly six years. As a young woman in a senior role, I don’t want to say that being young and female has never affected anything, because that’s not true. But I never feel like it holds me back in meetings or that I can’t speak up. I feel accepted and respected by other teams.
I still get nervous speaking in meetings (and writing out my notes behind the scenes on occasion!), but being part of a supportive culture that gives you the space to learn and develop has helped me step into bigger meetings and roles with confidence over time. Everyone just needs to take the best advice around them and practice.
To find out more and explore career opportunities at Tesco, please visit their website.
