You’ve been playing small and it wasn’t an accident
You've probably felt it, the moment you held back in a meeting, softened an opinion, and made yourself easier to work with at the expense of being honest. You told yourself it was strategy or just how things work.
But there's a difference between choosing when to speak and being conditioned not to.
In this conversation, Megan Rees and Roberta Dombrowski will name what is actually happening when workers play small, where it comes from, what it costs, and why its never as simple as just speaking up.
What we’ll cover:
The workplace dynamics and systemic patterns that condition some workers to minimize themselves
What playing small actually looks like and why its so easy to mistake it for being professional
The connection between shrinking at work and burnout, stress, and identity erosion
What it takes to start reclaiming the space you've been taught to give away
About your Hosts
Roberta Dombrowski is a career counselor and coach for tech professionals who refuse to shrink and want to design work that honors who they are, not just what they can do. She has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of learning, research, and organizational design. In 2023, she stepped down from her executive role to support clients who are done following the corporate script and ready to design something of their own, whether that means building a business on the side, going fully independent, or creating a portfolio of work that reflects the full range of who they are.You can connect with Roberta on LinkedIn
Megan Rees, LPCC, is a therapist, coach, and corporate consultant who has spent 20 years helping people show up more fully in their work and lives. She built a parallel career in learning and organizational development while maintaining her therapy practice, bringing both a behavior change lens and a systems perspective to everything she does.
When Megan decided to stop playing small, she got curious about what actually keeps people from promoting themselves confidently. She researched it, ran workshops, listened to hundreds of people, and built the popular Self-Promotion Without the Ick workshop. This summer she's launching a longer version where participants get to actually practice the skills.
You can find more about Megan’s therapy practice with links out to her coaching services here. Also, she loves to connect with people on LinkedIn.