5 Ways to Cheerlead Other Women

Have you felt the power of other people cheering for you?

Have you also felt the disadvantage and the annoyance of people competing with you?

Today, I’ll talk to you about five ways you can cheerlead other women rather than compete. 

A little background story

What brought this topic on was my latest blog where I talked about the things I do after an event. 

I've been sitting in this fun place of doing a great keynote and getting a lot of accolades. Obviously, I want the clients to be happy. But the ones that impacted me the most were from other speakers and the other women who are my peers.

Having them cheerlead for me is really meaningful. I've been in a lot of situations in my life, where people have been intimidated by me. People have felt the need to compete. They maybe went into that place of being jealous and tried to cut me down. 

Do you know what I found? The more we cheerlead for each other, the more room there is for everyone to succeed, not just a few, but for everyone to succeed. 

I've got five things that you can do to cheerlead more. 

#1: Acknowledgments

Acknowledging someone else. You can do a simple acknowledgment in four or five words. This is something I often talk about and teach in my programs. Basically, “You are a/an” plus an adjective and then the title. For example:

• “You are a great speaker.”
• “You are a creative designer.”

That can be professional. It can also be around things more personal or around who they're being. For example:

• “You are a loving mother.”
• “You’re a creative sister.”
• “You are an organized friend.”

We can go through all these different adjectives, all these different titles - you have many options.  The key thing is, that you say nothing after. You’re acknowledging the person for who they're being, not telling them the exact situation or thing they did to get the acknowlegement. 

It's really impactful when you just say the five words or you change “You are” to “You're” and then it becomes four words. 

We're starved for acknowledgment in society because everything is about competition. Everything is asking us, “Are you good enough?” 

The number one limiting belief all rolls down to “You are not good enough” or “I'm not good enough.” To combat that, acknowledgments have such power. 

These acknowledgments in advance and after are profound. I've been receiving these different acknowledgments on LinkedIn, on social media, on my posts, on other people's posts, and where they tagged me in them sharing what they took away from my talk, or how well I did. I've been receiving them in emails, and just verbally people saying them to me, and I'll tell you, you can never hear it enough. 

If you think, “I'm not going to go up to the speaker. They've already heard it 20 times from the people who talked to them before me,” still say it. You might say in the bathroom when you see them and walking down the hallway, in an email later, on LinkedIn, writing them a recommendation, whatever it may be, don't miss the opportunity to acknowledge them. 

#2: Get photos together with the other people

That's something I'm very grateful for Michelle Diamond, who did all my photos on the day and does all my photos for my business. When she was at the event, she said, “Let's get photos with the other speakers.” It's funny because a lot of times I get photos with maybe the organizers, the person who put on the event, the hosts, the sponsors, and people who just want a photo together with me, people who bought my book and such. 

But getting photos together with other people shows that you're cheering them on, and you want to collaborate, or you want to just acknowledge and not be in competition with them. 

Get the photo and then post it on social media, right? That's cool to do to show, “Hey, this person did awesome, and here we are in a photo.” 

If you find yourself entering a room, and you're intimidated by someone, or you feel like “Oh, she does the same thing I do.” Why not chat? Then say, “Hey, let's get a photo together.” It could be a selfie or someone else could take the photo, and then just tag them on social and be like, “Hey, great meeting you.” Super simple to do. ​

#3: Connect on social media

Since with the photo you have the opportunity to tag them, you can also friend them, be a connection on LinkedIn, whatever it is. Don’t feel like, “Oh, we can't be friends on social because we do the same thing”. 

We’re all unique and therefore not in competition. Different people hire based on their preferences. That's how wild it is in the different industries with customers. 
It might be like:

• “I want to work with her because she's old.” 
• “I want to work with her because she's younger.”
• “I want to work with her because she has kids.” 
• “I want to work with her because she doesn't have kids.” 

There are so many different reasons. There are no two people who are the same. Just like your fingerprint. Everyone is unique. 

Connect on social so that you can be in each other's lives. If you do feel that you're triggered by what they're doing because you're jealous or such, really check in with that. Get some coaching on that so that you understand…

• “Why am I triggered by that?” 
• “Why is that bothering me?” 

Then you can get beyond it.

What I found is a lot of times with people I'm jealous of, it's because I'm not moving forward in that area of life, and I wish I was like they were. Or I'm triggered by them because they probably have a quality that I have that I'm either not turning up enough or I feel like, “I could do better by turning it down a little bit.” 

You're connecting on social so that you can cheer each other on in the future.

#4: Liking and commenting on their posts

How do you cheer each other on? After you connect on social, you can like their posts and comment on their posts. That's where you can cheer them on. It doesn't mean you have to have them on your podcast or in a book or something. ​

But just hitting the like button is a really easy way for you to cheer on someone else. Even if they're doing a similar thing as you, it is totally fine. 

#5: Compliment them

We acknowledged them, but why don't we also compliment them? ​

• “I really like what you've done with your website.”
• “Lovely photo.”
• “This is a very valid point.”
• “Wonderful article!”

You might be wondering, “Well, what's the difference between an acknowledgment and a compliment?”

Oftentimes, an acknowledgment is acknowledging who they're being while a compliment can be more so around what they're doing or what they have done. Compliments often come after the fact and are specific, and acknowledgments can also come before and be more general. 

Wrapping Up

There are your five ways to cheer others on. Which one of these do you think you're going to use more in your life to cheerlead others rather than compete, and which ones are you already using? 

Hey, you might even have some that I didn't mention. More than likely, and I would love to hear those as well. Comment below!

P.S. Are you a leader? Then we invite you to become one of our collaborative authors for the upcoming Dynamic Women Leadership Secrets book! Apply here.

Read my other blogs:

1. How to Boost Your Confidence
2. Finding Your North Star
3. 3 Ways to Make BIG Money by Listening