By Marta Martínez Puerta, Learning & Development Manager
A few days ago, I attended a workshop on women’s empowerment and leadership development with the aim of gaining new tools to continue growing professionally. But I left with something far more valuable: an invitation to question myself, keep learning, and continue evolving.
How many times do women wait for the perfect moment before stepping forward? We hold ourselves back before we even begin. We expect more from ourselves than we do from others. We measure ourselves against standards that, more often than not, we didn’t even create. We confuse caution with fear, high expectations with excellence, and preparation with perfection.
As a psychologist, I know that the beliefs we build about ourselves have a profound impact on how we interpret our achievements, our mistakes, and our ability to face new challenges. As a Learning & Development professional, I see every day that capability and talent are rarely the problem. And as a woman, I know that voice all too well—the one that whispers we’re not ready, that we’re not enough, that we’re impostors.
What if doubt isn’t the problem?
One of the concepts that resonated with me the most was Impostor Syndrome. That feeling that makes us believe that if we have doubts, it’s because we don’t know enough; that if we feel uncertain, it’s because we’re not ready yet; that if we don’t have all the answers, it means we’re not good enough.
But the truth is quite the opposite: doubt is part of growth.
It’s not about silencing the impostor within us—it’s about embracing it. Let’s stop wasting energy fighting it and instead recognize that it naturally appears when we take on new challenges. Let’s acknowledge it as part of the learning process and understand that it does not diminish our worth.
Because leadership isn’t about never having doubts—it’s about not letting those doubts define our limits.
Empathy as a superpower
Another important lesson I took away was a new perspective on empathy.
We often think empathy means putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes. For me, it now has more to do with recognizing and understanding that other people experience realities different from our own, listening without judgment, and offering support without assuming we know someone better than they know themselves.
As leaders, we are called to support, listen, connect, and create spaces where people can find their own answers. Because the better we understand the different realities within our teams, the better decisions we make and the stronger the connections we build.
True leadership
If there is one thing I take away from this experience, it is that female leadership is not about fitting into a predefined model or striving to become a perfect version of ourselves. It is about leading from self-awareness, challenging our beliefs, recognizing the biases that shape the way we see the world, embracing our doubts, and committing ourselves to a continuous journey of learning, self-discovery, and growth.
Because perhaps the future doesn’t need women leaders without doubts. Perhaps it needs women who understand that uncertainty is part of the journey and who choose to move forward anyway, turning it into a source of strength.
Fewer limits. More of ourselves.
