You champion everyone but yourself. Not because you can't. Because no one ever taught you to translate your own impact into words that get heard.

I know because I lived it.

I walked into my first corporate role after 15 years in oncology.

I'd done this before.

Deep expertise in leading teams through impossible situations.
A track record of holding people together when it mattered most.
Genuine care that got results.

For years, I delivered.
Quietly. Consistently. The way I always had.

But the people work was invisible.

The trust that made results happen.
The care that kept people delivering.

None of it fit their "definition".
So none of it existed.

The environment made it clear: the problem was me.

That I needed to toughen up.
Perform.
Become someone else to be recognized.

And it finally broke me.

At that point I held on to what I knew.
My oncology roots.

I had already been taught not just to see, but deliver this work as impact.

Corporate had not trained it out of me.
It just had no mechanism to see it.

So I built one.

I've helped over 100 human-first leaders in traditional corporate do what I learned to do - build an executive-ready Impact Portfolio.

So you can advocate for scope, promotion, or compensation:

→ Translate - Name and own your impact in language that lands
→ Advocate - Know exactly what to ask for, with the words to get it
→ Decide - Have a plan: what, by when, and what you'll do if it doesn't happen

Without becoming someone you're not.

Oncology-trained. Corporate-tested.

DM me "CLARITY" to start.

Laurie Banfi

Championing others has a cost.

Never championing yourself.

This was my story:

I did everything they said I had to.
Still passed over.

Working harder didn't change it.

Waiting to be noticed didn't either.


Here's what changed everything:

I already knew how to advocate.

I did it constantly. For my team. My peers. My direct reports. 

Translated their impact into language that got heard and moved the needle forward.

The skill wasn't missing.
It was pointed in every direction but my own.

This isn't a deficit. It's a redirect.

Here are the 5 steps I take:

1. Name one win you'd champion if it were theirs
2. Write the case you'd make for them
3. Read it back as if it's yours
4. Notice your own resistance
5. Acknowledge it all.

Because if you can't see what you've done,
why should anyone else?


I learnt from experience:

Keep pointing it outward and nothing changes. 

Another year of being valued in words and invisible in decisions (including your own).


Redirect it at yourself and watch what shifts:

Your impact gets heard by who matters - yourself first.
You advocate from that acknowledgment
You choose what's next from clarity, not exhaustion.

Same skill. Finally pointed at you.


What win did you downplay this week?


♻️ Repost to help someone acknowledge their own impact

➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap as a human-first leader.

Exhausted from effort that no one sees? DM me CLARITY - harder isn't the answer.

Valued in words but invisible in decisions? | Helping human-first leaders in traditional corporate | Oncology-trained. Corporate-tested | DM me “CLARITY”

Advocating for everyone but yourself
costs you the room you belong in.

She does it constantly.
Just not for herself.

For a colleague:
"Jack held three teams aligned."

→ Names the contribution in the meeting
→ Translates it for leadership
→ Makes sure it gets rewarded

For herself:
"I just helped out during the transition."

→ Assumes they already know
→ Calls it "doing my job"
→ Lets the outcome speak

Same skill.
Totally different direction.


Advocating with clarity isn't about volume.

I couldn't do it until I saw it as a process:

1/ Acknowledge the work to myself first
→ Before waiting for validation

2/ Find the words - factual, not inflated
→ Same accuracy I'd use for my team

3/ Decide to name it from belief
→ Recognition isn't ego. It's honesty.

In her next 1:1:

"Context on Q4: I kept three teams
aligned through the leadership change.
That's transformed into X for Q1."

No ask. No complaint.

Just the same accurate documentation she'd do for anyone on her team.


What's one thing you minimized this month?

♻️ Repost for the human-first leader who forgot themselves

➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap

Every difficult thing you faced?
You got through it.

Every time you thought you'd fail?
You didn't.

And yet.

Here you are again.
Doubting.

Not because you lack capability.
Because you forgot your own evidence.

The pattern no one talks about:

High performers remember everyone's wins.
Except their own.

Here's what the track record shows:

1/ You've been here before
→ Different challenge. Same you.

2/ Your worst-case predictions were wrong
→ Every single time.

3/ Capability outlasts doubt
→ Doubt is loud. History is louder.

Your track record isn't ego.
It's proof.

When did you last give yourself credit for surviving?

♻️ Repost to remind someone: you are the evidence
➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more

Your next opportunity won’t find you.
Someone has to say your name.

Often in a 10-minute calibration you never hear about.

You can deliver results and lead with integrity.

But if nobody can summarize your value out loud, you’re easy to skip.


Here’s what I’ve learned about advocacy:

Public praise isn’t the same as private backing.

The person who claps for you isn’t always the person who defends your work when it’s questioned.

Advocates aren’t created by likability.

They’re created by proximity to the hard stuff.


Choosing people who’ll say your name is just one thing.

Which is why I started thinking in “borrowable sentences.”


Three small moments where advocacy is built:

1. When someone tries to summarize your value

Give them a sentence they can borrow.

Bridge (now):
“If it helps to summarize my role: I’ve been focused on ___, so we can ___.”

Step-forward (next):
“My contribution here is ___, and it enabled ___.”


2. When your best work is invisible by default

Name what your work protected: time, risk, client trust, rework avoided. Clearer. Not louder.

Bridge (now):
“So it doesn’t get missed: this protected ___ and prevented ___.”

Step-forward (next):
“This protected ___ and prevented ___.”


One of the fastest ways I found to build advocates is to model how impact gets described well.


3. When you’re watching someone else do something excellent. Use recognition that travels.

Bridge (now):
“I want to name something specific: ___ did ___, which protected ___.”

Step-forward (next):
“In summarizing this project, please include ___’s contribution: ___, which enabled ___.”


Your reputation isn’t what you say about yourself.

It’s what someone can confidently say when you leave the room.


Which one would you actually use this week - Bridge or Step-forward?


♻️ If this made you think of someone, send it to them - or repost to help others in your network too.
 
➕ If you want more human-first leadership frameworks, follow me, Laurie Banfi

Naming your value is a skill.

Not a gift. A practice.

I remember vividly how I froze.
Someone asked in a tone that hit me to my core. Hard:

"So tell me exactly, what do YOU bring?"

20 years of experience.
Dozens of projects led.
Delivery of results.
Teams built from human connection.

And I went blank.


Not because I hadn't done the work.
Because I'd never practiced saying it.

A situation I'd encounter time and again.
The continuous replay for days of I wish I said...

That's when I created my 5-minute exercise.


Here's my go-to:

1/ Set a timer for 5 minutes

2/ Answer these three prompts - fast, messy:
→ A problem I solved that saved time or money
→ Something that works now because I built it
→ A moment someone thanked me for how I helped

3/ Circle the one that made you feel something


That's your starting point. Repeat often.

The goal isn't perfection.
It's having words when someone asks.


Maybe you've been here too.

Confident in your work.
Blank when it's time to name it.

You're not missing achievements.
You're missing the habit of naming them.


This exercise builds the self-acknowledgement muscle.


What's one answer you'd write down right now?


💾 Save this exercise for practice that strengthens you 

Did this exercise and want help refining it? DM me CLARITY

➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap as a human-first leader.

The Friday spiral has two versions.
One needs rest. One needs a plan.

You've been here before.

→ Is this burnout?
→ Am I being dramatic?
→ Should I push through like I always do?

Exhaustion and clarity feel identical at first.
Both show up as that heavy Friday feeling.
Both make you question everything.

But they lead to very different places.

Three questions I use to tell them apart:

1/ If I slept for a week, would this disappear?
→ Yes = exhaustion. Rest first, decide later.

2/ Can I point to when this started?
→ A meeting. A conversation. A decision.
→ Clarity has an origin. Exhaustion is gradual.

3/ When I imagine two more years here?
→ Tiredness says: I need a break.
→ Dread says: I need a plan.

The woman I spoke with last week?
She answered all three.

Sleep wouldn't fix it.
She knew exactly when it started.
She knew what kept triggering it.

That's when she saw it clearly:

That wasn't burnout.
That was her knowing.

The spiral wasn't confusion.
It was clarity trying to surface.

Maybe you've felt this too.

Sometimes the questions aren't the hard part.
The hard part is trusting what they tell you.


What's one question you ask yourself when Friday hits and your brain won't settle?


💾 Save this for the next heavy Friday
➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the human-first leadership gap

"We see you" isn't "We chose you."

The gap? Bigger than most people think.

Patience felt like strategy. 

Wait for the right moment. 
Build the case. 
Trust that good work gets noticed.

Until it didn't.

Patience without movement isn't strategy. 
It's absorption.

You absorb chaos so others don't have to.
You fill gaps they ask of you but don't acknowledge.
You stay steady - and somehow become easier to overlook.


Two things I couldn't see until I was through it:

Their uncertainty fades. 
Yours compounds.


And the issue was never my value. 

It was whether that value was converting into anything.

If you're in this place, these questions helped me get honest:

- Has the timeline moved - or just the language?
- Is the barrier fixable - or does it keep shifting?
- Are you in the room for decisions - or told after?
- Is your patience buying time for them or for you?
- If you left tomorrow, would they scramble or adjust?


Three "no"s and it's not patience anymore.

Patience builds your case - when a case is being built.

Knowing the difference is how you stop waiting and start deciding.


Which question is sitting with you?


♻ Repost to help someone who's been waiting too long. 

➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap for Human-First Leaders.

Your review said "continue working on value add."

You held the team together through two reorgs.

If that feedback made you question your sanity - I get it and I know it does - it shouldn't.

And by that I mean:
What you did and what got documented? Different.
You're not imagining it.

But I learnt:

The first person who needs to see your contribution clearly isn't your manager.

It's you.

I couldn't translate my work for anyone else until I stopped minimising it to myself.

Here's where I started:

Open a note. 
Write down three things from last year that never made it into that review.

Not how you'd say it to your manager.
How you'd say it to a most trusted friend:
"What actually happened last year?"

The messy version. The real one.

→ "I absorbed the chaos so my team could deliver."
→ "I answered questions no one else had answers to."
→ "I held the ground when reporting lines changed."

That's not ego.
That's honesty about what actually happened.

Here's the distinction I hold onto:
Recognition states the work. Ego claims superiority.

You're stating what happened. That's allowed.

It's a shift in mindset about yourself that you already apply to others.

Once you see it clearly - without minimising - then you can translate and advocate it into language that lands.

But that comes later.

Today, just write it down. For you.


What's one thing your review completely missed?


♻️ Repost for the leader whose review erased what actually happened
🔔 Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap

---

If your last review made you question your sanity - DM me CLARITY.

You're not imagining it.

Kind or direct. Pick one.

It's the lie that's breaking everything.

And when you refuse to pick?

"You're too emotional."
"You're too soft for this."
"This isn't personal, it's business."


Here's the response I wish I'd had sooner:

"My team delivers. On time and exceptional.
You're questioning what built that."

Or the simpler version I was always comfortable saying:

"The outcomes disagree."


A lesson that's stayed with me from corporate:

You don't owe anyone a defense of warmth.
Point to what the approach built instead.

- Problems that surfaced early.
- Hard conversations that resolved.
- Decisions that stuck.

The "and" was never soft.
It is 𝘵𝘩𝘦 skill.

What's your "and"?

If the words don't come easy yet, DM me CLARITY

♻️ Repost to support leaders who know the "and" beats the "or"

➕ Follow Laurie Banfi for more on closing the recognition gap as a human-first leader.

With over 15 years of experience leading teams at L'Oréal and Coty, I have honed my expertise in the luxury and beauty industries across Europe and the Middle East.

On top of my corporate experience, I founded the e-fashion website Tom & Cara, which successfully sold in 2021. 

Holding a Master's degree in Marketing Management from ESSEC Business School, I have been based in Toulon (France) since 2025, with prior residencies in Dubai, Brazil, Spain, and England.

Please don't hesitate to connect! 

Thank you, 

Carl

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