11 June, 2025
Key Takeways - Wo.Men in Finance Annual Event 2025 Step Up. Speak Out. Inspire
This Year’s Theme: Making Your Voice Heard. Communicating with Impact.
Whether it’s speaking up in a meeting, navigating difficult conversations, inspiring a room, or even using AI to sharpen your message, your voice matters.
Our event, Step Up. Speak Out. Inspire, was a call to action:
To express yourself with courage, clarity, and intention.
To turn communication into connection.
To make your message matter.
WIF Talks
We opened the stage to real voices and lived experience from our community.
Nadia Adjeroun, Liliane Bahufite, Ljubov De Heering, Monica Dias, and An Bourmanne shared powerful 5-minute personal stories about speaking up, overcoming fear, trusting yourself, finding your purpose and discovering new ways to connect.
These honest, vulnerable, and bold stories powerfully opened the event, reminding us that true communication begins with connecting to ourselves before we can genuinely connect with others.
Listen to these WIF Talks below :
It simply shouldn't happen by Nadia Adjeroun, Legal Counsel ESG at Belfius
From pain to purpose by Liliane Bahufite, Culture Transformation Manager at Euroclear
The voices inside us: amplifying what matters by Monica Dias, Engagement Manager at Euroclear
Workshops That Empower
Nonviolent Communication – Lead Through Empathy and Presence animated by Leen Vermeersch
How to Speak Up Without Shutting Down Connection
Speaking up in the workplace is essential, but how do you do it without triggering defensiveness or tension? Our workshop on Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offered practical tools to stay honest and connected in difficult conversations.
Key Takeaways:
• Observation is not judgement:
Saying “You interrupted me” is different from “You started speaking while I was still talking.” That shift alone can de-escalate tension.
• Feelings are data, not drama:
Naming emotions (“I feel frustrated”) expresses clearly without blame.
• Behind every frustration lies a need:
Clarity, respect, and inclusion NVC helps you express these without attack.
• Empathy is a muscle:
Listening without fixing or judging shifts conversations from conflict to connection.
• You can speak up kindly:
One participant said it best: “This gave me a way to speak up, without giving up the relationship.”
Call to Action:
Pick one recurring conversation at work that you find difficult.
Next time it comes up, pause. Start by observing the behaviour instead of judging it, then express your feelings and your needs.
For example:
“When our meetings run over, I feel stressed because I need clarity around time. Can we agree on a closing time and stick to it?”
The slides from the workshop are available here.
Public Speaking – Speak with Confidence, Not Perfection, animated by Inês Moura
As we live in the age of limited attention, your audience retains only around 30% of what’s said.
Your voice becomes the highlighter. Use it to flag what truly matters.
What We Practised:
• Your voice is a skill—not a gift: Just like any professional competence, it can be trained and refined.
• Voice techniques are tools of influence: Simple shifts in projection, pitch, pronunciation, and pausing can elevate your message.
• First impressions are vocal: In seconds, your tone can build trust or not. Start and finish strong.
• How you say it = how it lands: Align your vocal delivery with your intention.
• Pauses are powerful: Strategic silence gives your audience time to absorb and gives you space to breathe and lead.
• Pronunciation creates connection: Clear articulation signals care and is inclusive in international settings.
• Pitch and volume variation keep attention: Emphasize key words and avoid monotony.
Call to Action:
Pick 1–2 voice techniques to highlight your key messages and test them in your next meetings and presentations.
The slides from the workshop are available here.
Storytelling – Turn Ideas into Memorable Messages animated by Claire Godding and Piros Matusek
Stories are how we connect, inspire, and drive change.
In this workshop, we dove into the power of storytelling as a tool for impactful communication. We explored how to turn ideas, experiences, and values into narratives that stick with clarity and purpose. Whether you are sharing a personal journey or delivering a presentation at work, this session was about shaping your message in a way that feels real and leaves a lasting impression.
We practised:
• Practising how storytelling can add to introducing yourself. Telling something different (not your function or your company, but something that people may remember).
• Practising how to use storytelling at the beginning of a presentation, when you want to reach both the mind and heart of your audience.
•Practising how sharing a true story of a failure, a mistake you made, will increase psychological safety in your team. By showing yourself vulnerable, you allow others to make mistakes as well (they will make mistakes anyways) and to tell you about those mistakes. They will also reach out to you more easily to share specific needs they may have.
Storytelling shifts the tone of a room. It invites people in. And most importantly, it makes people feel.
Call to Action:
Pick one story something small but real. Try using it next time you introduce yourself, pitch an idea, or give a presentation. Lead with the human. The data can follow.
The slides from the workshop are available here.
Are you getting ready for a presention? Have a look at our checklist here.
Personal Branding – Show Up, Stand Out, Stay True animated by Sana Afouaiz
Your personal brand is more than a LinkedIn headline; it’s the way people remember you.
In this workshop, we explored how to shape a brand that feels true to who you are, while helping you grow your career with intention. Using the PIE model, Performance, Image, and Exposure, we looked at how to build credibility, express values, and show up in the spaces that matter.
This wasn’t about self-promotion. It was about self-definition, owning your strengths, your voice, and your impact.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Do’s
• Know what you stand for → What are your values, strengths, and goals?
• Be clear and honest → Don’t try to sound like someone else.
• Show your value → Let your actions match your words.
• Make sure people know what you do well → Share your work.
• Ask others how they see you → Gain perspective.
• Use LinkedIn and social media to share your voice → Visibility matters.
• Keep it real and professional → Authenticity builds trust.
❌ Don’ts
• Don’t try to be perfect → People connect with real, not flawless.
• Don’t stay silent → If no one knows what you do, your value stays hidden.
• Don’t hide behind your job title → Your brand is more than your role.
• Don’t use vague words like “motivated” → Be specific.
• Don’t forget to listen → Strong brands are also good collaborators.
Call to Action
Take 15 minutes this week to reflect: What are 3 things you want to be known for? Then ask someone you trust how they would describe your brand today. If there’s a gap between how you want to be seen and how others see you, that’s a signal. It’s a chance to be more intentional and visible in those areas. Small steps make a big difference in how your personal brand comes across.
The slides from the workshop are available here.
How to use AI for Effective Communication animated by Anna Riepe and Fleur Dumont
GenAI is more than a buzzword. Whether you are curious, cautious, or already experimenting, this session offered hands-on guidance for making GenAI part of your everyday communication.
From speeding up routine tasks to navigating tough conversations, participants discovered how these tools can help clarify ideas, generate content, and even shift tone. The only things required? A smartphone, a GenAI app (like ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, or Gemini), and a bit of curiosity.
General Tips & Tricks:
• Give AI a role (e.g., “You are a project manager in X”)
• Be polite
• Ask it to ask you questions first
• Ask it to rewrite your prompt
• Request multiple drafts (e.g., “Give me 4 choices of email text”)
• Ask for translations: across languages or explainers for different audiences
• Make it a conversation chain:
→“Give me ideas”
→ “Now write email options”
→ “Now draft an action plan”
• Use research or frameworks (MBTI, negotiation models, etc.)
• Interrupt and adapt: “Be more indirect,” “Be more challenging”
• Ask for feedback
• Provide past examples for tone/structure matching
• Double check everything → Remember: AI is your intern, you are responsible for what goes out.
• Be aware of hallucinations → Ask for sources, and check how “sure” the tool is.
• Watch for bias → Especially in tone of voice (e.g., gender, seniority, nationality).
• Protect data privacy → Avoid sharing sensitive info, and turn off “train the model” features when possible.
• Use it wisely → For simple, repetitive tasks, Google or Excel might be more sustainable.
=> AI is here to support your thinking, not replace it.
Call to Action:
Pick one upcoming communication task: a tricky email, a LinkedIn post, or a difficult message and try using GenAI to help you. Give it a role. Ask for a few versions. Then edit like the pro you are. Start small, stay curious, and see how it shifts your workflow.
While GenAI can be a powerful assistant, it also has an ecological footprint. Use it intentionally, where it adds real value.
A Micro-Learning Moment with Our Speakers
We closed the day with something powerful: an interactive collective moment with all our facilitators. It was a space to share insights, reflect on the day’s learnings, and translate inspiration into action.
Each participant received a commitment card, a moment to pause, process the richness of the WIF Talks, the workshops, and this shared experience.
Participants were invited to write down one concrete action they could start implementing from the next day onwards, real micro-actions, first steps, and honest intentions. Those cards became daily nudges reminders to keep stepping up, speaking out, and inspiring ourselves and others.
Two Moments to Connect
When we feel we belong, we find the courage to speak, to listen, to grow. It is the in presence of other, where we are seen and accepted as we are, that our voice truly finds it place.
You can find the pictures of the events here
