Kristine Sickels has spent nearly two decades building a career out of a simple idea: What you believe in and what you say out loud at work are often two very different things.
She calls that the “voice-values gap,” and it’s the foundation of her upcoming book, “The Clearest Voice in the Room: How to Speak with Power and Intention at Work,” being released Wednesday.
It’s a timely topic: A Harvard Business Review study released this year found women often described being interrupted more frequently than their male peers. That, in turn, drove people to change how they contribute to meetings. Some tried to speak more quickly to avoid being cut off, while others waited to be invited to speak or “stopped contributing altogether unless absolutely necessary.”
Sickels moved to Atlanta nearly 20 years ago for a career in marketing with Newell Brands, rising to senior vice president before leaving the corporate world in 2019. Since then, she founded C-Sweet, a consulting firm staffed entirely by women who have held director and executive level roles in marketing, strategy and consumer insights. She also serves as CEO of Mic Drop Workshop, which helps women land paid speaking engagements.
Her book covers both ventures, as well as her own experiences, to make the case that clarity, not volume, is what makes a voice heard in the workplace — and that women in particular pay a price when they stay silent.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Edited for length and clarity.
Q. To start off, tell me a little about you.
A. I’m here in Atlanta. … I’ve been here for about almost 20 years. I’m originally from Indiana … but I actually spent a good amount of my career here working for Newell Brands, which is why I ended up moving to Atlanta. …
It’s really important to be a part of my community and be connected and that’s what I love about Atlanta. I’ve met really great pals here and even though I don’t work at that same company anymore, I just really love being here because I’ve built such a great community, which I love.
Q. You wrote about the voice-values gap. Can you walk me through what that means?
A. The voice-values gap is when there are things that you believe that are really important to your values. So many of us, it comes from where we grew up, or how we were raised, and we decide what those values are.
But the gap is then when we decide what we want to say or don’t say in a room, especially as it relates to work. So maybe we have those values, but we choose not to speak into them in certain instances or certain meetings. It’s the difference between what you believe and what you actually say out loud. That’s the gap.
Q. How did you discover that this was a part of your job when you were working before?
A. I don’t know if you’re familiar with a 360 review, but it’s a review that you get a lot of times in organizations where you get feedback from people who work for you, who are your peers, who work above you.
Early in my career, I got a review that was like, “Kristine is really results driven, and she does great work, but you’re either on the bus or off the bus with her, or you might be under the bus, unfortunately.”
What I realized is that how I felt, and what I thought and valued about people was not coming through in how I showed up at work every day.
It was the first time I got real feedback that was like, “Hey, you may believe one thing, but you’re actually not portraying that to everyone that you interact with and engage with.” It was a real eye-opener for me.
Q. You managed a pretty big team and portfolio before. What did you notice about what voices get heard versus what voices get talked over?
A. I just feel like in every room, there are the people who can speak with a lot of confidence and who have a great presentation style. (They) tend to get heard and listened to more than people who don’t.
Even though they may not be the expert in the room about what we’re talking about, may not have all the data, if they can present it and say it with a lot of confidence, then people listen.
And I have found that there are other people in the organization — maybe they’re an introvert, or they’re soft-spoken, or they speak but they’re nervous to speak, and actually they’re the experts in the room. They get talked over or not listened to because they don’t present with confidence.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Q. You’re also the CEO of Mic Drop Workshop, which helps women land paid speaking engagements. How does that work, and how does it connect to the book’s message about using your voice?
A. There’s so many women out there who have stories they want to tell, not just for the sake of telling a story, but because they know it can have an impact on a community, on people. I love what we do at Mic Drop Workshop because it’s twofold.
One, I want to get those stories out there. As a marketer, that excites me more than any product, to be able to help women get their stories out there.
Two, there are a lot of women who are like, “Oh yeah, I’ll come speak for free, I’ll come do this for free,” and they’re out there adding tons of value and not getting paid for it. At Mic Drop, we really believe you can make an impact and an income at the same time.
Q. What do you do to decompress?
A. I love live music, so I try to go to a lot of concerts. I’m a huge Dave Matthews fan, so I’ve been to quite a few shows, and to me that is one of my absolute happy places.
I also have been really consistent going to the gym, and it’s not always the same thing. It could be yoga, it could be sauna, it could be pickleball. I do think getting out and moving your body is a great way to decompress physically but also mentally, and I really enjoy it and prioritize that for myself.
Q. What is something people might be surprised to learn about you?
A. In an old world, and I still do it on the side, I love to sing. … When I was in high school and college, I was a wedding singer, so I used to sing at weddings, which was fun. I also sang a few radio jingles when those were still a thing.
AJC Her+Story is a series in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlighting women founders, creators, executives and professionals. It is about building a community. Know someone the AJC should feature in AJC Her+Story? Email us at herstory@ajc.com with your suggestions. Check out more of our AJC Her+Story coverage at AJC.com/herstory.
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