Own Your Achievements: Key Takeaways from #IAmRemarkable with Ford

What happens when a global room of automotive professionals is asked to finish one sentence: “I am remarkable because…”?

That was the challenge at the heart of November’s Women Automotive Network virtual event, #IAmRemarkable: Confidently Celebrate Your Achievements, facilitated by Kelly Harrison and Stephen Livingston of Ford Motor Company.

Participants joined from Michigan to Munich, Prague to Portugal, Romania, France and the UK, armed with a pen, a piece of paper and, for many, a little nervousness about what was coming.

Ninety minutes later, they had written pages of achievements, said them out loud to people they had never met, and left with practical habits to keep going.

#IAmRemarkable began at Google in 2016 as an initiative to help women talk more openly about their accomplishments at work. It quickly became clear the challenge was not only about gender. Imposter syndrome, stereotypes, culture and language all shape how comfortable any of us feel talking about our own work.

Today it is a global movement led by the non-profit Rmrkblty and delivered by volunteer facilitators around the world. Two of those facilitators are Kelly and Stephen, who are also global co-chairs of the Women of Ford employee resource group.

Ford is one of the partners helping WAN build a more inclusive automotive industry, and this session showed what that partnership looks like in practice: a global manufacturer sharing its people, expertise and time to help professionals across the whole industry grow.

Kelly and Stephen set the tone from the first minute: phones away, and what is shared in the session stays in the session. That psychological safety made everything that followed possible.

1. It’s not bragging if it’s based on facts

Kelly shared how, three months into her career at Ford, she added “PhD” to her email signature, only for a senior colleague to suggest she take it off because it looked like bragging. She did, and left it off for eight years.

Behind those three letters was the first person in her family to go to college, a move to a city where she knew no one, eight published articles and a 250-page book. That was not bragging. It was pride.

2. Own the “I” inside the “we”

Stephen talked about how, in interviews, he would always describe what the team achieved rather than the role he played in it. Learning to name his own contribution changed how he showed up.

As Kelly put it, nobody is interviewing your whole team. They are interviewing you.

3. Sharing an achievement is a mini TED talk

Why do we love TED talks? Because real stories inspire us. Kelly encouraged attendees to see sharing their achievements the same way: your story might be the seed someone else needs to try something remarkable of their own.

She also shared Glennon Doyle’s story from Untamed, of sitting down with Oprah and answering a question about her success with “I just have a really good team”. Oprah’s response: time out. Every choice you make shapes your next achievement. It is not just luck.

4. The data behind it

The facilitators walked through the research behind the movement, including the finding that only one in two employees feel their managers make sure they get credit.

They also opened an honest conversation about how culture, family values and working in a second language can make self-promotion harder, something many participants recognised from their own experience.

The heart of the workshop was simple and surprisingly hard. Everyone spent five minutes writing as many statements as they could, each one starting with “I am remarkable because…”, focusing on what they had done rather than who they are.

Kelly and Stephen modelled it first. Stephen spoke about raising two daughters who have grown into caring, independent women unafraid to share their point of view. Kelly shared the charity softball tournament she started in 2009, which now raises nearly $50,000 a year for cancer research and a hometown scholarship.

Then came the stretch: small breakout groups where each person shared one statement out loud, and the group celebrated them. For many, it was the first time they had said something like that to a room of strangers.

When everyone came back together, the reflections poured into the chat. Writing it down was hard. Saying it out loud was harder. Hearing others was easy, and helped people recognise achievements of their own. It got easier with every line.

Kelly and Stephen closed with four habits to keep the muscle working:

1. Open every one-to-one with a win. Small is fine. Your manager is in rooms you are not in, so give them what they need to advocate for you all year, not just at review time.
2. Keep a “Good Things” folder. Kelly has kept one since 2012 for every thank-you note and shout-out.
3. Block time to reflect. Add to your “I am remarkable because…” list regularly.
4. Start a Win Wednesday. Stephen’s teams share one win each midweek, and recognise each other’s too.

The session ended, fittingly, the day before World Kindness Day, with a challenge to celebrate one of your own achievements publicly and recognise someone else’s.

About Women Automotive Network

With a 50,000+ global community across 139 countries worldwide, and flagship summits in Europe, the US, Mexico and Japan, the Women Automotive Network (WAN) is a trusted global platform for organisations across the automotive and mobility ecosystem.

We partner with leading OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, and technology companies to support leadership development, employer brand visibility, and meaningful engagement with senior industry talent.

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