There’s a particular word that’s been bothering me.

If you’re in the bidding world, you know there are plenty of words that really annoy us. Words like “world class”, “synergies”, “unsurpassed”. These and many others are the usual hyperbolic suspects that show up in bids when someone is trying to sound impressive and ends up sounding like a brochure.

Tenders are won by the team that understands the client the best. Not just what they wrote in the RFT, but what sits underneath it. The pressures they are under. The risks they are trying to avoid. The internal dynamics they are navigating. The outcomes they are quietly hoping for, even if they never say them out loud.

Tendering was not the path I expected to take, but it became the work that showed me how meaningful impact can happen in very real and practical ways. What began as a dream of diplomacy eventually led me into the world of aid, and then into tendering, where I discovered a craft that is strategic, collaborative and deeply purposeful.