• by Jess Nelson , January 7, 2016

Business professionals and consumers alike who struggle with self-deprecating phrases such as “I’m sorry” or “I’m no expert” in email communication may want to jump on the Gmail bandwagon since a new free Gmail plug-in now helps to identify and highlight email content in need of a self-confidence boost.

Just Not Sorry, a free browser-based plug-in application for Gmail, searches for and identifies works and key phrases that might otherwise undermine messaging and how emails and writers are perceived.

The plug-in was created by software development company Cyrus Innovation as part of its Female Founder initiative to help women succeed as leaders in the technology realm.

“The women in these rooms were all softening their speech in situations that called for directness and leadership,” states Tami Reiss, chief product officer at Cyrus Innovation, in a blog post on Medium. “We had all inadvertently fallen prey to a cultural communication pattern that undermined our ideas. As entrepreneurial women, we run businesses and lead teams — why aren’t we writing with the confidence of their positions?”

Although originally created to boost female empowerment in the workforce, the new Gmail plug-in could be a useful tool with anyone who lets their doubts interfere with their email communication, whether that be with friends, in a workplace, or through email marketing.