We’ve all had those moments in a meeting when we have an idea to contribute and really want to speak up but don’t know if we should. Speaking up is largely a matter of confidence but knowing the right time to voice our opinions in a meeting is a learned skill that often impacts our ability as professionals to advance our careers.
Allison Shapira teaches “The Arts of Communication” at the Harvard Kennedy School and is the founder/CEO of Global Public Speaking, a training firm that helps emerging and established leaders to speak clearly, concisely, and confidently. After conducting extensive interviews with business leaders to understand how their direct reports need to communicate as they move into leadership positions themselves, she claims the response was the same time and again: If you are in the room for a meeting, we expect you to speak up. Don’t wait for someone to ask you.
“In many organizations, our leadership readiness is measured in part by our willingness to speak up in meetings,” writes Shapira in an article for Harvard Business Review. “How we speak off the cuff can have a bigger impact on our career trajectory than our presentations or speeches, because every single day we have an opportunity to make an impact.”
In my own experience, a lot of professionals seem to have ideas that they want to share, but regardless of where they are in their careers, they don’t want to be the first one to share them. It may seem silly, especially for those of us who are more established in our careers, but people really don’t like to go first. We don’t want to look foolish, be wrong, or be met with silence. However, when you speak up, you have the opportunity to present fresh ideas before anyone else. For every potentially foolish idea, you likely have a couple great ones brewing that can be a catalyst for collaboration and action.
Shapira offers the following three strategies for speaking up effectively:
Prepare a few bullets in advance. “One senior executive I worked with was deathly afraid of public speaking early in her career,” notes Shapira. “In order to overcome that fear, she challenged herself to speak up at every single meeting and prepared comments or questions in advance. That executive is now a role model within her organization and is considered one of the most confident and authentic speakers in her industry. Don’t wait for inspiration to hit in the meeting; prepare in advance.”
Ask, “why you?” “This is a question I recommend people ask before they craft a presentation, walk into a meeting, or even prepare for a networking event,” Shapira explains. “It means, why do you care about what you do, about your organization, or about your role? Answering this question helps you connect with a sense of purpose and builds your confidence. It reminds you that you’re speaking up not to show off but because you truly care about the subject. It reminds you that your credibility doesn’t come solely from your title or years of experience but can also come from your commitment and passion.”
Pause and breathe to build your confidence. “Speaking up in a meeting takes courage,” says Shapira. “You have the ability to affect the trajectory of the conversation, potentially guiding your client toward saying yes to a deal when your colleagues have taken the meeting off track. Pausing and breathing helps center you and strengthens your voice so that when you do speak up, you speak with the full weight of your conviction. While you pause, ask yourself, ‘If one other person in this room has the same question, am I willing to ask on behalf
of that person?’ The answer should build your confidence.”
Even if you share an idea in your next meeting that doesn’t gain any traction, there’s value in that as well. The old adage, “There’s no such thing as a bad idea,” isn’t true. There are verifiably bad ideas but sharing those “bad” ideas is frequently how we start the ideation process that leads to good ideas, or at least better ones.
Most of us have ideas that are only half-baked. The meeting is the oven; speak up, put those ideas in, and see what comes out when the baking is done.
