by Laura Camacho
When you don’t say anything at a meeting, the assumption is you have nothing to say. If you seriously want to raise your Leadership Presence quotient, start speaking up at every meeting. Here are three easier ways to speak up, when you feel so nervous your voice may be shaking.
1. Ask a question
You may feel so out of your league that you fear asking a question that makes you look stupid. Even if that were to happen, which is super highly unlikely, it’s better to ask a non-brilliant question than not to ask any question at all. The point is for you to become comfortable speaking up at meetings, even before people start asking for your point of view. Train yourself by speaking up, however briefly, at every possible meeting.
The easiest question is to clarify. You can ask this, even if you’re 99.99% sure you already understand. Ask it like this, “Just to clarify, what you’re saying is that we should be able to launch this by Q1 next year, even though we’re 8 weeks behind as of right now?”
2. Affirm and add
This practice is a practical extension of the “Yes, and” taught in improv theatre. You affirm what the other person just said, by restating it in your own words. Then add. You can add encouragement, you can add a variation, you can even extend or redirect the proposed idea.
Examples
Susan says: “I think we need to have the preliminary budget ready for committee by two weeks from today.”
Simple Affirm and Add Agreement
You affirm and add: “Having the next preliminary budget ready for committee in two weeks is totally doable. I see no problem with that.
Affirm and Add Extension
“Having the next preliminary budget ready for committee in two weeks is totally doable. In fact, I can show you a pretty strong draft next Wednesday so you know how it’s developing.”
Either ask a question or use Affirm and Add to speak up at every possible meeting. Eventually, people will expect to hear from you.
Laura Camacho, MBA, PhD, PMP, is an executive coach, trainer and speaker who opened Mixonian Institute in 2009 to rid the world of boring business communication. She has created innovative training programs for local and international companies, related to leadership effectiveness, excellent feedback, growth mindset and emotional intelligence. Multilingual, Dr. Camacho’s career highlights include facilitating The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (in Spanish,) being editor of the leading management newsletter in Venezuela. For 10 years she taught communication classes at ECU and College of Charleston. www.mixonian.com
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