Whether it’s with the managing director or your juniors, meetings are a two-way process, and everyone should make a good solid input…or not be there at all.
If you shy away from speaking at meetings because you’re worried about saying something wrong, don’t want to get shut down, or just don’t have the confidence, here are some tips to help you speak up and get noticed during meetings at work:
Don’t go in blind
Have you prepared for the meeting, or are you just going to rock up and hope you don’t get asked to report on something? If it’s the latter, then no wonder you don’t speak at meetings – you haven’t prepared anything to say.
If you want to involved fully in meetings at work, you must prepare for it as though it was a one-to-one meeting.
If you’re not sure what to prepare for the meeting, ask for the agenda from the meeting organiser in advance. Give yourself enough time to prepare to contribute something on each of the action points that are relevant to your area of interest. If it’s still not clear, ask your line manager or the meeting organiser what you can prepare for the meeting.
Get to practice
Find some time, and a private space to practice saying aloud your thoughts – this will help you flow better when it comes to actually talking at the meeting.
Join in and bat off other people
If you’ve been to a meeting or two, you’ll know that there are some people who just agree with others during a meeting, adding an extra point here and there, but not actually contributing new ideas. These are still contributions, which can be valuable – try it.
If someone has similar opinions or concerns to you, why not back them up when they raise it?
How to talk when the time comes
No one likes it when people talk over other people mid sentence, constantly interrupting them. Look for a signal to speak – lean in, make eye contact with the chairperson or meeting organiser when you want to speak, or just say their name.
Once you’ve tried it a couple of times, you’ll soon get the hang of it and you’ll wonder why you were afraid to speak up in the first place.
