I know a lot of leaders who have experienced this situation: You are seated at the table for a meeting convened to generate new ideas, and the conversation is lively. You offer a suggestion, but it doesn’t seem to register in the room. Five minutes later, someone else offers the same suggestion, and everyone gets excited with the idea.
It can be hard to make our voices heard, particularly when among a table of leaders with varied personalities. Sometimes, this is due to being new to the group; it can also happen because of your experience level, the support you have from others in the room, or even just the dissonance between their styles and how you have delivered your message. In our Signature programs, we spend time evaluating both sides of the equation.
How do you get your voice heard in the room? And how do you, as a leader, ensure everyone around the table has their voices heard?
When you are new to a group, it’s common to hold back your contributions in the first few meetings. You may be learning the role, the company, or the people and their communication styles. But beyond that, if you are in the meeting, you are there for a reason, and your voice needs to be heard if you want to be effective as a leader.
Whether or not you are presenting, there are ways to contribute. The easiest way is to ask questions. Before the meeting, research what is on the agenda and prepare some open-ended questions on a topic or two that offer a point of view or a different way of looking at something. Leaders are expected to bring alternative points of view and advance the conversation, so even if it isn’t your area of expertise or ownership, you still play an important role.
If you are someone who tends to hesitate before speaking, then preparation will be key. Julie Tay, former SVP of Align Technology APAC, shared how she overcame this early in her career. She began by writing down good questions she heard from others around the table, and kept a running list of them. This list inspired her own contributions, which she jotted down, and then she would ask similar questions of her own in future meetings.
Another way to contribute is to share another point of view or outside perspective. You don’t have to be right, just thoughtful. For instance, if your company is working through a large enterprise technology implementation, try to research a bit about that topic. Perhaps, an acquaintance at another company has had experience with that same technology, so ask them what challenges they had and what they wished they had known earlier. Then, you can share valuable insight at your own meeting, such as: “My friend Joe works at X. They went through this change last year, and he wished they had known Y earlier in the process because their rollout missed these details… I share this information because it might be useful for our initiative.”
When you move to leadership roles, your companies are paying you to think and share your point of view. To sit at the table and not offer one is a missed opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and broader, strategic thinking―it is not valuable to the growth of the business, or the potential innovation that can be sparked.
Tracy Spears, one of our Signature faculty, often relates a personal story about this. When she was promoted to VP of Sales, she was included on the leadership team. She was afraid that she would say something stupid in the meetings, so she chose not to say anything at all. This went on for weeks until her colleague pulled her aside and said, “We may have made a mistake in promoting you. We promoted you because you could provide a point of view with a lens as to what was happening in the field. But you have come in, nodding in agreement with us, and you haven’t said anything at all.”
Even if―especially if―you already have a seat at the table, now is the time to activate your voice. Consider where you can add more to the meetings with your peer leaders, and prepare to utilize your voice in the discussions.
And keep an eye out for Part 2 of this blog on how you can help activate other voices in the room. Inclusion requires action, and you can drive that action.
About The Author
Robert Seymour: Partner & COO, Signature Leaders
Rob is a strong business operator with a passion for advancing women in leadership. This passion stems from watching Carol’s career evolve and observing the challenges that his wife faced, and others still face, as women advancing in their careers.
Carol’s unique approach to addressing these challenges, focused on providing the highest quality development experiences, compelled Rob to join Signature Leaders.
As Partner and COO of Signature Leaders, Rob drives operations, sales and marketing strategy, content development, and strategic initiatives. Rob oversees the team members at Signature Leaders responsible for program delivery and the Signature Collective, which focuses on alumni engagement. He manages about a dozen of Signature Leaders’ strategic client accounts, and he builds new offerings to meet the needs of all Signature clients. He also writes for Signature’s blog, and he edited and managed the production of Carol’s first book, Wisdom Warriors: Journeys Through Leadership and Life, which provides candid stories from over 70 accomplished business leaders, who share their hard-earned experiences to benefit the leaders rising through the ranks behind them.
In 2013, Rob began serving as the CFO for Signature Leaders while working full time as a Manager in Accenture’s Health practice. As a management consultant, Rob navigated clients through process and organizational changes during large-scale technology transformations.
Rob earned a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he pitched for Penn’s Varsity Baseball Team for four years. He and his wife, Michelle, live in Los Angeles with their daughter (Blake) and son (Bowen). Rob enjoys coaching sports for his children’s teams, playing golf, finding ways to stay fit, and taking on new challenges in the form of home improvement projects.
