How to SPEAK UP to enhance your impact and engagement.
A lot of people have a hard time speaking up in team meetings. In fact, according to Keith Ferrazzi, Founder and Chairman of Ferrazzi Greenlight, 74 percent of team members feel like they can’t speak up in a group of their peers. This difficulty to share ideas, questions, challenges, and other feedback can have a determinantal impact on a team’s performance and its ability to meet its mission and goals.
Sometimes you may feel this way. Maybe you feel more comfortable in small groups, or maybe you feel like everyone else is always more prepared, no matter how hard you try.
There are things you can do to feel more comfortable. With practice, you can adopt behaviors that allow you to engage with your team more fully and more comfortably.
Here are some suggestions:
Daily Self Check-Ins. These are short questions you ask yourself at the end of every day for priority projects. These questions allow you to stay agile (reprioritizing when you need to), and allow you to determine where you anticipate decisions will need to be made and how/when you will need to engage other team members in your work. Keep notes as you go.
What have I done?
What are my challenges? And how will I meet these challenges?
What I am doing next?
Zoom Meetings. Consider participating in Zoom calls, Zoom can promote smaller meetings, more engagement, and better collaboration. These attributes promote an opportunity for everyone’s voice to be heard.
Generosity. Sometimes asking the simple phrase, “How can I help you?” can make a big difference in how comfortable you become with your team members. Your sincerity and authenticity will be noticed, and you’ll feel good extending the offer. These are the gestures that facilitate relationships; the more of these you have, the more relaxed with the team you will feel.
Take it Easy on Yourself. Try to remember, lots of people are feeling what you feel. You’ll probably start to feel more comfortable in steps. Pay attention to when you speak up and it feels good.
This Insight was contributed by Kim Zimmer and inspired by the September 2020 Inc Magazine article, “6 Ways to Come Back From the Pandemic With a Stronger Team” written by Keith Ferrazzi
Forward Insight Motto: All contributors are leaders and all leaders must be contributors.