Afraid of Speaking Up? How to Get Noticed by the Higher-Ups at Work

Have you ever had the experience where you were in a meeting and you were among colleagues, but there were some senior leadership there and you had something really urgent you wanted to share a suggestion or an idea that you've been really thinking hard about and somehow you just didn't say anything and the moment passed and you missed your opportunity to get noticed by higher ups. So in this video, if you've had that experience, you are in the right place because in this video, I want to share with you a really high level overview of what you could do to be able to get noticed and speak up so that higher ups at work will be able to really see the value of what you have to bring. The first principle is to have congruency. You got to be congruent. And this is about your fears of being in the spotlight, your fears of getting noticed. What does that mean to you? Or what has that been meaning to you? Because oftentimes the reason why we don't want to speak up is because we don't want to be in the spotlight. We don't value the limelight or we're afraid of it, or that's just not who we are, right? We have this belief about ourselves, our identity. That's not who I am. I'm just not the person who, you know, who's loud. You know, I'm not, I'm not confrontational. That's just not me. You see, these beliefs cause what's called cognitive dissonance, right? They cause cognitive dissonance, which means subconsciously there's going to be a conflict. The conflict is going to be between the value you have on speaking up and getting noticed, right? And getting opportunities for promotions or you're having recognition for your hard work. So that's one desire. But on the other hand, you have this fear and a meaning towards, well, that's not who I am, or I'm, I don't prefer to be in the spotlight. And that creates incongruence. And so what's happening is that you're creating this opponents and imbalance somewhere. And so you've got to have complete congruence. When you have congruence, this is where you begin to produce results, but that's the foundational piece. And that's only the, just the beginning. The other principle of speaking up and being unafraid to speak up in meetings, even in front of higher ups, even when there's somebody intimidating the room is ensuring that you always have something good to say and that you say it often, right? And when I say, when I'm talking about having something good to say, I am referring to your content because when you speak up in a meeting, maybe you speak and it's two minutes or five minutes, or maybe it's a 10 minute conversation or even a 15 minute share. A majority of what you say is going to be your content. And you got to have content that is insightful because you're at work. This is a professional setting. It's a meeting. And even if there are no other senior leaders to you in the meeting, right? You are in a room full of peers in your industry. And so they want to know what are your insights? Do you have any deep insights to this that provide us a different perspective that demonstrate your domain, the depths of your domain of knowledge? They want to know that because that's what they hired you for. So you got to create content that is insightful and create content that is inspiring. Now, the inspirational piece is important because inspirational means that you're able to cause your audience. When you say it, you're able to cause them to move, to take action as a result of what you just said. That's what inspirational means, right? It's not just motivational, which is all this rah, rah in the beginning. And then nothing happens at the end. True, genuine inspiration is causing a transformation. And that way the action steps are longer term, right? So you need content that is insightful, that is inspiring. And most of all, when it is insightful enough, what I'm saying is that it must demonstrate seven layers deep knowledge in your domains. Cause you have knowledge. You may have knowledge across many different domains, but how can you demonstrate the depth of your knowledge across your domains of knowledge? And so when you speak it, when you deliver it, it said with the energy of confident, you want confident energy. And this is how you exude confidence. When you exude confidence, then your, the people, your, your colleagues and the leaders inside of that room in that meeting will be confident in you. And when they have that confidence in you, that's when trust follows shortly afterward. Now they can trust your expertise. They trust your recommendations. And so that demonstrates your authenticity, but here's the thing you're not trying to impress. You're speaking to inspire, speaking to impact, not speaking to impress. And that is really the first part of how you develop executive presence. Now, if you are someone who is struggling when it comes to how do I create content like that on the spot, impromptu, or if you have a presentation, how do I make sure that my content is insightful enough or impactful enough? And how do I make sure I never run out of things to say? If that is you, if you're somebody who struggles with that, then I invite you to book a call with me. I below this video in the description, there is a link to book a call with me or someone else on my team. And this is where we're going to help you, right? In my coaching program, I help you to develop insightful, impactful content so that you will never be afraid to speak up in, with that, with it higher ups in a meeting again, and that you will not run out of things to say. In fact, your content will be so inspiring, so unique and insightful that that will really demonstrate the value of what you have to bring. So apply, and I look forward to chatting with you. And this is for you. If you're somebody who's serious about taking your career to the next level, if you are a leader or you're an executive and you want to take things to the next level, then this is for you. This is not for you. If you are at the beginning stage of your career, if you're a student or a recent graduate, and this is not for you. So if you are somebody who is an established career professional, ambitious, you want to take things to the next level, communicate with confidence, have that executive presence. Then I invite you to book a call and look forward to speaking with you on the inside. And finally, the other principle I want to share with you when it comes to being unafraid to speak up and being noticed, getting noticed when you speak up is in how you introduce yourself. This is extremely important. And when I say how you introduce yourself, you might be thinking, well, if my, my colleagues already know me, is it necessary for me to introduce yourself? Yes, it is. But when I say introduction, I don't mean, hi, my name is Grace and I am X, Y, Z position in this company. They know that information. When I talk about introducing yourself, I'm talking about how you introduce yourself. That positions you as authoritative, as a knowledgeable authority in that domain. And so therefore it's positioning yourself as a leader in that industry. So when you introduce yourself that way, there's a particular methodology for that. This is where you can have confidence, clarity and credibility. Your introduction isn't just your name and position and how long you've been working for the company. It is literally the way you introduce yourself, anchoring it to the outcome and the, and the, the, the problems that you solve for that core. It's for that, for the, the company that you work in, your introduction is key is not just name what you do and how long you've worked here. Right? So I want to hear from you because knowledge is not transformative. Applied knowledge is what creates transformation. So let me hear in the comments what resonated with you in this video today. And remember, if you haven't done so already to subscribe to my channel, also ring that bell below the videos and you can be notified every time I release a new video every single week.