Getting your point across is hard, but trying to communicate with executives and getting your voice heard is something else, especially if you’re the newest member of the team. Being direct is a hard skill to master, but having that skill allows you to reach better heights in your career. Learning to skip filler words, or skipping long pauses, can help you sound more confident and allow you to get to the point easier.
Senior members, both in rank and in age, find younger people inexperienced or not credible enough to listen to. This is most especially true if you have some problems with speaking your mind. The key things to master is to speak up, say only what you mean, and convince them that what you’re saying is worth their time. If you get these points down, you’ll be able to get your voice heard in any meeting or talks you may have.
Say only what needs to be said
Source: Giphy
You don’t want to be the guy who keeps blabbering about non-related things for over 10 minutes. There’s a possibility that the people you’re talking to won’t even care anymore if you don’t catch their interest within the first 2 minutes of the conversation. Think of a person in sales, they make themselves heard by giving all the products’ features within the first minute of talking to them. Compare that to an engineer who wants to submit a proposal but only speaks of how the design was made and not how valuable it is. If you’re not giving WHY they need the product or design in the first place, they won’t even take interest.
Think before you speak, not while you speak
Source: PopSugar
This is about getting rid of the fillers when you speak. People who can’t speak in a straightforward manner are often perceived as scatterbrains, you don’t want to be seen as a scatterbrain, right? Speech like “If we could, you know, give the budget so that, i don’t know, maybe we could…” is a big NO. If you could gather all your thoughts first, your sentence would be complete and direct.
If you have a question, ASK!
Source: A sales guy
Imagine you’re presenting a proposal to your senior members. You go ahead and talk about how your design can increase your delivery speed by 10%. You have a great idea, but everyone seems unresponsive. So you go ahead and ask them questions to entice them to speak up. One thing to remember here is that YOU are the one giving the presentation, don’t ever fear sounding stupid. Don’t add too much context to your premise, no ‘kinda’ or ‘sorta’ or whatever it is that adds more words you don’t really mean. If you’re going to ask the question, be confident and have full conviction in what you’re asking. If you’re unsure of how to do that, go back to the previous step.
Getting noticed is one of the things you need to achieve in order to be heard. So speak up, think before you speak, and convince them you’re worth it then you’re good to go.
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