Ever find yourself itching to shout out your true feelings and speak up at work about a decision that you don’t agree with? When coaching Brian the other day who was in these very shoes, it brought to mind many times when I had to justify why I was advocating going in a different direction from what has “always been done”.
If this is a challenge you’ve encountered where you don’t feel heard, at the end of the day you want to avoid talking about the ‘What’ – what you think should be done and by who. You also don’t want to talk about the ‘How’ although you’d be surprised how many leaders jump right into the ‘How’ when speaking to their team because they seek no input. You may have even been on the receiving end of that conversation where there’s no buy-in and quite frankly your opinion doesn’t weigh in. Here are some simple way to confidently speak up at work.
Communicate the ‘Why’ first
Whether you’re in the leadership role that you want right now or not, makes no difference. You’re goal is to communicate the ‘Why’ to your boss and team. And while you’re doing that, be sure to tie in some metrics to support your decision.
Let me share what came up for Brian who was struggling with the direction the company was going in when it came to technology.
But before I forget, I want to be sure you know about my leadership audio mini course (it’s free) that’s designed to help you own your authority in your career by applying 5 top strategies and it works. It’s based on two decades of leading in Corporate America, (I’m a former Wall St. Executive) and professionals I coach here at In Our Shoes.
Back to struggling with sharing your honest feedback. The existing tech infrastructure where Brian worked, was not supporting the company’s growth but everything they did to make money online was tied to those legacy systems. As an added twist, he was hired to bring in his expertise on new technology to make an impact, yet change was slow and he felt like he was being benched with his hands tied and stuck in support-mode as things would inevitably break on high-volume days.
Speak up at work: Communicate the Costs
I asked how he felt about going back to his management to speak in their language which is: metrics. Sure the company was making good money from keeping things the same, but what about the cost to keeping the archaic technology?
When he did the analysis across vendor maintenance costs, sofware licensing, user subscriptions and the cost in terms of number of hours he and the team spent fixing things that would break, well by then it was a no brainer. That was something he could present to management – the rising costs and he also went one step further: he presented what those metrics would look like given the increased traffic hammering their infrastructure if they continued to keep what they had.
Speak up at work: Unemotionally Turn To The Data. The Numbers Don’t Lie.
Sure the cost to migration would be high, but compared to the costs of keeping things the same and potential site failures that would impact customers, it was a conversation he no longer felt powerless to speak to. He turned to the data.
If you find you’re not effectively communicating your recommendations go back to the ‘Why’ and be sure you tie in some metrics. This was a technology example, but you get the jist. You can take this gutsy leader approach with anything you want to present to management – the numbers don’t lie and you remove any emotional attachment to your reasons.
Thanks for stopping by and as always make it a gutsy week, following your instincts and being uncomfortable.
Your gutsy action item this week is to take a step back and avoid any conversation where you discuss the ‘What’ at work. Fall back into conversation that is strictly focused on the ‘Why’.
Join our free Leadership audio course to Own Your Authority at work.
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