Your team struggles with introverted members. How can you help them speak up confidently in meetings?
Introverts bring unique insights to the table, yet they may need a nudge to share them in meetings. To empower their voices:
- Establish a round-robin format, giving everyone a designated time to speak.
- Provide meeting agendas in advance, allowing introverts to prepare their thoughts.
- Encourage written contributions as an alternative for those less comfortable speaking out loud.
How do you create an inclusive environment for all team members?
Your team struggles with introverted members. How can you help them speak up confidently in meetings?
Introverts bring unique insights to the table, yet they may need a nudge to share them in meetings. To empower their voices:
- Establish a round-robin format, giving everyone a designated time to speak.
- Provide meeting agendas in advance, allowing introverts to prepare their thoughts.
- Encourage written contributions as an alternative for those less comfortable speaking out loud.
How do you create an inclusive environment for all team members?
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Use techniques like 1-2-4-All, which encourages everyone’s voice. Here’s how it works: give individuals one minute to gather their thoughts, then have them discuss with a partner for two minutes, expand to groups of four for a deeper exchange, and finally, invite groups to share with everyone. This approach eases participants into speaking up by starting in smaller groups before sharing with the larger team. This structure and support help build confidence, making it easier for introverted team members to share their perspectives openly. Last thing you should do is pick on persons to force them to speak up as social anxiety or an insecurity (e.g. language proficiency) may be at play.
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Not a lot people know, but I am an extreme introvert. So talking from my perspective, introverts prefer their own pace of engaging in the conversation. Make sure you target the topics that they are experts at. Accommodate the engagement within the meetings with their own pace. Make sure that they feel comfortable. And simply listen to them and give them an opportunity to talk. Most important make sure you pay attention to your and their facial expressions. This is how will you find out if the engagement is going well.
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Introversion is not a synonym for "quiet" or "shy". Introversion indicates what may deplete a person's energy before, during or after certain situations. Personality is not a valid reason for non-participation so leaders should establish clear expectations on the need to share & collaborate with team members, but there are different ways to do that. In addition to making expectations clear, leaders should look and assist all team members in managing energy before/after/during interactions by skillfully using tools like small talk, facilitation techniques and coaching-style conversations. Ultimately, leaders need to know both what DRAINS & what FEEDS their introverted & extroverted members, then lead purposefully with that knowledge.
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The more important point to make is stop trying to target on introverts and make them speak up in meetings. That's just not respecting introvert members and trying to make them act like extroverts. Instead, I would design and other way to let them participate in another way. 1. For any meeting, I have interactive game that allow all to participate with a click of a button. 2. I would think through any meeting and prepare ready to launch polls before the meeting. All I need to do is to launch the poll during the meeting. This is very effective, especially for decision making. 3. Leave the feedback to be added via email after the meeting. Introverts might have a short paragraph of valued information to add after some thought.
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If your team is "struggling" with this, then you need to assess how, as a leader, you have proactively set the stage for all of the unique ways each individual contributes. And, I would argue, it is not simply meetings that you may need to adjust. Step back and take a look at the entirety of the culture you have created and make sure that it's not only those who speak first/often who feel seen.
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