5 Steps to Get Your Voice Heard & Expertise Used

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Being in a meeting, ready to share the expertise you were hired for and then feeling like you weren’t heard, can have you jumping on the next struggle bus wondering what went wrong.

In this Career Tips Weekly, I'm going to share my fail-proof framework for getting your voice heard and expertise used but first, first let’s define what that means.

Feeling heard is different from having an expectation that your opinion will always be used.? A common misconception my clients have is that to feel heard they need to have their perspective used. Their way of solving the problem and their idea used is the marker of feeling heard.

I challenge you to separate the two. If your definition for being heard is that you are always having your perspective used then 1) you will never feel heard and 2) you aren't being open minded and curious about the needs of the business or your colleagues.

At every level of your career you will meet new stakeholders that will disagree with you.? You cannot control the needs of the business or the behavior of others. My framework enables you to use a solid strategy for being a sought after expert who understands the business, who is competent, and who others seek the opinion of. It is fail-proof strategy for communicating and influencing effectively, and with practice, you will get your voice heard and ultimately, your expertise used.

Have an Outcome in Mind

Before going into the conversation, determine what your winning outcome is. What is it that you want to change or what response do you want? If for example, you want to influence stakeholders to use your solution, knowing this ahead of time will help you strategically communicate using the following steps in this framework - giving you a better chance at getting what you want. When you speak up without a plan and without knowing what you really want, it's easier to get caught up in things like: how the person's face looked, your feelings about the situation, if other people in the room were on their phone while you were talking.

Focus on the outcome you want ahead of time and you will not only be able to prepare better but will be able to focus more objectively on the topic.

Read the Room

Consider your desired outcome and then decide what is the best vehicle for your message. Is it better to meet 1-1 with the decision maker or bring the topic up in a group setting? Consider the communication preferences of your audience. Identify if they need pre-reads or if they "think out loud". If a meeting is the best format, consider speaking 1-1 with key stakeholders to build strategic support going into the meeting.

Consider the Context

A big mistake when trying to influence someone else is not understanding their perspective. Once you know the outcome you want and the vehicle you will use to communicate, be sure to include the relevant information for the audience, not for you. Take your idea and think about it from your boss's perspective and your boss's boss's perspective. Identify the business perspective and what is in it for others before trying to influence.

Collaborate

Identify people who will or do support your idea. Talk to them ahead of time before going into the meeting so you have people you can bring into the conversation when you get push-back. Think about the perspective of the other people involved and actively seek their input. What blind spots could you have? What could you be missing in your perspective? It is common to get caught up in what we want, what we think is best, but every person did that, we wouldn't make progress. Lean into the perspective of others.

Another idea is to solicit feedback actively in a meeting by asking someone else what their thoughts are before offering your own. Jon Mason, head of Talent Management for Takeda offers a brilliant way to do this when he was on episode 69 of Navigating Your Career. Catch the episode here.

Listen

Finally, listen. You go into the conversation with a plan, with your winning outcome. You read the room and know the best communication style and vehicle for your message. You've considered other's perspectives, included all relevant information, and collaborated with key stakeholders. Now it's time to share and listen.

It's common to share, get resistance, and start to get defensive or shut down. This is normal brain behavior. Instead, listen for what you could still be missing. How else could you frame what you want in a way that is compelling? Listen to the feedback you're getting and assess it objectively. It will help you proactively address these obstacles next time. You can also give the feedback some thought and return to the conversation ready to address it.

When you apply these five steps to your situation, you will inherently become a more inclusive and persuasive speaker, which will encourage others to listen in and hear you more than they may be right now.

To learn more about these five steps and how to diagnose where you might be going wrong, download my free guide: Get Your Voice Heard and Expertise Used. You will immediately receive this framework and the next steps to using it.

Getting your voice heard takes practice.

The goal isn’t to become the person everyone listens to, you will always have to adjust your approach, it’s to learn the strategies that get you heard with any audience. This framework is your fail-proof strategy.

Melissa Lawrence is a Career and Leadership Coach who works with professionals in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to help them advance their career and find their path to happiness at work. She holds a Masters in Organizational Psychology and hosts the podcast,?Navigating Your Career. To work with Melissa go to?www.melissamlawrence.com.??