Difficulty Speaking Up At Work? 5 Ways To Increase Your Visibility

Today’s question comes from a reader who lacks confidence contributing in meetings. If you’d like to see your question answered in a future issue, send me a message ! If you’d like to go from just-a-job to dream career, check out the Dream Career Club .

I LOVE what I do but I get insecure or shrink in a room where big ideas are being discussed.? While my role is important, it’s behind the scenes and doesn't really require me to come up with big revenue generated ideas.? Maybe money saving ideas.? I do sometimes wonder if and how that will affect me in the long run? – Operations Manager

It’s refreshing to hear when someone loves their job -- enough to declare it in SOLID CAPS! It’s also encouraging to see that this operations manager isn’t getting complacent in their career and is self-aware about their tendency to remain silent in meetings. It is important to be visible, even if your job responsibilities are behind the scenes

Visibility ensures you get appropriate consideration when decisions are made about raises, performance bonuses or who is laid off , especially in these uncertain times. If advancing into leadership roles is a goal, public speaking will become a more routine part of the job – whether it’s speaking at internal meetings or at client meetings, vendor negotiations or industry-wide events. To maximize your career potential, get comfortable with being out in front and find ways to increase your visibility:

1 - Practice outside of work

If speaking in public makes you uncomfortable, you don’t need the added pressure of debuting in front of work colleagues that you’ll then see every day after or your manager and other decision-makers who influence your fate at the company. Instead, find ways to practice outside of work. Join a book club and resolve to contribute at each meeting. Become a reader at your religious service. Volunteer for a cause you care about and specifically pick a function that stretches you out of your comfort zone. For example, fundraising requires you to speak to lots of people and make requests – lots of opportunity to practice being out in front and speaking up.

2 - Start with small audiences

Once you’re ready to take your public speaking tour to the office, start with smaller, more familiar audiences. Proposing an idea to your manager 1:1 can be a first step to speaking up in a team meeting. Talking in a team meeting can be the next step before speaking up in a cross-functional meeting. Eventually, you can think about ways to get involved with your company town hall (e.g., moderate a panel) or a senior leadership meeting (e.g., present your part of a presentation).

3 – Don’t reserve speaking up for only brilliant, original ideas

Absolutely pitch your ideas when you have them. Original contributions that add value to the discussion are an important way to distinguish yourself. However, don’t feel like you have to wait and only speak up when you get the lightning bolt of inspiration. In lieu of your own ideas, you can by highlight other people’s good ideas or ask clarifying questions. In both instances, you are forwarding the discussion and making your voice heard, but without the pressure of having to propose something or create from scratch.

4 -- Take advantage of compony-structured opportunities

Getting involved in your company’s employee resource groups can give you access to different areas of the company, collaboration with different colleagues and visibility with senior leaders than your day-to-day work allows. Company events, like the annual offsite or holiday, may need volunteers to get off the ground. If your company recruits new graduates, it may need volunteers to visit schools and staff career fairs.

5 -- Mix up your approach

Public speaking is just one way of getting your ideas and opinions heard. Writing status reports and email updates for your manager is another way of contributing to a discussion. Concise, persuasive writing is an important addition to your career toolkit. The company marketing department may be looking for employees to talk about the company in a marketing video, which gives you visibility as a team player but also a speaking opportunity in a choreographed, supported venue.

Highlight how your contribution impacts the company bottom line

Whether you raise your visibility by writing, speaking or a structured company activity, you also want to highlight how what you’re doing and saying impacts the company bottom line. This isn’t only revenue-generating contributions, but also cost-saving measures. Making money and saving money both improve profitability, even if you do it behind the scenes.

If what you do or an idea you pitch supports others in making a sale, that counts on the revenue side. If your operations save time or save resources, that saves money. Invest some time tracing exactly how your work leads to improving company profits, and as you increase your visibility, highlight those contributions.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a longtime recruiter, career coach and founder of the Dream Career Club , helping experienced professionals make a great living doing what they love.

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