How to Speak Up and Get Heard at Work

You’ve probably heard the phrase "Silence is golden." Well, sometimes, silence is just plain expensive. Keeping quiet can cost you opportunities, relationships, and even your peace of mind. Every time you bite your tongue at work, you're missing a chance to make an impact.

Elaine Lin Hering, author of Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully, knows what staying quiet really does to you. She calls it “suffering in silence”—and it’s not just bad for your career, it’s bad for your health. When you don’t speak up, your body stays on high alert, leading to stress and even physical issues. Yep, you might actually be compromising your health by not raising your hand.

But it doesn’t stop there. Staying silent isolates you. It reinforces the idea that maybe you’re the problem. You aren’t. The real problem is the silence.

When you don’t speak up, you’re cutting yourself off from connections, course corrections, and any shot at turning good intentions into real results. Hering sums it up perfectly: until you break that silence, you’re never going to fully unlock the potential of your skills, your relationships, or your work environment.

Why Are You Staying Quiet?

So, why do we stay quiet? Simple. It’s a learned behavior—something that was drilled into us from the time we were kids. Remember those moments at the dinner table when someone shot you a look that screamed, "Not now" or "That’s inappropriate"? Yeah, those moments taught us to edit parts of ourselves out.

That learned behavior follows us into adulthood. In the workplace, it gets reinforced. Maybe you threw an idea out in a meeting once and no one even acknowledged it. Or you’ve noticed your boss never challenges the CEO. Slowly, you learn that silence is just part of the game.

This is what organizational psychologists call “organizational silence”—and it’s killing your potential.

How to Unlearn Silence

The first step in breaking the silence? Recognize it’s learned. Once you know that, you can start challenging the assumptions behind it. Ask yourself: “What’s really stopping me from speaking up? What behaviors are being rewarded or ignored in this environment?”

Then, dig deeper: “Are these assumptions serving me? Are they helping me become the leader I want to be? Or am I perpetuating the same toxic silence?”

And here’s the kicker: you don’t have to change overnight. But once you recognize how you’ve been silencing yourself, you can start making intentional choices to speak up.

Speaking Up Isn’t About Just Courage—It’s Strategy

Traditional advice tells you to just “be more confident” or “get courageous.” But let’s get real: sometimes speaking up isn’t that simple. It’s a calculation. You’ve got to ask yourself: Does it make sense for me to speak up right now? Is it worth it?

That’s the real power in unlearning silence. You’ve got to weigh the risks and rewards. Consider these three questions:

1. What are the costs of speaking up?
2. What are the benefits of staying silent?
3. What’s the right move for me right now?

Sure, speaking up can feel awkward in the moment. But what’s the long-term cost of staying silent? Spoiler alert: most problems don’t solve themselves. They usually get worse.

There’s definitely a time for silence. Protecting your peace, conserving energy—those are valid choices. But you need to make sure those choices are coming from a place of strategy, not fear.

Own Your Voice, Own Your Future

Whether you choose to speak up or stay quiet, it’s about understanding why you’re doing it and making the decision consciously. It’s an ongoing process, but it’s worth it. The more aware you are of your patterns, the better you can decide how you want to show up—not just at work, but in life.

Ready to stop suffering in silence and finally get your voice heard at work? If this hit home and you’re looking for real, actionable ways to step up and speak out, I’ve got more where this came from. Whether you want personal strategies or a deeper dive for your team, I can help you turn things around.

Reach out to me directly and let’s talk about how you can start making your voice your most valuable asset—starting now. ??