Your Opinion Matters

Though it may not always feel so, your opinion matters regardless of where you work or how insignificant your role in the organization may seem.

If you don’t have any opinion, don’t be surprised if others get to decide for you, no matter what the decision is about. To be able to state your opinion openly is very important from many perspectives, starting with your self-esteem. We need to agree from the starters that if your opinion is always negative and you are clearly a professional hater, this may impact you significantly, mostly in a bad way.

It’s virtually impossible that everything sucks in the company you work for and for you to constantly complain. Nonetheless, if it is so, it’s much better for all the parties involved to start pursuing happiness elsewhere. That is if happiness is something that you can find. 

Well, back on topic, it is highly unlikely for anyone to be able to give an informed opinion about everything in this world – from football to electronic knitting. I am talking about the capacity to express your opinion in a professional, non-aggressive, assertive and coherent manner, relying on actual data and experience, which will obviously impact your career positively. 

If you’re just being superficial and throw dirt around, the job of professional hater will serve you no good.

Generally speaking, when you provide an opinion, you should know what is all that about and must be something which will directly impact your current activity; otherwise it’s like you’re talking about global warming without knowing anything about our own impact on the environment. If someone asks you about a product you never tried or about a colleague you never interacted with, your opinion it’s not relevant. 

The way you share your opinion is most of the times more important than what you actually say, because doing it aggressively makes the content less relevant.

Your message should be clear, direct and if needed, can be further documented if there are persons who don’t share your opinion.

How can you make yourself heard:

- May I share with you something I noticed?

- Have you considered a different approach?

- My opinion is..., because...

No matter the recipient, the way you communicate your opinion will make the difference, in order to be taken into account by your managers or by the whole audience of a very important meeting. A sane manager, one who wishes to evolve is always willing to listen to others’ point of view, avoiding to be surrounded by Yes Men or Women. If you sit in a corner and never say anything, you shall just be left there.  

Good luck succeeding!

Originally published at Bogdan.blog