Tips for Speaking up More in Meetings
As you progress you’re expected to speak up more and more. Not only just speaking for the sake of speaking, but offering sharp insights, opinions, disagreeing in a professional manner, etc. The pressure to do this well seems to build pretty quickly and the transition from a quiet data room plowing, Excel modeling, PPT making associate happens fast. Any tips / best practices for speaking up more in meetings in an effective manner for a natural introvert?
Build subject matter expertise.
Expand your readings to go beyond your regular tasks at work. Develop awareness of what is happening in your space, and develop your own thoughts/ insights.
Pay attention to what others contribute. Acknowledge what's been added to the discussion, even if you disagree.
Start by chiming in with a few sentences. And build on that confidence.
Stay focused on the business agenda, don't take disagreements personally.
Spend 15min before every meeting/call just thinking through how you can add value either in the way of meaningful comments / questions. This doesn't mean asking stupid, trivial shit to have your voice heard, but actually ADDING value (ie. try to put yourself in the counterparties shoes as well).
Also, try not to talk yourself out of asking a legitimate question / making a legitimate comment because you think you'll look dumb - you'd be surprised how many people might be wondering the same thing.
much more important nowadays WFH, right. I don't think my boss understands the word succinct, often he will join my calls, butt in, and start talking in circles, often I have to speak over him to the point I feel a bit rude, but definitely necessary otherwise he wastes everyones time and gives us all a bad rep. tbh, I just start talking in meetings and people generally like it, remember that you do have a seat at the table and can contribute. when I was apprehensive about speaking up in meetings, the amount of times I held back from saying something insightful, just for someone else to say the exact same thing, and for the rest of the audience to say "wow GREAT question!!! thank u!!" got me frustrated, so now I speak first and make good notes (for glancing at when talking). no more freebies for everyone else !
Put in the work beforehand. Think about and study the materials to see where you can add something. Practice public speaking, it will reduce the nerves. Also, depending on the culture, talk to one of the senior people and tell them you'd like to try and speak in meetings more.
Confidence will come from certainty -- if you're certain about the subject matter and your skills, then you'll be more confident (which will also improve your speaking).
It's always wise to talk to the more senior person, just so there are no surprises / conflicting views in the wrong venue.
"I'd rather shut up and let people think I'm an idiot than open my mouth and remove any doubt of it"
It's not easy and it goes back to be balance between being confident and being humble. I echo what everyone said above, in addition I'll say figure out how what you want to say moves the discussion forward, whether by adding extra context that nobody seems to consider or by arguing for/ against a specific position mentioned by somebody else. Do it as succinctly and as crisply as possible, no "uuuuhms" or anything like that. Saying "I'll get back to you on that/ I do not know" is not a tragedy, unless it's on something you were supposed to know.
At the end of the day, it's all about preparation and degree of effort you're willing to undertake. For instance, as an associate you're supposed to be in full control of the numbers, and you better be especially when you go to committee. It's your choice to build a robust understanding of the business overall so that when the opportunity to chime in comes, you're ready to pounce. Sometimes, the opportunity will come, sometimes not. But this is not a linear game and it takes time, so just keep on learning.
It's very important to participate in meetings. I always encouraged younger folks to participate
1. Get more comfortable speaking first in internal meetings. No downside in those.
2. Speak with people more senior (mentors I suppose) in the industry on an informal basis, those of whom you trust and you think are doing well, bounce ideas off them, which will broaden your way of thinking and should increase your confidence in yourself i.e. what you're thinking/speaking is not totally garbage
Realize that the seniors are not smarter than you, they just happen to be a bit older, at the end of the day, everyone has the same questions assuming a basic level of curiosity
Everyone has their strength in the room, find out yours and speak up when you're best placed to address a point / issue. The Associate will be closest to the model / numbers, you'll probably be closest to the DD / documentation, MD will be closest to what's going on further up the chain (does this fit well in the portfolio, do we need to structure it in anyway to fit it in a certain fund / SMA etc, have they soft sounded IC members for their thoughts etc).
Before each meeting / call, spend 10 minutes thinking through what you want to get out of the meeting and make sure you steer it in that direction. If someone derails the meeting bring it back on track, speaking up is also about keeping meetings productive. They shouldn't be any longer than is needed to address the subject matter. Also, if you've nothing value-add to say then don't speak, it's clear when someone is speaking for the sake of being heard and it's clear they're just wasting time.
Start off small and add a comment like “it’s about finding that balance”. People will like it and it can get your used to speaking up.
Whenever people (I) talk about being nervous speaking, I always think about this scene from Glengarry Glen Ross (not the Alec Baldwin "ABC" speech).
I always took this as a lesson:
"You wanna learn the first rule? You'd know if you ever spent a day in your live. You never open your mouth, 'til you know what the shot is. You f*cking child."
Not to discourage people, but there are some notorious stories of people who didn't know the shot and should have kept their f'n mouth shut.
Having said that, I know how hard it is, especially for junior bankers to speak up, since I went through it myself. My current methodology for mentoring is to "steward" them through a call. It's usually something simple: some analysis they owned, like a DCF for example. We do a mock rehearsal where I ask them to walk me through it (as if we were doing interview prep). I indicate the most likely areas that our client will ask questions and make sure they have solid answers. I also tell them they are going to lead the call, but I will be on (and won't let them fuck up too badly).
On the call, I do an intro for the analyst usually praise them as being one of our best, top bucket (even if they're not actually... LOL). I let the analyst do the talking. 9/10 I don't say much if anything. I just wrap up the call. Might step in if the analyst gets nervous and starts digging a hole.
Can you find anyone you like or trust who could do this for you at your firm?
As you get more comfortable, the aperature that you and I both will feel comfortable about will open and you'll naturally start to speak more openly as your confidence builds.
... I want you guys to succeed... (and carry some of my responsiblities... I have enough f'n work to do).
I think opportunities for older guys to share their views with the younger ones are part of what make WSO great. Kudos to the OP for posting this. Just some general thoughts that come to mind:
One big tip no one else has touched on - speak up early in a meeting. Obviously you don’t want to say something totally trivial/unnecessary, but having your voice heard early makes it A LOT easier to speak up later on in the same meeting. It gives other people the impression that you have a speaking role in the meeting, and so they’ll subconsciously expect you to continue to chime in again. If you’re silent for half the meeting, when you do start to say something, others will get the subconscious feeling that you’re only speaking up to say something totally groundbreaking (“oh this most be super important if the guy that hasn’t said a word has something to say now”) and you’ll get everyone’s attention and you will feel that pressure.
If you instead chime in sporadically early and often, it won’t catch people by surprise, and it will therefore feel a lot more natural.
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