How to make meaningful contributions to meetings, even if you’re an introvert.

Everyone has a few people in their office who always seem ready to give an opinion or opine at length about how the company should handle a situation.  Let’s talk about this kind of person. We’ll call him Brad. 

My bet is whenever Brad speaks it touches a nerve in your body and you begin to fume up. I bet even before he opens his mouth you can anticipate it, and your blood begins to boil in a Pavlovian way. When he speaks you silently shout “you’re an idiot.” But Brad doesn’t hear you and continues to drone on about how he read something in Inc. and by hybridizing social media and block chain technology the company can increase accounts-payable time and how if the engineers just listened to sales guys like him the company would be so much smarter. 

Do you know what sucks about this situation? Brad is going to get promoted by his behavior and you aren’t by sitting quietly plotting his stumble. Sometimes those with the worst ideas shout the loudest. Maybe there are some industries where this isn’t the case but unfortunately in most corporate organizations in America and Europe you are going to need to advocate for yourself.

Usually a that begins with “I don’t know but” is soemthign where someone doesn’t know and shouldn’t be speaking.

Want to learn what you can do to get better at putting yourself out there?

Start to contributing more by taking small measured steps 

Don’t worry so much about being 100% right. Temporarily stop the self-talk about dip your toes in. Here’s your advantage: If a meeting invitation is sent out in advance there will be an agenda. If not email the person you called the meeting and explain that you would like to be prepared to make it production and ask for some key topics she would like to cover. This gives you an unfair advantage. Not because this information isn’t available to other people. Most people don’t do adequate preparation ahead of meetings. By doing just a little bit better than other people you can be better prepared.