SPEAK UP: How to Gain Visibility for Yourself & Support Visibility for Others (Article #1 in series)
by Joy Leach and Tina Jackson, PRI Leadership
“There is no magic wand for correcting diversity and inclusion. Change happens one person at a time, one act at a time, one word at a time.”
Melinda Epler, “3 ways to be a better ally in the workplace”
We (Joy Leach and Tina Jackson) were delighted to speak at the Tech Inclusion conference in San Francisco last fall. As we prepared, we realized that our talk was a distillation of 20 years of work we have been doing with trusted colleagues in three fields: diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and presentation skills. On the face of it, that’s a strange combo, and yet our careers have included:
conducting a landmark glass ceiling study for the intelligence community (we shared our methodology and many key findings in our book, A Practical Guide to Working with Diversity)
training, coaching and inspiring thousands of people to find their voice and speak with confidence through our Present with Impact classes
developing leaders at all levels through executive coaching, customized workshops, and multi-month leadership programs
We are honored to have worked with women as they enter male-dominated fields/roles, people of color navigating systems that have historically been all - or mostly white, people whose first language is not English, individuals who are the ‘first’ or only (the first person in their role/team with their cultural background, sexual orientation, etc.). We have also worked extensively with teams with very divergent thinking styles. And with leaders of these individuals who are seeking ways to support diversity and demonstrate their ally-ship.
As we look at how to increase diversity and instill inclusivity into a workplace, we have found that a significant portion of our work tends to focus on helping people – particularly those who are under-represented in their organization or team -- develop the confidence and skills to speak up, to share their voice without feeling intimidated or unheard. At the same time, we recognize that the system needs to be responsive, so we partner with leaders, allies and individuals at many levels to help organizations create more inclusive cultures. Our work is fulfilling andhas practical benefits in the workplace. Recent studies have shown that diverse teams are smarter, more innovative, and more skilled in problem solving than heterogeneous teams (HBR, Why Diverse Teams are Smarter, Rock and Grant, 2016).
It’s estimated that approximately 75% of people are intimidated by public speaking. This is interesting as we are always publicly speaking—not only in formal environments but also when we email, when we talk on the phone, when we sit in a meeting. Anytime that we communicate with others we are presenting ourselves in a way that impacts how we are perceived. As we have worked with clients over the last two decades, we have been curious about what does this fear of public speaking do to a person’s ability to speak up, to share themselves in every interaction? What impact does that have on their career and on others around them, including those who might be looking up to them as a role model? And how can we help them overcome that fear and present themselves with greater confidence?
You can learn to hone the way you present yourself in any forum, face-to-face or virtually, to a small number of people you know well or to a huge audience, with greater confidence and skill. But these articles are about more than being a confident presenter, it is ensuring that your voice is heard as an underrepresented voice, and it’s about helping others feel more confident in their presentation too. Our intent is to help you find your voice and speak up so that you can inspire and create space for others to do the same. There is nothing more singularly individual than our own voice, and the more voices we can bring into the room, the richer our dialogue and our growth will be.
We’ve distilled our message into several parts – Prepare, Practice, Present. We’ll be sending these out as separate articles, knowing each can be a stand-alone, yet they also build on one another.
PREPARE
The best presenters and communicators only appear to be delivering their message in-the-moment—in fact, preparation plays a critical role in the success of any presentation, and it starts long before you sit down and work out what you’re going to say. Below are three key ways to prepare.
1. RAISE YOUR HAND
We were speaking on the topic of presentation skills at a tech conference recently, and after our talk, a young woman approached us and said that she had spent most of her career preparing presentations for someone else to deliver. Many of the people we work with know how it feels to be in the background, to be the support behind the scenes. Here’s the truth: whoever is speaking is the one who gets the credit for the message. Seldom does anyone see who is behind what’s being said.
So, the first step to presenting is to make sure you’re the one who is going to be in the position of speaking. Raise your hand, volunteer, jump in before you think you are ready. If you wait to be ready you’ll never do it, and somebody else is going to jump in instead.
We hear from a lot of people who are plagued with imposter syndrome. They say, “I don’t know that I have anything valuable to say” or “My colleague would probably do a better job than I can.” Sound familiar? The thing is, feeling like an imposter is actually a good sign. It means that you’re taking risks, putting yourself out there, and stretching your comfort zone. You have to trust that once you carve out an opportunity you’re going to do what it takes to succeed. You don’t have to do this alone. You can call on your support system to help you get ready.
So, always be prepared to say yes. Put yourself out there. Offer without being asked. Step forward before you are ready, and trust in your own abilities. If you’re a leader or a colleague of someone who stays behind the scenes, then help push them out of the nest. Maybe you volunteer them or offer an opportunity. Let them know that you have confidence in them even if they don’t yet have it in themselves.
2. ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE
In any conversation, there is a sender and a receiver. We tend to focus on the sending portion—“My intentions were good” or “I said what I wanted to” —but focusing primarily on what we said or did keeps us from seeing the impact on the receiver. By taking the time to understand your audience and their expectations you can think through what the receiver needs and then how to share your message in a way that will be understood and valuable for the listeners.
Let’s say you or a colleague are going to present to a team of six people. You don’t know the team yet, so you aren’t sure how to really hit it out of the park. What can you do? Well, you can find someone who knows at least one of them, or maybe all of them. Do your homework. Learn the politics, the systems, what their strengths might be, where they want to grow. Be prepared to ask questions in advance, either of your audience or of whoever is asking you to present. Find out exactly how much time you have. Ask for specifics in regards to what they want most out of the presentation, what they want to take away.
Then, ask yourself how best to deliver your message and meet that need. Consider what the audience knows (or doesn’t) that you will need to work around, think about how much detail they really need to understand what you’re saying. It can be tempting to inundate a presentation with information in hopes of hitting the mark for everyone, but taking the time to sort through what will be most important helps clarify your message, resulting in a stronger impact.
If you are supporting a colleague or team member, make sure that you are helping in their efforts to get the most information and context possible. Maybe you’ve presented to this team before. Maybe you’ll even be in the audience. Communicate what you see the expectations and obstacles as being to help set the presenter up for greater success. Deepening your perspective of the role of the audience will also teach you how to be a better receiver, one who brings out the best in others.
3. FIND (AND BE) AN ALLY
As Melinda Epler underscored in her Ted Talk on ally-ship in the workplace, allies are vital to successfully navigating diversity and inclusion.
You need an ally in every meeting that you're in. You need an ally in every presentation. And, it’s of equal importance to be an ally for others.
Here’s what allies do: if you are speaking at a meeting and you say something powerful that gets ignored, your ally will speak up. They’ll say, “Wait, I liked what I just heard. Let’s revisit that.” If you’re presenting at a larger event, they’re the ones making eye contact with you, keeping you steady. Allies are the ones making sure that when you speak up, your voice is heard.
As you’re preparing to speak, spend time identifying and connecting with your allies. First, figure out if there will be anyone in the room who you will know and who could support you. They can be an ally. Next go to your ally and say, “Here is what I’m up against. Here’s who I’m talking to. What information do you have that can help me navigate the people in that room?”
Beyond that, and perhaps even more importantly, think about how you can serve as an ally to others. How can you support someone who’s presenting? How can you support a voice that might not be heard? It’s amazing how simple, and how valuable, small gestures can be—listening undistractedly, smiling warmly, asking specific questions.
What you’ll find is, the more you put out into your workplace or your life, the more it’ll come back to you. Presenting with impact is connecting in a powerful way with the people that you’re talking to, and you can deepen your ability to create a connection in every interaction you have.
Preparation Checklist
Raise your hand.
Be proactive. Find and create opportunities.
Be receptive. Say yes to opportunities.
Know your audience.
Take time to research. Challenge your assumptions.
Determine talking points accordingly.
Have an ally. Be an ally. Inspire more voices.
Inspire others to use their voices confidently.
Offer opportunities for others to find their voice.
Reflections
Where are you holding yourself back? In what situations do you want to be heard and have more visibility?
How can you get more voices in the room in your current role or organization?
What planning and action will this require?
Ready to Stretch?
Identify one meeting/interaction where you want to show up in a bolder and more visible way.
Identify one way to inspire confidence and support a voice that might not be heard and has a lot to offer.
When and where can you put this idea into action? What does your ally need to know in advance?