Speak Up
3.8 Billion pieces of advice CAN be wrong
The advice to women to “speak up” is rampant. Before Google stopped counting search returns, I recorded 3,800,000,000 returns for the search “Speak Up Advice to Women.”
I thought of this recently when I saw a meme about the varying forms that bullying in the workplace can take. Most of the advice doesn’t address the fact that when speak up we are often met with non-verbal bullying. We are talked over, discounted, laughed at and unheard. People react as if we’re boring, not qualified to be in the room, irrelevant. None of the advice suggests what to do to minimize the chance of these responses.
Nor does the common advice about speaking up address the fact that women work in businesses.
What We’re Told?
Why This Advice Fails
If you don’t have Business Savvy speaking up, can put you at risk and actually invite the kind of eye rolling, smirking, discounting responses that we often experience.
With Business Savvy, you’re able to be wiser about when you speak up and what you say - the points that you make. This is because you’re able to recognize opportunities to make comments that further the business in a way that is extremely difficult to ignore.
What’s a Woman To Do?
Here’s a 3 Step sequence that will position you to be heard.
Paid subscribers get additional details about this sequence.
Step 1, Connect your comments to something that someone else has said.
Step 2. Make your business savvy point.
Business Savvy Course subscribers access all the tools needed in order to be able to this.
Step 3. Invite someone to respond.
There Are No Guarantees
While this 3 step formula reduces the possibility that you will be easily ignored, I can’t guarantee that you won’t be received with eye rolling, smirks or dead air. After all, we can only control our actions, no those of others.
BUT don’t use that as an excuse to give up. Keep standing tall and strong on your Business Savvy. If it doesn’t pay off for you where you are, it will prepare you for a future opportunity in a more receptive environment.
If you know a colleague or colleagues who would benefit from this information, please help more women create careers that sore and forward this to her/them.
About Me
I’m Susan Colantuono, best known for my TED Talk, “The Career Advice You Probably Didn’t Get.”
I’ve devoted most of my working life to supporting the career advancement of women. Now my work is exclusively focused on offering women tools for developing and demonstrating Business Savvy - the business, financial and strategic acumen we need to succeed.
You will find useful and actionable content in my books and other online resources:
No Ceiling, No Walls ebook
No Ceiling, No Walls soft cover
Make the Most of Mentoring soft cover
Coaching Executive Women (occasional) newsletter
Lead ON!
Susan