This thought came to me as I was reading Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham, where he states:

“… to live happily and fully, you have to express your loves… You’ve got to get them out somewhere, somehow. Turn them from loves into actions; from passions into contributions and when you do, your life feels coherent and authentic and you know, you just know, every fiber of your being that you’re on your path. The inverse is also true, though… if you’re prevented from doing it (what you love) then your life starts to feel wrong. During the moments when you start thinking about doing something different because you’re frustrated, angry, concerned, think about what is happening in your current job and what you’re prevented from doing.” 

For any given job or career, there are times when we feel energized and there are times when we feel like quitting (even though we are in the same job). Often, our immediate response to unhappiness at work is to think about our exit plan. Before going there, take a moment to think about what your organization may be inadvertently stopping you from doing that means a lot to you. That insight may help you find a path forward either in your current role or when you look for your next opportunity. 

If you’re not sure what you love, take the free Gift of Standout Assessment. 

Don’t deny what you love and what you’re meant to do because it may just eat you up from the inside.

Inspired by Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham

Photo by whoislimos

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Speak your mind when it adds value

Sol credits his meteoric rise to his brashness and courage to speak his mind. Early in his career, he spoke up about a product’s lack of effectiveness at an executive committee meeting. This got him noticed by the chairman who put him in charge of fixing the problem. He encourages anyone who has an idea that adds value to the company to speak up and to share those thoughts. When asked how he mustered the courage to do that, he said, “I didn’t know any better“. To help you decide when to speak up, ask yourself, “Is there something important that should be said that’s not being said right now?”

Look at everything and learn constantly

Sol cautions that if you do speak your mind, make sure you know what you’re talking about. He strongly believes that amassing knowledge is key to being successful. Whether it’s reading books and journals, listening to key experts, or studying with an institution, find ways to get up to speed on your business. The more knowledgeable you are, the better off you’ll be. This echoes advice from both Alex Gorsky, CEO of J&J, and Mary Barra, CEO of GM. Looking into everything doesn’t mean you’re going to get into the details every time, it means being adept at navigating a conversation at 50,000 feet and at 50 feet when needed.

Understand the rules of the game

Sol recognized early on that the rules of the game in business were not created for a Latino. Although he would be justified to be mad at the unfairness of the system, he knew that would be counterproductive. He understood that for him to win, he’ll need to be 5 to 10 times better than his peers. He also wanted to stay committed to his family so instead of going for rounds of golf, he threw himself into working hard on the business and spent his energy getting better as opposed to wishing the world around him was different.

Get good feedback

“Feedback is really good if you take it and learn from it” – Sol emphasized this point as one of the core factors for how he has been able to sustain his success. As he was rising in his career, he received feedback on his brashness and was able to learn how to get people to perform without the harshness he was using to communicate his expectations. What feedback are you getting from others? What feedback can you give to yourself?

Innovate to grow and compete

When Ken Chenault, former CEO of American Express, spoke at this same conference last year, he said, “if you’re not moving, you’re falling back.” Sol had a similar message where he stresses that every leader must consider two D’s – Digital and Diversity. He talked about the importance to adapt to new technologies and set up a team that allows you to diagnose a problem from different perspectives. To get buy-in for innovation, you must show conviction, passion, and knowledge about the Why and clear thinking about the What. 

What impressed me most about Sol was his courage to stand up for what is right. During his CEO role at Telstra, he faced a number of racist encounters around his Mexican heritage. When his wife asked him why he doesn’t just quit and pursue easier opportunities, he said it’s exactly because of these incidents that he could not quit and didn’t want to allow such ignorance to scare him off.

Photo from Morgan Stanley Senior Multicultural Conference #SMLC19

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Walmart’s phenomenal growth wasn’t because of some secret sauce or tremendous luck, but rather it stems from a consistent application of hard work, continuous improvement, grit, client service, and strong financial management.

If you’re interested in building a sustainable business or career, apply Sam Walton’s 10 rules for success:

1. Commit to your business

Find something you’re passionate about and stick to it. If you’re a top performer, you’ll have many options and it’s easy to be enticed by the different opportunities that come your way. Resist the bright shiny objects in your career path and commit to your life’s work.

If you’re not sure what that work might be or what you’re passionate about, sign up for my free Know What You Want course. It’ll get you moving in the right direction.

Once you commit, be biased towards taking action and expect to win. When you are optimistic about your chances to succeed, it makes it easier for you to be resourceful and to persist until you win.

2. Partner with your team

To succeed, it’s paramount for your employees, peers, and stakeholders to be invested in you and your company or project. To get their buy-in, find ways to share credit and profits with your team so they feel better off when you and the firm are doing well. People follow leaders who will leave them better off.

Walton echoes British entrepreneur Richard Branson, “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

3. Challenge your team

To build a world-class firm or career, set high goals and expectations for yourself and those around you. Encourage competition and find ways to keep the score to build accountability. Value hard work, innovation, and integrity and build teams that exude similar values.

As you institutionalize best practices, don’t be too predictable. Always keep things moving forward so your people and firm stay fresh. To hold people accountable, identify measurable performance indicators that connect to the value added to the firm.

4. Communicate openly and thoroughly to your team

Proactively empower your team by being transparent and sharing important information about the business. The more your people know the more they will understand how to focus their energy on the right things. Sam Walton believed the value for empowering your employees far outweigh the risk of competitors gaining access to the inner workings of your business.

Communicate often through staff meetings and written updates. Use these touch points to share information in a timely manner, provide a sounding board to your people, and boost your team’s morale.

5. Appreciate everything your people do for you and the business

It never hurts to be thankful.

To effectively show gratitude, be observant and notice when those around you are doing the right things. Then depending on the person, show appreciation either publicly or privately to recognize their specific actions. Specificity shows people you’re paying attention, which also shows that you care.

6. Celebrate your successes (and failures)

When you reach the top of the mountain you’ve decided to climb, take time to soak it in and celebrate. Reflect on what you did right and what you could do better. Thank all the people who helped you achieve your success and share credit with the people involved.

When you fail, take responsibility but don’t take yourself too seriously. Find humor in the situation and have fun. If you’re in a business you’re passionate about (see #1), know that any setback is only a small part of your overall journey. As long as you learn from your failures, each one will be a building block for your future success.

7. Listen to everyone

To be successful, find ways to listen to everything that’s going around you – in your department, company, and industry. Build trust with people around you so they open up to you and feel safe to share what they see is happening. If you have employees who report to you, push power down and pull info and ideas up. When you hear great ideas, share them with others in the firm.

Throughout his career, Sam would often visit his competitors to learn from their best practices and implement them in his stores. Sam’s Club was a direct result of listening to his competitors. Don’t be afraid to build on what others are doing. Everyone has a lesson to teach you.

8. Exceed your clients’ expectations

Give the people you serve what they want and a little more. This means constantly updating your understanding of what matters to your clients. Show that you appreciate them. When you make a mistake, apologize, and don’t make excuses. Just fix the issue and make good on your mistake.

Your business and career grow because your clients support you. Keep looking for ways to serve your customers better than anyone else. What else can you do to guarantee your client’s satisfaction?

9. Control your expenses better than your competition

If you want to succeed in business and in life, manage your finances and operations effectively. Whether it’s your company, department, or project, the ability to understand the drivers of your business and create sustainable profits is what will boost your value to the company.

If you’re not sure how to read financial statements or manage a P&L, take a class or consider an MBA. If you don’t, you won’t be able to compete and competition is unavoidable. To win, be passionate about competing and compete to win.

10. Swim upstream

When you feel strongly about a trend or idea, stick to your convictions even if it means going against the crowd. Leaders lead by changing and improving the status quo. Anytime you’re leading change, there will be dissuaders.

Keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to change your mind if you realize you’re wrong.

If you’re passionate about being successful, take inventory on how you’re doing on these 10 tips. If you found these ideas useful, consider tips from these other top CEOs – Ken Chenault (American Express), Alex Gorsky (Johnson and Johnson), and Mary Barra (General Motors).

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These were the questions I asked myself during Professor Stew Friedman’s Total Leadership program at Wharton. What attracted me to take this course was Stew’s concept that work-life balance doesn’t work because it implies having to make trade-offs. Instead of managing life as slices of a pie that gets smaller or bigger at the expense of each other, his alternative was to consider different areas of your life as independent circles that can potentially overlap with each other.

This new construct helped me unlock the creativity to better optimize my life and it has transformed the way I live and work.

Before this course, I felt at the whim of my goals and the needs of my stakeholders. I felt forced to make tradeoffs in one area of my life because of the demands of another area and instead of leading my life, it was leading me. The process I learned in this live workshop with peer coaching helped me gain control over the important areas of my life. You’ll see below five insights that might be helpful to you as you think about leading all areas of your life:

Lead Your Life: Don’t Use One Area of Your Life to Make Excuses for Another Area

Before this program, I would often feel guilty that I did not get home early enough to spend time with my kids. I would use work as my excuse and rationalize that now is the time to focus on my career and once I’ve “made it”, I can carve out more time for family. Along the same vein, I would use my two young sons as the excuse for not exercising. I would tell myself, “How can I afford to work out if I don’t even have enough time to spend with my kids?” Then I would use the time I needed for work, school, family, and exercise to justify why I slept on average only five hours each night.

I found myself often saying how much I wanted to do these things but explaining how I couldn’t because of the many legitimate excuses that I had. Looking back, that was a weak way of living. This experience has taught me to either do what I say is important to do or stop saying it’s important to me. Either way is fine but continuing to make excuses is not.

As part of this course, we all conducted personal experiments. For my experiments, I committed to getting 7+ hours of sleep, getting home before 7pm during most of the work week, and exercising daily, which included running 2x a week. I was initially skeptical since I’ve had so many false starts trying to implement similar positive habits but I’m excited to share that so far I’ve not only sustained these habits but I just completed my first half-marathon after never running a race in the past.

What made the difference this time was clarifying the vision I wanted for my life and taking control to bring that vision to life. Essentially, leading myself to where I wanted to go.

Sleep Really Matters

I was lucky to choose sleeping 7+ hours as one of my experiments because there was no habit change that yielded faster and more drastic results than getting 7+ hours of sleep. I used to subscribe to the “you can sleep when you retire” and “I’m successful because I work harder and longer than everyone else” mantra. I’m beginning to see the fault in this thinking and realizing that I may have spun my wheels more often than I am aware of or care to admit.

After consistently getting 7+ hours of sleep, I noticed my mood becoming more positive and relaxed. What surprised me the most was that I immediately stopped craving coffee (I was drinking about 2-3 cups a day for the last few years).

I also found sleeping sufficiently a linchpin habit. The days when I was well rested, I almost always completed every other habit change along with my work and school goal for that day. It allowed me to exercise more self-control and discipline.

Create Constraints to Force Creativity

Forcing myself to get home early, sleep enough hours, and exercise daily meant taking time away from other areas of my life, especially work. Initially, I was worried I wouldn’t get my work done leading to adverse consequences. What I found instead was the most important work was still getting done and since my deadlines were tighter, I became more effective with my time. Having less time for work began to prevent me from over-engineering my work and school projects.

It also helped me to be more creative about my time. Instead of agreeing to drinks or dinner with a client, I would offer to meet for breakfast or lunch so I can keep my commitment to get home early. I started running and working out with other people as a great way to catch up with them. Interestingly, by creating constraints and forcing myself to keep these new habits, the quality of my life has increased at home and at work.

Be the Building Block for Other People’s Goals

One of the key exercises in the Total Leadership process was to set up conversations with the most important stakeholders in the different areas of your life. The goal is to ask your stakeholders about their expectations for you and how you’re doing in meeting those expectations.

Holding these conversations, I realized that I often see people around me as building blocks to my success and drive our interactions in the direction of my agenda and accomplishing my goals. Hearing people’s expectations of me have made me realize that other people have their own needs and aspirations and to create long-term, positive relationships with them, I need to be the building block for their goals and success.

If you want people to see you as a leader, they first have to recognize that their life will be better because they follow you. There is no better way to do that than to become a critical part in their quest for success and meaning.

Grow the Relationships You Take for Granted

Every year I have clear goals to improve and to grow my career. It seems like the natural thing to do. What’s interesting is when I reflect on my closest relationships, I don’t have the same aspirational tendency. I don’t think about growing these relationships and at best, the relationship stays where it is. The only time I pay attention is when the relationship gets strained and I spend just enough energy to get it back to the original level.

Applying the same growth mentality from my career to my personal relationships, I asked my wife, family, and others close to me what we needed to do to take our relationship to the next level. Just by having these conversations, my key relationships are beginning to thrive and grow and it’s having a positive impact on other areas of my life. When you ask people about their needs and truly listen, they often become open to sincerely understanding your needs. Another benefit to this exercise is it allows you to decide which relationships may not be worth investing in because the other person doesn’t want to engage.

To start this journey, craft the vision for your life and clarify your values. You choose the life you want to have and the key idea is to align your actions to bringing to life your vision. Stay attuned to how you’re tracking to your vision and continue iterating with experiments to find overlap in the different circles of your life.

If you would like to dive in deeper, check out Stew’s Total Leadership book, which outlines the exercises in his process. You can also take the Coursera version of the course.

Photo by Brooke Lark

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His practical and authentic lessons show why Ken is one of the most successful and respected CEOs of our time. As you read his insights below, you’ll see that he really means it when he says, “It is a privilege, not an entitlement, to lead.” An excellent reminder for anyone who leads or aspires to lead their organization.

Be Compassionate and Decisive

Great leaders understand that it’s important to take care of their people and stay accountable to the business when they make decisions. Leaders sometimes shy away from compassion because they confuse it with being indecisive or unable to make tough decisions. Ken showed his ability to balance these two qualities as he recounted the tough decision he made to lay off 15,000 employees after the economic downturn.

He believes that in these tough situations, people don’t deserve what’s happening to them but the circumstances demand it. In these critical moments, it’s up to leaders to show that they care and to take care of their people. Despite having to make this difficult but necessary business decision, Ken displayed compassion by devoting resources to help displaced employees find new jobs and opportunities. He held his executive team responsible for employee engagement and tied their compensation to an employee satisfaction survey sent to both existing employees and those who were let go. His actions during this time were given high ratings by both these groups. Ken reminded all of us that leaders who fail to take care of the business and its people will lose their privilege to lead.

Constantly challenge the status quo

“If you’re not moving, you’re falling back”. Ken stressed the importance of being innovative and striving to become the company that will put your current company out of business. He argued that it is not just about managing competitive threats, it’s about understanding what customers want and to focus the firm on better serving those needs. His litmus test for whether a leader or company is serious about innovation – look at the organization’s actions and the size of their R&D investments.

Know and run your business well

“Stay liquid, be profitable, and selectively invest in growth.” This fundamental lesson has come up in talks from both Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson and Johnson, and Mary Barra, CEO of GM. It’s worth paying attention to and as a leader, Ken believes that it is your job to think through the consequences of your decisions. As echoed in billionaire investor Ray Dalio’s Principles, you want to have a strong sense of your reality and go beyond 1st order consequences. The ability to look at the 2nd and 3rd order impact of your decisions will help you better lead your organization and yourself.

Strive to be a better leader, not to be CEO  

Ken never aspired to be CEO when he first agreed to work for American Express until he was approached with the possibility later in his career. He just focused on adding value to the company. If you are great at what you do and ambitious, you are probably on the fast track to the top. Once you recognize that, it is easy to play it safe and be more calculated and self-focused in your approach. Avoid this tendency. Don’t be a “maintainer” – keep taking risks and focus on helping the company and those around you succeed.

It is hard to get 1) the top spot if you’re just managing what already exists and 2) people to follow you if they feel like your actions are just about you and forwarding your agenda. No one cares if you get promoted unless it helps them achieve their goals.

Place a high premium on integrity and trust

Ken values these two qualities above many others because they are the basis for forming your reputation inside and outside your company. Periodically ask yourself,

“How consistent are my words and actions?”

Your answer to this question will tell you whether you are leading your life or your life is leading you. Ken ends his talk by emphasizing that all leaders should clarify their values and know their priorities. What do you live for? What’s the inspiring vision you have for your life?

Ken’s vision for himself is to “be successful as a person who stands for something”. What’s yours?

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Warren Buffett’s timely reminder: “Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building ark does.”

The world is changing constantly and the magnitude and pace of that change is accelerating. By keeping your eyes open and observing closely, you might see what’s actually happening and even predict what might happen.

The questions to ask yourself are:

What will you do with your insight?

What are you doing now to prepare yourself for the next 2-3 years?

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At some point in your career, you will encounter uncivil situations at work.

Your colleague knowingly takes credit for your work. Your boss berates you and actively blocks your next career move. Your colleague interrupts you in a meeting or checks their email during your presentation.

No matter how others disrespect you, your response to these uncivil situations is what counts.

To preserve the peace, most people let it go and respond with silence. This may work in the short-term but if the issue persists, silence often shifts to violence in the form of passive-aggressive behavior, disengagement or in some cases, real violence.

To be take back control of a situation that seems out of your control, consider the 5 C’s:

Clarity

Get a clear and accurate picture of what is actually happening. What assumptions are you making about the situation and the other person’s behavior?

What you might perceive as being unreasonable or unfair may be legitimate and justified from the other person’s point of view.

For example, if your co-worker jumps in during your presentation at work. You may perceive that action as taking credit for your work while your colleague thought she was jumping in to help you out because you seemed to be struggling.

The best way to challenge your assumptions is to ask the other person why they did what they did. It’s important to keep a neutral tone when you ask as opposed to using an accusatory one. To help you stay neutral, give the other person the benefit of the doubt first.

Contribution

Many times, other people’s actions are a response to your actions.

Look closely at your actions and see if they might be misperceived. A good question to ask yourself,

“Why would a rational, good person do

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Photo by hobvlas sudonelghm

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… ignore them.

(especially if they have not achieved success by your definition of success and if you know this is what you want to do.  If you’re not sure of what you want, go here.)

Now if people are telling you to quit, great news, you’re not alone. Here is a running list of successful people who were told they wouldn’t make it either:

• Walt Disney, Animator and Founder of Disney
  • Former employer thought “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.“
• Oprah Winfrey, Talkshow Host
  • Fired as a tv reporter because she was “unfit for TV“
• Fred Astaire, Actor and Dancer
  • Testing director at MGM – “Can’t act. Can’t sing. Slightly bald. Can dance a little.”
• Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
  • Business partners didn’t think Americans would pay for lattes and cappuccinos
• JK Rowlings, Writer (Harry Potter Series)
  • Rejected by 12 different publishers and told “not to quit her day job.“
• Elvis Presley, Singer – “King of Pop”
  • Told by the manager at Grand Ole Opry -“You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck.“
• Sidney Poitier, Oscar-winning Actor
  • Casting director – “Why don’t you stop wasting people’s time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?”
• Stephen King, Writer
  • 30 rejections for Carrie, the book that launched his career
• Vincent Van Gogh, Painter
  • Sold only one painting during his lifetime
• Colonel Sanders, Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
  • Recipe rejected 1009 times
• Beatles, Music Band
  • Record executive -“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out“; “They have no future in show business.“
• F. Scott Fitzgerald, Writer
  • Book review headline for The Great Gatsby -“Fitzgerald’s Latest A Dud.“
• Michael Jordan, Basketball Player
  • Didn’t make high school basketball team
• Anderon Cooper, CNN Anchor
  • From previous colleagues in TV – “You’ll never be on air.“; “You’ll never be hired as a correspondent here.“
  • “Okay, so you are working for this little show that’s seen in high schools, but you’ll never get a job at a network”
• Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair
  • From a former boss – “Look, everyone really likes you, and you’re a wonderful person, but you’ll never make it in the magazine business. Maybe you should think about going into ad sales?”
• Arianna Huffington, Founder of Huffington Post
  • Skeptics – “A millionaire socialite who didn’t get the web.“; “this is simply unsurvivable.“
• Thomas Edison, Inventor
  • His teacher – “too stupid to learn anything.“
• Frank Geary, Architect
  • From a former architecture professor – “You will never make it in this field. Get out now or you’re just going to waste a lot of time.”
• Amy Tan, Writer
  • Her former business partner – “You’ll never make a dime writing.“
• Fred Smith, Founder of FedEx (shipping company)
  • His professor on his idea of reliable overnight shipping – “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.“
• Dr. Judah Folkman, Cancer Research Pioneer
  • His fellow scientists on his research – “You’re studying dirt.“

Others who have been told they wouldn’t make it (without naysayer quotes):

• Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin
• Bruce Springsteen, Singer – “The Boss”
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bodybuilder, Actor, Politician
• Maxine Clark, Founder of “Build-A-Bear”
• Sara Blakely, Founder of Spanx
• John Paul Dejoria, Founder of John Paul Mitchell and Patron Spirits
• WD-40 – took 40 tries to perfect the formula.

“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there will always be someone to tell you that you are wrong.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspired by individual biographies, articles and Getting There: A Book of Mentors by Gillian Zoe Segal.

Bonus: And if you end up failing …

Source: OnlineMBAToday.com

Photo by hobvias sudoneighm

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“You have to be more visible.”

If you’re an introvert, you might have heard these two pieces of feedback before. And if you’re a high performer, they can be especially irksome. Speaking up just isn’t something you do. But be that as it may, failing to make your voice heard at pivotal moments might be hurting your career.

Most high-performing introverts tend to have good reasons for staying quiet during meetings and other situations where sharing their views would be helpful. In those cases, it first helps to figure out which of your assumptions are preventing you from contributing to the discussion.

Here are three of the most common reasons, and how to overcome them:

“I want to be respectful.”

Good intention: When you’re invited to a senior-level meeting, chances are you’re one of the more junior employees in the room. Your natural tendency might be to defer to those more senior to you and soak in the conversation since it’s not your place to talk. This deferential inclination is especially strong for individuals raised in cultures that respect and value hierarchy.

Unintended impact: Your deference causes you to become invisible in the meeting. When no one knows you, they don’t know what you can do and will not think of you come promotion time. After you reach a certain level, the number of senior executives who know you and have a good impression of you will directly correlate with your career success.

Practical Fix: Prepare to say something at the meeting. One senior executive shared with me that for every meeting he goes to, he’ll ask the person who invited him the following questions: who is going to be there, why has he been invited and what will we be discussing? He then takes time to prepare how he’ll add value to the conversation.

Understand that you can share your viewpoints and still be respectful. As long as you can contribute something substantive without overstepping your bounds or reaching beyond your knowledge base, you’ll be fine. For every meeting, strive to say at least one thing – you can ask a question, play back what you’ve heard or comment on what’s being said.

“I have nothing else to add.”

Good intention: Everything that needs to be said has already been shared. You hate it when others waste time saying nothing in meetings, so you refrain from talking for the sake of talking. If you’re a good listener and have a tendency to let others speak first, or if you’re on a team with a few dominant personalities, you’ll most likely fall into this category.

Unintended impact: Imagine seeing yourself from another attendee’s perspective. Even if you have the best ideas, someone who doesn’t know you will reasonably assume you don’t have any ideas as long as you don’t share them. Worse, you might be perceived as someone who doesn’t care. Neither one of these misperceptions will help you in your career, and it’s up to you to set them straight.

Practical Fix: Speak up earlier. If you wait until the end of the meeting, chances are someone else will already have shared your idea. Make it your goal to be one of the first two people to speak in the meeting. You might also want to observe those who speak up first, and note what they say and how they say it.

“I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”

Good intention: You don’t want to appear incompetent in front of people who will judge you and have a say in your career. If you’re with a client, you may not want to say anything to jeopardize the deal or damage the relationship. Why not let your more senior and experienced colleagues handle it? Isn’t that why they are there in the first place?

Unintended impact: Your client sees you as the scribe or assistant and you never build the working relationship you need to get to the next level. For internal meetings, your boss thinks you don’t have a mind of your own and sees you more as an order-taker than an influencer.

Practical Fix: Before the meeting, ask your more senior colleagues what they want you to cover and how they want you to participate. This will help you decide when you can jump in during the meeting. You might also ask your senior colleagues to help pull you into the conversation for certain topics.

During the meeting, for every question that’s asked, come up with you answer silently and compare it to what your more senior colleagues are saying. As your answers begin to consistently align with what you hear, you’ll gain the confidence to speak up knowing that your responses will be on the right track.

Being invited to a senior-level meeting or a high stakes pitch are rare windows of opportunity showcase yourself. Don’t waste it. Prepare diligently for the meeting and be clear on the value you can add to the conversation. When you do share your views, make sure it’s concise, articulate and focused on the topic at hand. There is nothing more annoying than to hear someone trying to impress others or prove how smart or how hard-working they are.

Speaking up effectively is a delicate balance. If you don’t talk, no one knows you. If you talk too much, people begin to wonder, “Who do you think you are?”

To fine tune this balance, get feedback after a meeting wraps up. If your manager or mentor will be there, share with them beforehand that you’re working on speaking up and ask them to give you specific feedback and feedforward (suggestions for improvement) after. They’ll let you know if you need to speak up even more, or if you’re going overboard.

When it’s between speaking up or staying quiet, your habit will be to let others talk. Consciously take the risk to speak up whenever you can – the upside is tremendous and the downside is fairly limited.

Original version first published by Fast Company.

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