Lenny Rachitsky refered in his podcast to an article of his guest Deborah Liu. It was about how ambiverts (people inbetween extraverts and introverts) can become more vocal. Below is my take on this subject.
People that have the skill to react quickly, think fast and speak fluently are usually considered as more clever than colleagues that are silent or don’t speak fluent English or simply need some more time to grasp the information. Often when such people have found a way to formulate their thoughts, the meeting has already moved on to the next topic. Colleagues usually rate the quality of work of the “vocal and quick” ones higher than the quality of work of the “quiet” ones. This way of judging is obviously not fair since the quality of their work is not necessarily higher, but it is hard to change this perception.
What I learnt from this article and from my own experience:
- Acknowledge that it is important to make yourself heard. On the long term the silent colleagues will be skipped in decisions, discussions and perhaps even promotions
- Find ways to start becoming less silent. This does not mean you just need to start talking purely to prove that you are present. No, you can become more vocal by preparing meetings better.
- Pick one meeting and promise yourself to speak up a certain amount of times (start with one time)
- Prepare in advance what you would like to share. (You can even write it out and read it loud in case of an online meeting).
- Make sure you feel comfortable with the topic. You are the expert.
- Make notes during the meeting about things you want to get back to later. You can always tell your colleagues that you want to take a step back to the previous topic, whenever you have ordered your thoughts.
- Start doing this more times in a meeting and start doing this in more meetings.
That you are more vocal, will benefit yourself, your colleagues and the whole product because perspectives of extraverts are different from perspectives of introverts/ambiverts.