Let your voice enter the room

Career · Little Light original

You may have learned to make your ideas smaller before anyone else could dismiss them. To begin with an apology. To offer your strongest observation as a question you already sound prepared to withdraw. Those habits can feel like protection, especially in rooms where you have had to work harder to be taken seriously. Try letting one well-considered sentence stand at its full size. Prepare your reasons. Say what you see. Leave space for a response without supplying your own rejection first. You can be open to correction and still speak as someone whose contribution belongs in the conversation. Being heard also depends on the people and systems around you; it should not all rest on your courage. But where you have room to practise, give your voice a fair introduction. The idea you keep softening may be the one the work needs.

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