Participate.

Prepare: Consider the meeting agenda and your opinions. Practice articulating your thoughts in advance, so you’ll feel more fluent in the moment.

Align: Coordinate with others in the meeting who may have similar opinions or concerns, so you can back each other up. It looks like this: “Jackie and I were talking prior to the meeting, and she had a few good points around this topic I would like her to share…”

Signal: Signal that you are ready to speak. Here you may consider leaning in, making eye contact with the speaker or meeting organizer, or calling them by name.

Speak: Get in there! Here are a few options:

• Piggy backing: “I agree with what Sam said, but I would add…”
• Clarifying/Rephrasing: “If I understand you correctly, you are saying… if so, we need to look closely at…”
• Questioning: “Did you review the interview data? Because my conclusion after reading through that was very different.” Here, the question is basically rhetorical in order to direct conversation back to your suggestion.