Speak up in meetings

For the next three weeks I am planning to write three posts loosely around authenticity in the workplace.  The first part is on making sure you speak up in meetings.  The second part is on being careful to realise what is and isn’t a workplace event.  In the third part I will try to draw it all together to establish the balance between authenticity and workplace reality.

This first part is informed by two specific examples from early in my career.  The first was a meeting where I regret not saying what I was thinking.  The second is when I did say what I wanted and the benefits that I got from that.

I want to start first by setting out some limitations on what I am covering.  This post does not cover speaking out when you see something that breaches your own values or the company’s values.  This is an entirely different situation, and I would direct you to your company’s whistleblowing procedures.  I am limiting this week’s post to meetings where current business, performance or future strategy are being discussed.  Within this narrow field I recommend that all interventions you make, particularly when more junior in your career, should be broadly positive ideas or solutions to tackle negative outcomes.   I don’t think that you should put your hand up in a business meeting to complain about your pay and conditions.  There are better forums to address these kinds of issues.  I believe that careers are usually built on positive ideas and fixing issues rather than complaints and negativity.

The first example was very early in my career.  In the 2000s a German Pay TV operator Kirch Media adopted the high-risk strategy of buying up expensive international rights to the Football World Cup that they intended to sell for a profit to national broadcasters.  Kirch Media didn’t really have the firepower from subscription revenue to make this plan succeed, were mired in debt and poorly managed.   When the re-sale of rights didn’t materialise they collapsed, which was the biggest corporate collapse in Germany since WWII.  The valuable parts of the company, such as the free-to-air broadcaster ProsiebenSat1, were spun off and the rest went into administration.  The company I was working for at the time had a distribution deal with Kirch.  Without giving the intricate details of German insolvency law we ended up with a time-limited put option, such that we could shift our deal from Kirch Media (currently in administration) to ProSiebenSat1 (under new ownership).  The exam question facing my company was whether to execute this put option and walk away from a significant account receivable from Kirch Media or hold firm to collect as much of our debt as possible from Kirch Media.

Apologies if that bit was over-complicated, the relevant part of the story now follows.  As a Finance Analyst who had just inherited the modelling of the insolvency, I was invited to a meeting hosted by the President of International TV at our company.  This guy had a fearsome reputation for not suffering fools.  Also in this meeting was the Head of Distribution, Head of Legal, Head of German sales, the Finance director for Distribution (my boss’s boss), and the Legal manager for Germany (who was also a friend).  Before the meeting started my friend advised me not to speak unless asked a direct question.    Well-meaning advice, but bad advice.  The President asked the most senior people what the plan was.  He wasn’t happy with their answers and pulled out a white board and proceeded to explain exactly what we should do to ensure the best outcome.  At this point I recognised the flaw in his logic and will forever kick myself for not speaking up.  His whole analysis was predicated on our ability to play one side off against the other, which is entirely reasonable.  However, it assumed that the two German entities that were previously one company were not speaking to each other and also assumed that our deal was the only business between them that needed to be resolved.  My guess was that Kirch Media and Proseiben would be negotiating their final split from each other and that in a week’s time they would call to tell us to exercise the put option.  That call came through four days later. 

Why was this a missed opportunity?  It’s not about being right, although that is helpful.  It was a fleeting opportunity to demonstrate my skillset to senior leaders.  I was anonymous in that meeting, a direct question never came my way, and although acting as the insurance policy with additional information was a valid reason to be there, I would have preferred to have made a positive contribution.  Early in your career the opportunities to showcase who you are and what you can do to senior leadership come through rarely.  My philosophy from that point forward was to jump on every opportunity that came my way.  I figured I could more easily live with myself for saying something wrong than I could for not saying what I thought.

The next opportunity was very different.  In the same company we had a change of leadership in Finance and the new boss came in before their official start-date to meet the team.  If I asked most people to describe an interview, they would probably mention the most common example during a formal job application process.  I have a slightly different take on interviews, and whereas I wouldn’t go so far to treat every day as an interview, I do think we should consider ourselves as frequently interviewing for our existing roles or for potential promotions through the work that we do and how we talk about it (even when that promotion is not currently available or advertised).  A quick clarification, I don’t mean that you should be constantly self-promoting (which would be annoying for everyone), but I do think you should do your work to the standard that demonstrates your abilities and present yourself positively to new colleagues.

Back to my anecdote.  The new boss came in to see us.  The team had been through a particularly busy and bruising time of work and was waiting to hear words of inspiration from the new boss.  The boss asked us all to introduce ourselves one-by-one, what we did and what we wanted to focus on.  I watched as my fellow colleagues introduced themselves and the department in negative tones.  One colleague and friend started off by saying “I’m just a finance analyst”, forcing the new boss to correct him and mention that the role was vital, and no one should start with the word “just”.  I wanted to shake them all, because the reality was that this was the first chance to make a positive impression and therefore it was an interview.  When it came to my turn, I took the opportunity to introduce myself, carefully explain some highlights from the work I had been doing, I discussed some departmental successes and how it was a great team to work with (which it was) and offered up the chance for improvements through working smarter and cutting out some of the unnecessary tasks.  Shortly afterwards the meeting ended, and the new boss left.  Some of my colleagues turned on me and asked me why I had been so positive.  I remember my exact words were “you know that this wasn’t another interview for our new boss, he has secured his job, it was an interview for us”.  I don’t mean this story to be some sort of humble brag, but I do want to reinforce the point that first impressions are important, and you don’t need permission make your first impression as good as it can be.  That first impression helped me secure a promotion later that year.  I felt I was ready and had earned the promotion, but having new leadership could have easily pushed this back.

To draw this altogether, I am a firm believer that if you have a good idea you should speak up.  Even if the idea is not adopted, you will be seen as someone willing to contribute and a thought leader.  Once a decision is made, it is better to support the decision rather than argue against it. This indicates how important it is to speak up when you get the opportunity and not wait for a future opportunity that may never arrive.  Secondly, treat every first impression and new opportunity as an interview, and put your best self forward.  Neither of these may feel authentic to you.  That is a fair point.  What I am suggesting is that you want to present all of your skills, knowledge and experience as authentically as you can, even if that means overcoming your own inhibitions about putting yourself forward and speaking in front of others.  Personality types play a big factor here, and whereas I am comfortable doing this, I know that many others are not.  But if you fall into this second category and feel your career is stalling, here is an example of something you could challenge yourself to do that may make the difference.  Later in your career it would be a shame to dwell on the opportunities you missed simply because people didn’t know who you were and what you could do.

Next week is part two of authenticity in the workplace.