How to make your team talk

One recurrent theme discussed during coaching sessions with my clients is about being heard when the room is full of assertive people, and you are more on the quiet side. Or, as put together by managers - how to make everyone contribute during team meeting. There is plenty of literature on the subject of effective communication, so I have curated two pragmatic resources:

💡for quiet people: an HBR podcast with Jessica Chen, author of the book Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons. She speaks about some nice and simple tools and how to put your celery self-talk aside and bring up your mushroom self-talk (and now I have your attention😀) What to Do When You’re Overlooked (hbr.org)

💡for people managing quiet people: the Kantor model, or how to have great communication dynamics during team meeting. We don’t need only Movers, the ones with ideas, we also need people who challenge (Opposer), people who share observations (Bystander) and people who facilitate collaboration (Follower). Kantor's 4-Player Model | Improve Your Team Meetings | Increase Psychological Safety (youtube.com). By clarifying this with the team, managers can relieve the pressure and make everyone safe to contribute in their own way.