Even today, many women struggle to have their voices heard in the office.  How often have you been in a meeting where it either felt like your voice wasn’t being heard or as soon as you started talking, someone else started talking over you?  It’s frustrating and belittling.  Have you stopped even trying to speak up?

The sad thing about these experiences is that companies are potentially losing valuable ideas, potential new products, and/or ways to build morale.  The potential loss is unlimited every time a company allows the voices of any of their employees to be silenced.

I once had a manager who told a team member that she needed to wait to share her ideas because “now” wasn’t the time.  However, his suggested time would have been too late, and her idea would have been missed again.  I convinced her to not listen to our manager and to talk directly to the product manager.  Not waiting changed the course of what we did with that project, and it forged better relationships between departments. 

There was another time this same employee was told by a UI designer that she loved this employee’s idea, but she couldn’t ask the developer for another change.  I told her that I wanted to hear the no directly from the developer and not from her unwillingness to ask for another change.  The developer loved my teammate’s idea and had his team implement it.  As a friend once said, “The answer is always no if you don’t ask.”

The Wise Warrior

The Wise Warrior is everywhere.  She is waking up and seeing that the world needs to change.  She knows that the only way that it will change is if she first changes herself.  She learns to take up space and have her voice heard across the room without raising her voice.  Share in the comments how you are learning to find your voice at work or in business.