Speaking up confidently in meetings with Susan Heaton-Wright

Confident Conversations

Confident Conversations is a weekly podcast show for ambitious women about confidently balancing work and life, hosted by me, Sherry Bevan, Author, Coach & Speaker. A former Global Head of IT Service for a City law firm, I now work with ambitious women to help them get clear on the career they really want then find the confidence to do it.

How to speak up confidently in meetings - Episode 007

This week's episode is about speaking up with confidence in meetings.

I’m talking to Susan Heaton-Wright from Executive Voice. Susan helps people get heard in meetings, presentations or public speaking. I originally interviewed Susan for my first online conference in 2015. There's a whole chapter in my book based on that interview about how to project confidence through your voice and presence.

Today we are talking specifically about how to speak up confidently in meetings without being pushy. This is for you if you worry about speaking up in meetings because you don't want to be laughed at or be ignored. Or your voice doesn't get heard.

Many of the women that I work with tell me that they presented a great idea, for it to fall on deaf ears. Ten minutes later, somebody else presents that very same idea and everybody loves it. Susan shares her secrets on how to avoid that happening ever again.

We also talk about:

• The common worries that we have about speaking up at meetings
• How to project confidence through our voice even when we don’t feel it inside
• How to sit at the table
• The importance of the non-verbal communication
• How to 'take up space' in meetings so that your presence is noticed
• One story I hear all the time “I made this great suggestion and it fell on deaf ears. Two weeks later, the same idea was presented by a man, and suddenly everybody loved it”. Can we fix that?
• Susan's respect and admiration for Betty Boothroyd, first female Speaker in the House of Commons
• How to prepare for a meeting

GUEST: Susan Heaton-Wright HOSTED BY: Sherry Bevan

Mentioned on the show

Susan's website: www.ExecutiveVoice.co.ukSusan on LinkedIn: Susan Heaton-WrightBetty Boothroyd clip: "Order, Order" Sheryl Sandberg's book: Lean InSherry's Women's Confident Leadership programme: get in touch to find out more

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