Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajiving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul fella Aledo. Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode four twelve. Let's set the stage. You're in a meeting. Maybe it's with your executive team,
your department leads, or a project task force. The usual voices dominate, the power players, the ones with titles, influence, and confidence, and you You're not one of them yet, so you sit there, unsure when to speak or if you even should. I'm here to tell you, yes, you should, and I'm going to give you real tactical ways to control to meetings even when you're not the loudest or most powerful person in the room. This episode is for anyone who's ever felt invisible at the table, or worse
like your silence is mistaken for apathy. Let's talk about how to make your minutes matter. Number one, Preparation beats position. Before you even walk into the meeting, do your homework, read the agenda, know what's being discussed. Then do this simple trick write down one thoughtful question one data point, and one insight. You can contribute to each topic. Why
because contribution doesn't require charisma, it requires context. And when you come prepared with a fact or a fresh perspective, you instantly elevate yourself from participant to value ad power players bring You bring preparation, and trust me, preparation gets noticed. Number two, ask anchor questions. If you're worried about overstepping, focus on asking smart questions, not vague ones, not just curious questions. I'm talking about anchor questions, questions that help
center the conversation or uncover what's being missed. Here's a few examples. What's the biggest risk if we don't act on this, or how does this decision impact our frontline team? Or has anyone looked at this from the customer's point of view? You see what I'm doing there. You're not just speaking. You're guiding the room to deeper thinking and that earns respect. Number three be the connector another high level move. Become the connector of ideas in the room.
Let's say someone in finance presents a budget concern and someone in operations is focused on delivery timelines. If you chime in with something like it sounds like we're wrestling with how to protect delivery speed without blowing the budget. Could we map that out visually. You've just elevated the conversation. You don't need to be the originator of the idea. Being the one who sees the bigger picture is just as valuable. Number four. Use the plus one technique. This
one is a classic. Let's say a senior leader makes a great point and you genuinely agree. Instead of staying quiet, jump in with a plus one and ad a layer. And the example is I completely agree with what Mark said about customer response time. One thing I'd add from my experience last week on the help desk, clients don't just want fast answers, they want context. Maybe we could build a quick reference guide for the team. Now you've done two things. You've validated a power player and you've
brought ground level intel to support the strategy. And that's the sweet spot. Number five. Don't talk just to talk. Let's be honest. Some people speak in meetings just to hear themselves. Don't do that. Silence can be powerful when it's intentional, but silence because of fear, that's a missed opportunity. If you only speak once in a meeting, make it count. One well timed insight question or bridge between two ideas can have more impact than someone rambling for ten minutes.
Meetings are not measured in minutes spoken, They're measured in value delivered. Number six. Follow up is the secret sauce. Here's the move that most people forget. Follow up after the meeting. If you had an idea that didn't get airtime or something clicked in your head after the meeting ended, send a quick follow up email something like, Hey, I was thinking more about the discussion around onboarding. I had
an idea I didn't get a chance to share. What if we ran a two week mentor shadowing rotation boom? You just stayed in the conversation after the conversation and guess what, leaders notice who's still thinking after the meeting ends. So if you're not a power player at the table yet, it doesn't mean you're powerless. Titles don't equal influence. Contribution equals influence. So prepare like it matters, Speak when it counts, ask anchor questions, connect the dots, add value, and follow up.
You don't need to be the loudest in the room to be the most respected. You just need to show that when you speak, it's worth hearing. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast, and I thank you for listening. For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com