Member-only story
How to Politely Interject During a Meeting
Picture it…
You’re in a meeting with a few colleagues and your boss, discussing a project you’re heavily involved with. Although you have thoughts to share, you’re silent.
Dialogue ping-pongs between your manager and co-workers. You can’t get a word in edgewise.
It’s a reoccurring obstacle, you cannot seem to get a handle on how to master the polite interject during a meeting.
You wait for the moment when it feels appropriate to butt in, but the moment never comes. The meeting has ended before you know it and you barely said a word. You log off feeling defeated and frustrated with yourself.
Sound familiar?
This happened to my client, Heidi, a marketing director at a sports company. Heidi was accomplished and considered a subject matter expert in analytics. Despite her expertise, Heidi frequently overthought her contributions. She placed a high expectation on herself to share value — and that perfectionism often held her back from speaking at all.
Add to that the fact that Heidi was also exceedingly courteous and kind. She never wanted to be pushy, rude, or dominate the conversation. While her intentions were good, these tendencies lead Heidi…
