5 Reasons why speaking up in meetings is the secret to getting women promoted

I used to think that if I worked hard enough, delivered results, and stayed reliable, then the right people would notice. And sometimes they did, but the biggest opportunities in my career came after I started speaking up in meetings, especially in high-stakes conversations where decisions were being made. That changed everything for me. So if you've ever walked out of a meeting thinking, "I should have said something," then this episode is definitely for you.

Because let's face it, right, women getting promoted are not always the smartest people in the room. They're usually the people whose thinking is visible. And today, I wanna talk to you about why speaking up in meetings changes the way leadership sees you, and why it matters far more than most women realize. Speaking up in meetings used to feel impossible for me.

Not uncomfortable, but impossible. So for years, I sat in rooms convinced that someone else was more qualified than me, much more experienced, far more intelligent, and more senior. You get the message, but basically, I always thought that they were much more entitled to speak than I was. That voice inside my head was just relentless.

"You're not a leader. You don't know enough. Don't say something stupid, for goodness sake. Just keep your mouth shut."

So I did. I stayed silent. I sat on the sidelines and watched while other people contributed in rooms where I had just as much right to be heard and just as much to say. And what's interesting with this is that externally, nobody would have guessed because they would not have thought that I lacked in confidence.

I worked in corporate training at the time. I was coaching senior leaders myself. I was facilitating conversations. But internally, I still didn't see myself as someone whose voice carried weight, until eventually I realized something, and that changed everything for me I realized that that voice was lying That shift didn't come from working harder.

It didn't come from collecting more qualifications, doing more courses. It didn't come from waiting until I finally felt confident enough. It came from changing how I showed up and how I communicated. And once I understood that, everything changed.

And that's one of the reasons I eventually left corporate training to build my own coaching business, focusing on leadership communication for women, because most leadership development programs completely ignore this conversation. They teach strategy, they fr- teach tools and frameworks, they teach management models, but they rarely teach women how to communicate at senior level in a way that builds visibility, trust, and influence. And now that I've seen this firsthand, I know what happens when women learn this skill I've supported clients through massive career transitions, including one of my clients who's a supply chain manager who overcame years of imposter syndrome, holding herself back so that she stepped into a director-level role.

And it wasn't that she suddenly became a different person, and she didn't suddenly become more capable overnight. She always was. It was, um... What was different is because she finally started communicating like someone who already belonged in the room.

So today, I want to walk you through five reasons why speaking up in meetings is one of the biggest hidden factors behind women getting promoted. And just before we dive in, if this conversation resonates with you, then make sure you follow the podcast so that you don't miss future episodes of Leadership Communication in Action as well. Um, we've got episodes coming up on leadership communication, executive presence, and career progression for women. All right, let's get into it then.

Point number one then, the first reason is that visibility adds value. So here's the thing that most women underestimate. Your work doesn't speak for itself if nobody hears your thinking. So I know that phrase gets th- thrown around, a lot by people, "Just let your work speak for itself."

But in senior leadership environments, visibility matters, and I'm sure you get told that as well, because promotions are rarely based on purely on output alone. They're based on perception. Leaders are constantly asking themselves questions like, "Who do I trust? Who contributes?

Who influences the room? Who sounds commercially aware, and who can represent the business?" And it's all down to trust. And if you're consistently silent, people don't automatically fill in the gaps for themselves.

They're not automatically gonna have a positive perception of you, and that's the hard truth, I'm afraid. So speaking up really does create visibility around your capability, and it's not in a false way or a performative way. It's in a Not in a, I'm dominating the meeting and trying to be somebody that you're not, but in a way that allows people to really experience your thinking and your ideas in real time. So remember that visibility adds value.

So that's my first point. The second point I wanna share with you is that speaking up shows strategic thinking, and this one is huge 'cause I work with women all the time that say that, their leaders want them to be more strategic in their thinking, and they're not really sure what that means. A lot of women think speaking in meetings is about confidence, but actually it's about demonstrating your thought process. So senior leaders are listening for how people think.

They want to know, can you connect ideas together? Can you identify risks for the business? Are you a problem solver? Can you challenge others in those meetings in a constructive way?

And can you communicate clearly under pressure? And if you're staying silent and saying nothing, then none of that becomes visible. So you do not need to have the perfect answer. It's not about you saying things in a perfect way.

You don't need to be the smartest person in the room, but one thoughtful question could be enough to shift completely how people perceive you. And this is where I always say to all of my clients, progress over perfection every single time. Because women, and I know this myself as well from my experience, we hold ourselves back. We're waiting to sound polished.

We wanna sound certain and flawless before we contribute. But m- in the meantime, everyone else in the room is speaking imperfectly all the time. I'm sure you hear it yourself, and they're still being seen as leadership material. So it just proves, doesn't it, that it's progress over perfection.

So that's point number two. Remember that speaking up shows your strategic thinking. Point number three is silence can be misread as uncertainty. And this one stings a bit really, usually when I talk to people about it, but it is important to remember.

So silence is often interpreted incorrectly in workplace environments. There are some people that are introverts, and they can be really valuable in, in these situations in meetings. Obviously, it's important to be seen as a listener. But again, silence can be seen in the wrong way sometimes and can be misread.

So maybe you're being silent because you're thinking things through, because you're processing ideas, because you don't wanna interrupt someone and appear rude, and you're being careful, and you wanna make sure that you say something at the right time But leadership teams don't always interpret silence in that way. They don't always know what's going on inside your head. So silence can unintentionally be read as hedi- hesitation, lack of confidence, and lack of strategic input or even disengagement.

So people can be leaving the meeting thinking, "Well, she didn't say anything, so is she not interested? Does she not have anything to say? Do we really need her on this team?" So they're reading that in the wrong way, and I've coached so many women who say, "But I know what I'm talking about.

I'm capable. I'm perfectly entitled to be in that room." And I believe them. But the problem is leadership perception is shaped by what people can see and hear, not by what you privately know inside your head.

And once women understand this, everything starts to shift because speaking up is not about becoming louder, it's about becoming visible. Let's move on to point number four then. Speaking up builds trust with key stakeholders. So people trust what feels familiar, and that's true in leadership as well.

So the most, um, relationships are built by people trusting each other, right? Because we want to work with people when it's easy, when we know that we can rely on them. And the more consistently stakeholders hear from you, the more confidence they build in your capa- uh, capability. Not because you're talking constantly and, like, saying lots of things all the time.

It's not about that. It's because your presence becomes known in the room. So they start to see your communication style, how you communicate. They start to understand your judgment, and they start to know more about what you're thinking inside your head as well when you start speaking up.

So this is one of the reasons that executive presence matters so much. And executive presence is not about having a certain personality. It's not about pretending to be extroverted and out there and pushing yourself and being bold in every situation. It's about helping people feel confidence in your leadership through how you communicate.

And that consistency builds trust over time. And at a senior level, trust influences opportunity, and that's where your opportunities for promotion start to come in So final point then, number five. How you speak up matters. And finally, this is the part most people overlook.

When you're told that you need to be more visible and you need to speak up more, it's not just about what you're saying, but how you're saying it. So it's how you speak up in the room. Because communication at senior level is rarely about saying more, it's about saying things with clarity, authority, and intention. You can have an incredible idea, and you'll still lose impact if your delivery undermines your message.

So things like over-explaining, you know, saying too much, and apologizing unnecessarily, "Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt," um, "I'm sorry if this is the wrong time to say this." It- it's like you've got something really important to say, but you're apologizing for it. Another thing that I see is shrinking your language, so, or just, just is an example of this. "Oh, well, that's...

it's just about this" or, "I just want to make a point." No, just make the point. You don't have to shrink your language to fit in Another way of, uh, how this shows up as well in communication is trailing off at the end of your sentences, so where your voice gets quieter and quieter and quieter towards the end because you're a bit embarrassed about what you've said and not really sure in yourself. Um, another one is going up at the end of the sentence, so it's almost like you're asking a question.

So I've got something to say, but I'm not really sure if it's the right thing. Um, and also constantly softening your opinions as well. So saying them in a really soft or empathetic way instead of being confident in what it is that you have to say. And these behaviors and these ways of communicating are habits.

They're ways that we've learnt to communicate over time, and these habits shape how leadership confidence is perceived. There is some good news, though, in all of this. Communication is a skill, which means that it can be learned. You don't have to become a different person.

You don't have to change who you are, and you don't need a louder personality. You don't have to be the loudest person in the room. And please, as well, you don't need to fake confidence. All you need is to learn how to communicate in a way that reflects the capability that you already have.

And honestly, this, this is the work that I care about the most because I know what it feels like to sit quietly believing that you're not enough and wondering why you're there, wondering if anyone really cares what you've got to say. And I know what it feels like to watch other people take opportunities that you are equally capable of, get on projects that you're sat there thinking, "Oh, I'd love to be involved in that." But I also know what happens when women stop waiting for permission to be heard.

Everything changes. And so if today's episode gave you something to think about Please make sure you follow this podcast because we're gonna keep having these honest conversations about leadership communication, executive presence, career transitions, and what it really takes for women to step into senior leadership without losing themselves in the process. And if there's one thing that I want you to remember from this episode, it's this: Your voice matters long before you feel fully confident using it.