5 Tips for Having Your Voice Heard in a Large Organization  

One of the most challenging and yet most rewarding aspects of being part of an extended organization is making an impact. The larger the organization, the harder it is to have your voice heard, but the bigger the impact you’ll have due to the size and scale of the organization. Certainly, as professionals, we all long for validation of our skills and contributions. We feed on seeing results and being rewarded for our efforts. Who doesn’t want to be recognized for having had a point of view, being able to channel that view through a team and influence those around us to effectively deliver against that vision?

Having worked in pretty much every work environment from private equity to public, start-up to large corporation, one question impacts high achieving employees more than others—how do you get your point across, gain respect and have a louder share of voice?

Some employees seek to blend in, tow-the-line and just get by; others want to stand out, make waves, and challenge the status quo; and some figure out how to do both. They are the employees who figure out the culture, personalities, and company needs and how to align all of those with their desired position to affect change or contribute to gradual evolution.

After nearly thirty years in the corporate world, I have failed for all of the right reasons.  I have learned that being right and being effective are not necessarily the same thing, but once you learn how to do both at the same time, you can achieve great growth as a professional. Here are some tips to save you from some painful learning curves that can derail you as you climb the proverbial ladder.

Listen – and Listen for a while 

Simple right? Not really. Type A people want to hit the ground running, make an quick impact, and show everyone that the company hired the best person possible. These people want to exercise their knowledge and showcase their skills by identifying opportunities immediately. This rarely works. Even in the most chaotic and deemed backwards environments, there are almost always reasons why a culture has emerged. Indeed, I was in a company that did not believe in sharing data—seriously. I was dumbfounded—how can anyone run a business when no one knows how he or she is doing? After bucking the system, I was finally told that the founders wanted everyone to just do their job and do it to the very best of their ability. They did not want them to worry about selling one more item or pushing a new product or influencing customers to do anything they did not want to do. The founders said that if they do their job and if everyone does his or her job, the business and results will fall into place. That made sense.

There really are no new ideas

Sure, we all have those moments in our careers where we think we have come up with the one thing that no one ever thought of doing before. We think, “How could they have missed this?” We make proposals, proclamations, and pitches to elevate our new wheel. We claim that this “new” idea will change everything and deliver the results we have all been waiting for, all because we figured it out. Then you find out that, after patenting your mental invention, the company has already done your idea, perhaps in years past, perhaps in a different division, perhaps in a totally different capacity than you are recommending, but, rest assured, it has been tried and, most likely, failed or, worse, would not really be executed because of systems or logic you failed to uncover. This is not to say that you should not look to elevate newness and think more through the lens of innovation, but when you do, make sure you have your glasses on, make sure you ask a lot of questions, partner with different people in the organization and find a different way to execute an old idea. Sometimes the reason why no one invented a new wheel is because the current model still works just fine.

Don’t Interrupt

Sounds like simple manners, right? Many a time I have interjected to make a point, be heard at the right time, or just validate/expand/contribute to a thought process in a meeting. I can tell you, though, that nothing aggravates certain personalities more than being interrupted. You can identify these types by their language style. They refuse to let go of their sentence or pause. If they are interrupted, they will immediately look for an opening and pick up their sentence exactly at the word they left it off prior to the interruption. In order to make a point, you have to acknowledge the last person’s point and find a transitional way to introduce yours. Otherwise you will come across as dismissive and unaligned, whether that is your intention or not. Here’s an example:

• Boss: We need to find a way to elevate sales by driving higher retail values. I want us to come up with a plan that communicates, measures, and delivers against this initiative.
• You: I think we need to focus on increasing units over higher pricing models. Blah, blah…
• Not you: I really like the challenge of getting more revenue through more aggressive pricing models, and perhaps we can even build upon that by finding more lower-priced items to add to the assortment that will allow us to build on units as well.

Who do you think was heard?

Ask Questions. Don’t Make Statements

Even if you are right, nobody likes a know-it-all. Speaking in proclamations can undermine those who have contrary points of view. Instead of saying, “We should do this…,” even if it is a genius thought, will not be nearly as effective as saying, “Have we considered doing something that will achieve both of the objectives elevated today? Perhaps we can look at this slightly differently, such as….” I have many real-life examples in which I used statements to make my points. In nearly every case I was met with challenges and negative reactions, not because I was not 100% correct in my assessment, but because I made others look bad by mandating what needs to happen and by not explaining it and influencing the team to share the vision with me.

Take People with You; Don’t Leave Them Behind

Glory seems sweeter when you cross the finish line alone, but the corporate world is a team sport. Your coworkers will not cheer you on if they are on the sidelines and not on your side. Yes, you want the primary credit for delivering stellar results, but recognizing those around you will make you shine brighter. The truth is no one can succeed in a company without the input of many others. Whether it is IT or Creative, Analysts or Data folks, you will need the collective team to deliver your vision. Spending time with a key resource in each area, sharing the vision, collecting their thoughts and incorporating them into the plan will enlist them onto your team without even asking. Sharing the victory with them will also set you up for future alignment as they look to you to help lead them into more successes.

Fitting into companies would be a lot easier if each of us had a mentor at the start of our careers or if our universities had leadership coaching incorporated into the curriculum, but not everyone is that fortunate; many of us have to learn through experience. That experience will encounter failures, derailments, obstacles and frustrations. If, however, we see these moments as learning moments and we pay attention to the signals along our career journeys, we can start to anticipate how to navigate better. We can avoid pitfalls and look to build bridges. We can stop trying to change others and look to change ourselves. Success can be fleeting, but if you go about it right, it can be replicated over and over.