 It is scary to disagree with someone more powerful than you at work. Learning how to disagree without offending, without being disrespectful, while still presenting your viewpoint clearly and confidently is huge. People more powerful than you value your opinion when you provide it in the right way. They need your feedback, ideas and solutions to get better results. Better results help their team and them. Learning leadership potential is challenging the status quo, it's demonstrating independent thinking and the courage to voice your opinions and ideas. Learning ways to respectfully disagree at work is vital for your career progression and your ability to increase the value you create at work. To help you learn how to disagree with someone more powerful than you without negative repercussions we are covering. Firstly, how to decide when to disagree. Secondly, seven steps to follow to disagree with someone more powerful. And third, four communication actions when voicing your disagreement. Use each of these steps and actions and you will build your confidence and success in how to have a respectful disagreement with your boss or colleagues without causing upset. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here in Hearts.Training shares people management expertise, resources and courses teaching you how to build high performing teams. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as the video timestamps so do take a look at these. And if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. There are times you should absolutely speak up when you disagree and there are other times when speaking up even when you strongly disagree is definitely not sensible. How to decide when to disagree is a very valuable skill. Use these five thought processes to help you decide when you should voice your disagreement and when to stay quiet. Firstly, think about the impact on the team or business of changing the idea, action or plan currently being discussed. If the impact is big in terms of performance, team culture, direction or goals and you disagree then voicing your disagreement is likely to be worth the personal risk of doing so. If the impact is small then staying quiet is probably the best option. Secondly make sure there are clear business reasons why you disagree with your boss or colleagues. For instance, if you think taking action will improve the outcome then speak up and tell your boss why you disagree with what they're proposing. If you want to disagree because you personally don't like the action or you don't like your boss or are annoyed by them etc. you should absolutely stay quiet. Thirdly always consider the company culture and the person you might be disagreeing with. What is considered okay and what is not? How good is your relationship with the person? What levels of trust have you developed? How are they likely to react? These all influence when you might disagree, how strongly you will disagree and how far you'll push to get change and how you go about disagreeing with them. Assess the personal risk of disagreeing compared to the benefit gained for the team in the business. Fourth, consider the risk of not saying something. What will happen in the future if you don't disagree now? If you can see big flaws of the plan and you don't say anything well the fact that you could have stopped these issues occurring come back to bite you. Always consider the risk of not disagreeing and compare it with the risk of voicing or disagreement. And fifth, when deciding whether to disagree respectfully at work find out what others think and feel. Do they agree with your view but are too scared to disagree with someone more powerful than them? Or do they genuinely support what is being proposed? The more people with similar views to yourself the lower the risk of disagreeing with your boss or disagreeing with someone more powerful than you. There you have five thought processes to go through to help you decide if you should disagree or stay quiet. When you've decided to disagree respectfully then what should you do to disagree without offending? I have seven steps to follow to disagree with someone more powerful than you. I've used these steps regularly and have used them successfully for many years when disagreeing with those more powerful than me. Firstly, try to get agreement about the most acceptable way to disagree with the person more powerful than you. You know, state, there'll be times I'll disagree with you. How would you want me to raise these disagreements with you? This step checks if they're happy for you to disagree with them and effectively gets their permission for you to disagree if you follow their guidelines. As a general point, it is always much safer to disagree with someone more powerful than you in private rather than publicly. You know, for example, in a meeting. This is less threatening, reduces undermining and the confrontational aspect of disagreeing with them. Secondly, when you want to disagree with the idea, action or plan, ask permission to disagree. Yet ask, I have a different viewpoint. Would you mind me sharing it with you? Or something similar? Ask in permission gives them power, reduces the threat posed and puts them in a listening mode. The third step when disagreeing is to restate their original idea, action or plan, even if it's in a summary format. Taking the step demonstrates that you have understood and considered their perspective. It is good to reiterate the plus points or the parts that you agree with. Fourth, explain the purpose of your disagreement with them. You know, connect your disagreement to shared goals such as reaching team targets or overcoming a pressing business challenge. By stating why you're disagreeing, you reconfirm the business reasons behind the action. This step demonstrates your focus on indirectly helping the person that you're disagreeing with and quashes fears of a personal motive behind the disagreement. Fifth, when disagreeing, present a reasoned argument backed with examples, insights and facts. Yet everyone has an opinion. If you're taking the risk to disagree with someone more powerful than you, make sure you have a clear reasoned argument with strong business benefits. This demonstrates your professionalism and competence as well as increasing the chances they will listen and change their mind. Sixth, after presenting your agreement, invite their input and feedback. This is a great step as it gives them power, demonstrates you value their input and you respect their greater authority. Listen carefully to what they say. You then have to decide how to respond. Don't reverse your disagreement at the first sign of resistance to change. Do work towards a sensible compromise where this serves the team and the business. The seventh and final step when voicing your disagreement is clearly acknowledging their position of power. You have statements like, that is my view, but the final decision is yours. Or, at the end of the day, it is your choice of decision. Are great ways to confirm you respect them and their position. So there you have seven steps to disagree with your colleagues or boss. As always, flex each of these steps to the person and the situation you're faced with when you want to disagree with someone more powerful than you. Remember, stating your disagreement in the right way is very valuable for the team and business. Positive conflict, handled in the right way, often leads to better solutions and outcomes. Plus, you need to practice voicing your opinion, ideas and solutions to stand out from the crowd and progress your career. Knowing the steps to follow is vital when disagreeing respectfully at work with colleagues or those more powerful than you. Just as important is how you manage yourself when communicating your disagreement. Use these four important communication actions when voicing your disagreement. Firstly, when disagreeing, get yourself mentally in a positive space before you voice your disagreement. To be effective when disagreeing, you need to be confident and express your conviction in what you're saying. If you don't believe, then why should anyone else believe? Alongside confidence, display humbleness and calmness. Both will help you minimize negative reactions in the other person. A great way to do both is to mentally keep in mind their position, your respect for them and the value you'll be adding to the solution, action or plan by voicing your concerns, ideas and perspective. When disagreeing, don't think in terms of your approach being the best. Think in terms of your approach being a valuable approach, one that might save time, money, resources, et cetera for the team and company. Keep yourself mentally humble and calm and being clear about why you're speaking up and disagreeing to maintain your confidence. Secondly, when disagreeing, to minimize negative reactions and maximize the chances the other person will listen to you, pay attention to your tone of voice, pace of voice and your body language. You want to keep your non-verbal communication respectful and neutral. You cannot afford to be aggressive, angry, overly excited, negative or overly emotional when communicating. You remain calm, considered and diplomatic in how you communicate and you'll encourage the same emotions and responses in the other person. Thirdly, when disagreeing, the words you choose when communicating or disagreement are really important. Do not trash their ideas or solutions. Do not criticize or speak negatively of what they are supporting. Rather than say, you know, I don't think it's going to work, use, I think doing X, Y and Z should increase the chances of a better outcome. Use positive phrasing. Keep your language factual and evidence-based where you can. Don't use adjectives or keep your use of them down. You don't state, I have an amazing idea. Say, taking X steps should work better because, and boom, boom, boom, you go on to explain it. Aim to keep the words and phrases you use neutral. Fourth, when disagreeing, show your respect for the other person and what they offer. Acknowledge the merits of their idea, action or plan. You can list them and then say, and to further build on your solution, we could add, and then go on to explain those points. Or, to make your solution even better, what about doing and go on to explain? It is rare that those more powerful than you, like your boss, will put forward rubbish ideas, suggestions or plans. Acknowledge the good points while disagreeing with the weaker points. Always approach with the aim of helping them improve the outcome. How you disagree with someone more powerful than you at work is really important. The more respectful, diplomatic and skilled you are, when you do disagree, the more you'll be able to disagree without negative repercussions. In summary, it is scary to disagree with someone more powerful than you at work. How to disagree with your boss in the right situations creates a lot of value for the business and demonstrates your leadership abilities. Disagreeing with others can be perceived as a challenge, as undermining or as a threat. You want to avoid all of these responses through the steps that you take while disagreeing and through how you communicate your disagreements. To recap, to disagree with someone more powerful without negative repercussions, we have been through. Firstly, how to decide when to disagree. Secondly, seven steps to follow to disagree with someone more powerful. Third, four communication actions when voicing your disagreements. If you have any questions on how to disagree with someone more powerful, seven steps to respectfully disagree, please leave them in the comment section below and I will get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.