 Managers should have opinions and express them. Employees should have opinions about their areas of expertise. Too many of us view expressing an opinion at work as a challenge, as a potentially dangerous move. Researchers found around 70% of people were afraid to speak up at work for fear of repercussions. I'm personally not surprised this number is as high as it is based on the conversations I've had with many employees, but I'm also very dismayed about it too. Please give me a few minutes to explain why speaking up is so important for you personally, for your career and for the business you work in. It is scary to risk rejection of your ideas, solutions and viewpoints. Knowing why and how to speak up at work will improve your confidence and minimise the risk of repercussions. You'll be learning firstly why having an opinion and speaking up is so important to you personally, secondly how to speak up, 4 tips for speaking up at work, third when to express your opinion at work, fourth different ways to challenge without offending and fifth listening the ideas and solutions supercharger. Speaking up at work and expressing your opinion is so important for the team you work in and the business itself. You are the expert in the area you work and so your opinion is very important. Expressing your opinion adds a lot of value to the business which in turn helps you and your career. Please give me some of your time to explain why and share how to speak up at work. My name is Jess Coles and if you're new here in HeartStalk Training shares people, management expertise, resources and courses teaching you how to build higher 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. Lastly I'll cover why having an opinion and speaking up is so important. Every business is desperate for great ideas and solutions and then for team members to implement chosen solutions successfully. Creating ideas and solutions in a business is incredibly valuable and essential for any company to survive and hopefully to thrive. You have a very valuable contribution to make, no matter your position. You will have ideas and solutions for problems that you encounter doing your job. If you don't voice your opinion at work your team and your company won't benefit from your unique perspective or get the benefit of your unique combination of skills and experiences. Your different perspective creates value for the team and company. By creating value you are increasing your chances of promotion. In my view managers should express opinions, it's part of the job. I'll cover how to have an opinion and informed considered opinion a little later. Leadership in my view is about taking risks and making change for the better happen. Anyone can lead. You have to speak up to influence, to earn respect and to improve team performance. And finally by voicing your opinion you're creating and controlling your personal brand. Your views, ideas and solutions and what you do with them all contribute. If you stay silent or don't express your opinions then you won't have a brand or others will create one for you. Speak up and get noticed, add value to your business through expressing your opinion, ideas and solutions and get promoted more quickly. I'm now going to cover how to speak up, four tips for speaking up at work. Speaking up when you're not confident to do is scary. And what if I say something wrong? What if I look silly? What if other people dismiss my opinions and ideas? Use these tips to overcome your initial nerves and builds your confidence to speak out. Firstly, do your homework. This is true whenever you're expressing your opinion at work. The more your opinion is considered and based in fact and insight, the more it will be listened to. So think about the issue, think about who you'll be speaking to and think about why this issue will matter to them. Use data and facts to back up your idea or solution. Both add more weight to your opinion and make it harder to dismiss. Secondly, be diplomatic and be considerate of others. Showing care of others will reduce barriers and encourage others to listen to you and understand your point of view. Don't try and dominate in words that you use or the body language you display. Show you are open, respectful and have considered what you are saying. Thirdly, while not being dominant, it remains important to be confident in your tone and volume of voice and in your body language. If you don't demonstrate you believe what you are saying, then why should anyone else pay attention to you? Work on getting the right balance of confidence without dominating. Fourth, frame your opinions in terms of the key objectives of the team, function or business. When your ideas align and support the direction of the team travel and achieving team goals, more people will listen and fuel object or dismiss what you say. Practice using these tips for speaking up at work and you'll gain confidence, making it easier to speak up in the future. Start creating this virtual circle today. Let's cover when to express your opinion at work. When to express your opinion at work and when to keep quiet is a tough question to answer. This is very much a judgement call depending on the situation and the people involved. When you are giving your opinion also depends how well you are aligned with the majority or the direction of discussion and the impact of not expressing your opinion. When to express your opinion at work includes, firstly, when you're asked for your opinion, be diplomatic, be humble and also be honest with what you believe. Managers should have opinions and give them when asked. Team members should work to be comfortable expressing their opinion in the areas of responsibility when asked. Secondly, when you spot a problem with an idea, solution or process, your opinion at work is super important in these situations, particularly when you think you have a better idea, solution or process or a change that will make the current one better. Thirdly, express your opinion privately with your boss, particularly when it opposes your boss's view. You never want to embarrass your boss or make them look silly. A great, safe way to challenge at work is by asking leading questions and let your boss discover the issue. An example might be, what would happen if XXX occurred? How would that impact the solution you outlined? Managers should have opinions on all their areas of responsibility and use their influence positively for the benefit of their team and the wider business. Fourth, managers should express opinions and meetings and encourage everyone attending the meeting to express their opinions honestly too. If you're being invited to a meeting, contributing to that meeting is important. For managers, even more important is creating a safe, relaxed atmosphere in which attendees are comfortable expressing their opinions knowing there will not be any negative repercussions. Challenging ideas, solutions and processes are also important. Learning different ways to challenge without offending enables you to add a lot more value to the team in which you work. This leads to different ways to challenge without offending. Knowing how to challenge your boss without offending them or putting them on the defensive foot is a really important part of teamwork. How else is your boss going to know when they are planning something that is unlikely to work or if they've made the wrong assumptions etc? Asking leading questions is a great way to challenge without offending. An example, may I ask a question? I'm a little confused as to how this process will work given that XXXX. Would you mind explaining? Use questions to lead the manager to realise the error you have spotted. Keep asking questions until you are sure they understand and have considered the issue you want them to. Secondly, presenting past experiences or fact and data to demonstrate there is a problem is another good way of challenging without offending. Use facts and data to support your ideas too. Producing facts and data allow your boss to reassess. It is not you challenging their ideas but the data and the facts. Thirdly, ask your boss directly how they would like to be challenged, in what way, in what settings etc. Position your desire to be able to challenge as getting the best results of the team which helps your boss indirectly. And fourth, build on your boss's ideas or solutions so both of you work together to get an even better outcome. You could start with, I understand your proposed solution is XXX and I had an idea to improve this part of it. Can we discuss this idea and then go to develop the idea further together? Fifth, ask permission to express your opinion. This gives control to your boss and sets them up to listen. You could start with, may I challenge your idea slightly? Or, I think I have an alternative option, may I share this with you? Manage your tone and body language carefully, keep them calm, curious, respectful and open to suggestions. There are so many ways to ask questions, introduce new ideas, challenge and express your opinion without offending. Practice as many different ways as you can until you find several that work well for you. Lastly, I'd like to touch on listening, the ideas and solutions supercharger. Another very good way of expressing an opinion at work is after you've listened to and considered the other person's opinion. Your active listening and taking in what has been told to you makes the other person feel appreciated and valued. The social laws of reciprocity encourages the other person to then return the favour by listening and considering your opinion. As a manager, I love listening to what staff tell me. Yet asking questions and listening helps me to encourage team members to give me their opinions and all sorts of issues. The information you get on problems they're encountering, who is helpful in the business and who is not, what processes are broken, what is happening with this customer and that, etc. is a goldmine of opportunity. The opportunity to recognise the good and implementable ideas that team members have and do something useful with them, i.e. put them into action. Create a situation in which team members are happy to express their opinions and ideas and you have 5, 10, 20 people's ideas to choose from rather than just your own. In my experience, that is a winning formula for any manager looking to add more value to the team and the business. Listen to the ideas and solutions of others and give credit where it's due. So in summary, remember you should express your opinion at work to add more value to the team and the business. How to speak up at work is key. When to express your opinion at work is equally important. Use the tips and approaches that we've discussed to increase your confidence in giving your opinion at work. Giving useful opinions, those that have been considered and used facts and data to back them up, takes a little bit more effort on your part. Putting this effort in will significantly increase how well everyone listens to you when you express an opinion at work. We've been through today, firstly, why having an opinion and speaking up is so important to you personally. Secondly, how to speak up, 4 tips for speaking up at work. Thirdly, when to express your opinion at work. Fourth, different ways to challenge without offending. And fifth, listening the ideas and solutions supercharger. If you have any questions on managers should have opinions, why speaking up is so important, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.