Name: How to Communicate Confidently in Team Meetings at Work | 5 Steps
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T14:35:09.000Z
Duration: 12 min 21 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Have you ever walked out of a work meeting thinking, why didn't I speak up?

Or why do I freeze up when it matters the most?

Gerund

If this sounds familiar and you struggle with communicating in work meetings, you're not alone.

But it is really important to remember that the way that you communicate does have an impact on the trajectory of your career.

Whether you like it or not, the truth is in the long term, the opportunities that you get in your career, the way that others treat you and view you as a leader, and even how much you're paid hinges on this one key factor, and that is your ability to communicate well.

So unless you've decided that you no longer want to work in a company with other people, communication skills is something that you have to master.

We all know who Richard Branson is, the billionaire and founder of Virgin Group.

And he's been quoted to say, communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.

If you are a high achieving corporate professional who wants to be seen and known as a strategic leader at work and you want to communicate like one, instead of just being seen as a heads down doer, then this video is for you.

My name is Linda Rayner and I'm a career strategist.

And my mission is to help high achieving professionals to gain authentic confidence from the inside out so that you can advance your career to the next level.

And in this video, we're talking all about communication, specifically how to communicate confidently in a work meeting.

So I'm gonna be sharing with you my five-step framework on how to approach a work meeting with confidence, with clarity and with presence, even if you're an introvert.

Now, before I get into this five-step framework, which I've called speak, each letter has a specific purpose.

What I'm most passionate about is helping you to understand that ultimately communication is a by-product of how you feel about yourself.

So if you are someone who struggles to feel worthy, valuable, you feel as though there is a bit of lack within you, you are carrying this energy around that says, I'm not good enough.

I don't have anything as important to say.

At a subconscious level, you're staying quiet.

You're holding back because you don't wanna be judged.

You don't want to be criticized because there's a part of you that feels as though your opinion or what you have to say isn't that good.

So better to just not say anything at all.

Ask yourself, why am I so afraid to speak up?

You want to look at those areas more closely and you want to reverse out the negative fear-based beliefs and replace them with positive beliefs about yourself in order to be able to truly integrate this speak framework that I'm gonna share with you today.

So the first step of the five-step speak framework is S, which is set your intention.

So you wanna ask yourself, what do I want to contribute in this meeting?

So you wanna think about this ahead of time.

And an example could be, do you want to share an idea that is related to a particular project that the team has been working on that would help them to reach the company goals faster?

Or is there an efficiency or a gap, a weakness that you've discovered lately that you have a solution to, you have an idea for, you have a solution to that you want to propose.

You wanna kind of think about that before walking into the meeting.

You have to obviously know what the meeting is going to be about.

If there's going to be an opportunity for you to share these updates or these ideas, but have that as part of your intention that you are going to speak up, that you're going to contribute, you're gonna add value in some way, shape, or form.

Because when you do this, when you have an intention, it helps you to ground your presence when you show up in the meeting because you feel as though you have a purpose for being there, and it gives you a clear reason to speak up.

Now, the second step is P, which is prepare your key message.

So don't go in planning to say everything.

Go in knowing what's the one main point I want to land.

What's a clear, simple way to express it?

So as an example, let's say that you want to go into this meeting to share a specific idea for a recommendation or a solution to a current problem that the company is having.

The formula that you can use could be, here's what I'm seeing, here's what it means, here's what I suggest, and then I would also add, here's the positive impact that it could have.

So when you're able to present your ideas or recommendations with those four key components, it allows your audience, which is your coworkers, your managers, your boss, to be able to follow through on your thought process.

They're able to understand what it is that you're thinking and how you came to your recommendation and suggestion, and it will increase your chances of them buying into your idea.

It will increase your ability to influence them and lead them in the direction of what you think would be beneficial.

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Now, back to the speak framework, the third step is E, which is engage your curiosity.

Now, oftentimes in a meeting, we stay quiet because we don't always have all the answers to every question that people are asking, but you don't have to know all the answers.

Contributing and speaking up in a meeting means that you just have to show that you're thinking.

Ask thoughtful questions that show depth.

Share what you're thinking based on someone else's thoughts.

So for example, you could say, that's an interesting angle that Bob or Jenny said over there.

What if we also considered blank possibility and just pose the question?

Engaging doesn't always mean leading the conversation.

It just means showing up with genuine curiosity and intention.

Now, the fourth step is A, which is align with the bigger picture.

And I can honestly say that out of all of the five steps, this is an area that I find quiet achievers, the ones who work really hard, are really good at what they do, they tend to overlook the bigger picture.

They're more focused on getting their job done.

And I completely understand that because that's how I used to be as well.

I just need to know what I need to do and I don't really care how it impacts everything else.

But that is the mistake that you're making if you are overlooking that aspect.

Aligning with the bigger picture always means thinking about how does what you do impact the grander scheme of things?

How does what you do impact the team's goals, the company's goals, the business objectives, the project's objectives?

How does it fit in with reaching the goals that everyone wants to achieve?

So for example, instead of saying, I finished the report, which is just a plain update in the meeting, instead, you would wanna add more to that.

And so you could say, I finished the report ahead of schedule in support of the client rollout next week.

You're adding in a little bit of nuance, not just saying what you did, but how it's impacting what's going on with the bigger picture.

And in this case, there's a client rollout next week.

So you finished the report ahead of schedule, to support that client rollout.

And that shows people that you understand how your role plays into the bigger picture, and that you are supporting the achievement of those bigger picture objectives.

Doing this on a regular basis positions you as someone who thinks beyond your tasks, who thinks like a leader.

And finally, the fifth step of the speak framework, which is K, keep your presence strong.

So it's not just what you say, but it's how you say it.

So ultimately what this is talking about really is your energy.

Your energy in terms of how grounded do you feel within your body, within your own presence, because if you're balanced energetically, then the way that you communicate, the way that you articulate your words will resonate with the people that you're speaking to.

You're going to be able to connect with them on a deeper level, and your words will actually land, rather than if you are feeling anxious, scattered, and really sort of out of body, you're not going to be able to have that same level of depth of connection when you're communicating.

So a few key tips on this, speak slower than you think you need to.

You don't have to rush, speak at a calm pace.

Maintain eye contact, even if it's virtual.

People can feel that you are being present with them when you're maintaining eye contact as much as you can.

And avoid disclaimers that lower your value in front of others.

Don't say things like, well, this might sound dumb, but, or, well, I'm not really sure, but don't bother saying those.

Just state what you know and ask the question.

So the mantra to remember is, I belong here.

Because when you show up with this level of grounded, authentic confidence, that level of presence over time builds trust.

And when people trust you, that is when the opportunities will be presented to you for you to continue to move in the direction of where you want to go in your career.

So I wanna ask you, which part of these five steps in the speak framework resonated most with you?