Have you ever sat in a meeting knowing exactly what you wanted to say — and waited for a moment that never came?
Afterward, you told yourself you'd speak up next time. Here's what's actually happening: you're waiting for permission. And nobody in that room, or anywhere else, is going to hand it to you.
Bushra Khan teaches leadership to MBA and engineering students, and she's watched this play out in hundreds of rooms — including one full of brilliant engineering students who were waiting for her to tell them it was okay to send an email. She's not an introvert, and that's exactly what makes this conversation useful. You get to see how the person running the meeting thinks about pulling your voice into it, and what she wishes the quiet people in her classroom understood about their own hesitation.
We get into meeting facilitation that actually works, why discomfort gets mistaken for incompetence, and how to interrupt in a way that sounds like you.
In this episode you'll discover:
Reframe the hesitation you feel before you speak — it's a permission-seeking habit you picked up somewhere a long time ago, not a competence gap. Like math or public speaking, it's a skill you can be coached into.Run a meeting with a notebook and three questions — did you get a full sentence from every person (not a "yep, I agree"), did everyone offer a plus, a delta, or an aha, and did you follow up within 24 hours with whoever stayed quiet. Do that once or twice and their brain files you as a safe person.Rehearse the interruption in your own voice — role-play it with a colleague or in front of a mirror until it stops feeling ridiculous. Interrupting doesn't have to be loud or rude, and when the selective person in the room finally breaks in, everyone leans forward.Hit play and listen now. And if this one lands, subscribe wherever you're listening — that's how the next episode finds you.
- Leading with BK (website)
- Dr. Bushra Khan on LinkedIn
FREE FOR INTROVERTED LEADERS:
🎓 Masterclass — "Why Everything You've Been Told About Getting Ahead as an Introvert Is Wrong" (30 min, on demand):
https://gweinger.com/masterclass/
Look me up at https://gweinger.com/
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.