Jessica Chen is a former Emmy-Award-winning journalist who is now the Founder and CEO of Soulcast Media, a global communication training company that helps people elevate their communication skills at work. Her company has worked with top organizations, including Google, LinkedIn, Mattel, Harvard Business School, Drafkings, the CDC, and many more. As a news reporter, she graced the television networks of ABC10 News and NBC 4News. She has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and Market Watch, Inc.
Below, Jessica shares five key insights from her new book, Smart, Not Loud: How to Get Noticed at Work for All the Right Reasons. Listen to the audio version—read by Jessica herself—in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Quiet culture vs loud culture.
It can be difficult for us to talk about ourselves at work, including asking for what we want and sharing our amazing work. There are many reasons why it can be hard, such as who might be in the room, how confident we feel about our idea, and many other considerations.
However, in Smart, Not Loud, I focus on the paradox of being raised to practice what I call quiet culture traits while working in an environment where loud culture traits are expected. Traits in this context are the traits we were taught to embody as children.
Quiet culture traits include practicing modesty and humility, listening more than speaking, putting your head down while working hard, and avoiding conflict to maintain a harmonious environment. This was what I was taught growing up in a fairly conservative home. However, when I started working, I saw that many of the traits needed to stay top of mind required something completely different: loud culture traits, such as being able to talk about your wins and do it with confidence, not being afraid to speak up in meetings, even challenge others, and prioritizing networking and socializing. For those of us who grew up being told to embody quiet culture traits at home, the ability to showcase ourselves and advocate for our ideas, especially in a fast-paced corporate and competitive environment, can feel much harder.
“Quiet culture traits include practicing modesty and humility, listening more than speaking, putting your head down while working hard, and avoiding conflict to maintain a harmonious environment.”
I want to be clear: one culture is not better than the other. And this is way more than being an introvert or an extrovert. It’s also not about being loud or quiet in that auditory sense. It goes much deeper than that.
2. Culture reframes.
There is a mindset we can adopt to help us feel empowered to show up, speak up, and highlight our genius. Because there’s no question about it: we have to put ourselves out there to be top of mind. There are four cultural reframes that I found can help us with this:
- How we engage with others at work. In other words, our communication skills. The way to think about this is always to consider your audience. When engaging with others, whether it’s giving a presentation, speaking on the spot, or answering a tricky question, don’t brain-dump everything you know. Think about who you’re talking to and what they care about, and tailor your message so it resonates.
- How you talk about your wins. If you do good work (which you absolutely do) you’ve got to talk about it. You can’t expect people to know because they’re busy too. But I know that for us quiet culture folks, it can be awkward putting the spotlight on ourselves. The way to think about it is to lead by how your work and accomplishments have benefited the team and organization. Did it drive something forward? Did it help ease a process? This can get people excited about what you’re doing.
- Managing conflict. I can’t sugarcoat it: dealing with tricky conversations when things go wrong, such as a missed deadline, an unhappy client, or an error on a project, can make us nervous. However, the key to getting noticed for all the right reasons isn’t to hide. It’s to focus on what I call the dynamics at play. What I love about this reframe is that it’s a strategic way of approaching problems where you ask yourself, okay, what happened here? When did things go wrong? What potential solutions have I come up with? Switching our approach to asking these questions can give a holistic view of how to manage conflict when it happens.
- Spend time. For those of us who grew up embodying quiet culture traits, sometimes our default is to put our heads down, work hard, and not cause waves. But just because you’re smart doesn’t mean promotions will automatically follow. Just because you work hard, it doesn’t mean people will automatically notice. A more strategic way of approaching how we spend time at work is to identify and prioritize quality work over quantity. This means knowing what work will help advance our careers. What projects can we work on to hone a particular skill? What do we want to be known for? And it’s not just piling on more work. It’s about using the work to build a career brand we’re proud of.
3. Shaping your career brand.
Right now, you may get assigned work because it’s part of your job. You do it well because you’re hardworking, smart, and reliable. But, before you know it, because you’re so good at doing that one job, you become that go-to person where all this work gets assigned to you.
This isn’t a problem if it’s actually something you enjoy and want to do. But if it’s not, then you have to be careful with the projects you take on. You have to think about shaping your career brand. In Smart, Not Loud, I lay out four steps for shaping your career brand:
- Get crystal clear on your core values. This means answering questions like, what are you motivated by? What do you find meaningful and fulfilling? As author Brene Brown says, “Our values should be so crystallized in our minds, so infallible, so precise and clear and unassailable. They don’t feel like a choice. They are simply a definition of who we are in our lives.”
- Find your differentiating factor. I like to think about this as: What comes easy to you and is something you enjoy doing? What “it” is—that is your differentiating factor. It’s also a talent. Your talent is unique to you, and it’s your superpower because it’s not something anyone can take away. You love the work, enjoy it, and it comes easy to you.
- Link your talent to opportunity. Opportunities are how you can start carving out work to help you get noticed for how you want to be noticed. Sometimes, these opportunities will already be there, and all you have to do is raise your hand to be a part of it. Other times, you have to create and pitch a project that leverages your talent.
- Expand your reach. I like to think of shaping your career brand as a flywheel. The more strategic you are with what you want to be known for, the more consistent you will be with it. Getting on projects that excite you will expand your reach because, ultimately, if you have a consistent career brand, you’ll be the go-to person for all kinds of projects and initiatives that you want to do.
4. Advocating for yourself.
The way I like to think about advocating for yourself is when you look around at your friends, your family, the community you’re a part of, people who you care about, you advocate for them, and you stand up for them because you care. Similarly, we need to apply this same mindset in the workplace. We advocate for ourselves because we care about the work. But I know it can be hard, which is why I share how there are four things we can do to better advocate, which I break down into a simple acronym called ACCT.
The A is asking for what you want. Most of the time, we have to ask for what we want. We can’t assume things will be handed to us despite how hard we work or that people are thinking of us. If we see something we want and know it can accelerate our career, we’ve got to get good at asking for it.
The second is C, which means circle back. Asking for what you want is essentially you planting that seed, and usually, you’ve got to follow up and check back in to stay top of mind because people are busy. They need that gentle reminder. Think about it this way: plan to say it twice, literally and figuratively.
“If we say yes to too many things, ultimately, we will take time away from what we actually want to do.”
The third is the second C, and that is to celebrate your wins. When you do good work, be sure to talk about it. It doesn’t have to be boisterous or in a look-at-me kind of way. It can be subtle and simple. If a client or somebody says, “Hey, great job,” you forward that message to your manager with a simple FYI or “Check this out.” Sometimes, that’s all you need to do to celebrate your wins and ensure others know about it.
Finally, the T. This one means turning down requests. Our time at work is limited. We only have a certain number of hours every day to do the work we have to do. If we say yes to too many things, ultimately, we will take time away from what we actually want to do. Turning down requests and doing it judiciously and tactfully is how you can ensure you are advocating for yourself and protecting yourself in the workplace.
5. Speak up in meetings.
How to chime in during meetings gets really tactical in Smart, Not Loud, where I share communication tips, including what you can say and how to say it. With this insight, I want to share a specific framework, what I call The 4A Sequence. This is helpful for those who might struggle with speaking up in meetings when there are many people around, loud colleagues, and senior leaders, making it hard for you to know when and how to chime in.
The first A stands for active listening. This one is simple. By actively listening, you can identify the perfect moment to chime in. The opposite of active listening is passive listening, where you just sit back and listen without the intent to speak. To find the right moment, you have to listen to keywords, a slight pause, or that moment when you know it’s time to say something.
The second A is acknowledge. Once you find that moment to chime in, the first few words you say should acknowledge the person who just spoke. This is strategic because when we chime in, the person won’t feel like we’re trying to cut them off. Acknowledging can be as simple as saying, “Jessica, that was a really interesting point, and it made me think of A, B, C.” Now, acknowledging is not agreeing; it’s simply making the other person feel heard.
The third A is anchor, which means identifying one or two words the person said right before you as a way to connect what you want to say. For example, if they said the word market, you now want to repeat that word market in your sentence. Or, if they said data, you want to say data in your sentence. Then, you share what you want to say. This is how you can connect both of your points together.
The fourth A is answer. You answer by making the point you want to share. You must be succinct and clear. Don’t be long-winded. Decide the point you want to make and stick with it.
Thinking about the 4A sequence is a very strategic way of speaking up in meetings to ensure other people hear what you’re saying. It can also create an environment where dialogue flows easily.
To listen to the audio version read by author Jessica Chen, download the Next Big Idea App today:
