How a Tactical Silence Can Help You Succeed at Work
Use silence as a tactic to better integrate into your new team.
As a young professional starting at a new organization, even in the world of COVID-19, a tactical silence can set the tone for how you will become a positive addition to your organization and your team. When starting at a new company, or even in a new position with the same company, you may want to share knowledge with your co-workers as an attempt to help the project or process. Before you do that, think about what it’s like and how you feel when you are working on a very difficult crossword puzzle and someone comes up and figures out an answer without struggling over it. They were being helpful, but you only got frustrated with them. The reaction made future interactions painful. Rather than come off as aggressive without meaning to, have a tactical silence when first integrating with your team and other co-workers. This does not mean that someone shouldn’t provide their two cents, but means that the new employee should take an opportunity to take the temperature of the culture before diving in.
Here are four ways that a tactical silence can help you succeed at work:
Building your credibility. Whether you are interviewing, interning, or starting a new job, it’s important to establish your credibility. Through interviews I have conducted, the prospective employees who impressed me were those who did not try to fill the spaces between questions with small talk but still provided relevant responses to interview questions. This also applies to people who were already with the company interviewing for a promotion or a new position. Even if you are well known throughout the company, if you try to inject small talk with the interviewer, you may be perceived as overconfident and even kind of cocky.
Shaping your personal brand. If you are the person who continually feels the need to talk about everything in front of everyone, you may be perceived as a know-it-all. This will could negatively affect your personal brand since it may appear that you’re not willing to listen to others.
While attending new employee onboarding lunches, some of the first impressions I gained were based on how much the new employee spoke in addition to what they spoke about. If I met someone who was continually talking about how they worked at their previous job, I worried about how they would fit in with their new team. I was concerned if they could adjust to support their new team or manager. A new employee can benefit by actively listening rather than listening to respond when their new coworkers and new managers during their initial meetings.
Showing you prioritize the team over yourself. When there are a few people who are always talking and telling people how things should be done, it comes off as self-serving. The effectiveness of an employee who is silent and only speaks up after respect and consideration for the team reputation. Your team will recognize you are not wasting their time and tarnishing their professional reputation by always talking. This being understood, don’t hesitate to speak up if a safety decision made will result in someone getting physically injured.
Increasing trust with senior leadership. An employee who is careful with what they say or how often they say it, is normally seen as someone who does not fill the airspace with unwanted chit chat. This person may then become an employee that leadership knows will not embarrass the organization with off-the-cuff comments in front of customers. The customer may not be into small talk and just wants to get down business. This does not mean that the employee does not say anything and is not cordial. It is meant to convey that the employee is someone the leadership can trust with a hard-won customer and who will be a person who will be a positive asset to the organization. Proving you are trustworthy to your senior leadership with calculated silence is possible since you don’t risk sharing unsolicited opinions which may detract from what they want to accomplish.
When I was a division manager, I could trust any member of my team to represent the company because they listened more than they spoke knowing how to read the customer. They knew how to support our customers through thoughtful questions and by listening to the customer’s concerns. Because of this, I was able to give my team more responsibility and this allowed me to concentrate more on supporting the other responsibilities of my position.
As a professional you don’t always need to speak to be heard. It doesn’t mean that you need to say silent in every meeting or every encounter. It does mean that a tactical silence should be a consideration. Silence provides you opportunities to reflect on whether something must be said right at the moment you think of it. Eventually, you will get comfortable with your silence and your reputation will be that of someone who is thoughtful, tactful, and considerate. You will be a professional who people will want to work with and someone promoted because your company can trust with their customers and other employees.
