Speaking up at work” is the central topic of this fifth episode of “Coaching with Costas”.

Below are a few main pointers:

• Speaking up at work is an essential part of one’s career.
  
  
• The fear of how it could be received should not be the reason why you don’t do it.
  
  
• There are two categories of speaking up: sharing an opinion, and wanting to effect change. The former is usually a microcosm of the latter. Trying to effect change is more difficult and requires you to offer a series of solutions.
  
  
• Cognitive diversity results in better outcomes for the organisation.
  
  
• Remind yourself that you were hired to share your opinion.
  
  
• Speaking up needs to be done tactfully and in a constructive way. Most importantly it should be backed with facts.
  
  
• You do not need to have a perfectly formed opinion all the time. It is ok to share a partially constructed idea. This may help put less pressure on yourself.
  
  
• Enlist, Prepare, and Center.