There are situations at work where speaking up can be scary. Maybe it is a senior manager or a big group or you aren’t sure how the comment will be received. Or maybe it is giving a presentation. Or pushing publish on a blog post :).

I’ve developed a simple three step procedure for these types of situations:

Step 1: Decide you want to do it.

Sometimes it is good to bring up an awkward topic. Sometimes it isn’t. Making this decision rationally is important. There’s a difference between bringing up the elephant in the room than something there are good reasons not to discuss.

Step 2: Get ready

I think about how I want to start. For a question, this is preparing the whole question. For a presentation, it is the first sentence. (Yes I prepare more than one sentence, but that first sentence is memorized). Or in the case of a blog post/email, writing all the content.

Step 3: Be brave for 15 seconds

Remind myself that I only need to be brave for 15 seconds at a time. That’s enough time to be done if it is a short thing (like a question or pressing send) or be committed if it is a longer one (like a presentation)

One time, when i was very scared, I wrote “you only have to be brave for 15 seconds at a time” on a piece of paper and put it in my pocked. I felt the paper right before I needed to be brave and it gave me strength.