How to Be Quiet and Command Respect:

Meetings, social gatherings, or time with your boss, your manager or your corporate superiors are many times, pivotal moments.

You want to impress, you want to climb the social hierarchy, and you want to become respected and influence people.

It’s a curious experience and a commendable goal.

There are always all sorts of characters in these meetings:

The wise guy, the guy who talks non-stop and loses his thread, the guy who interrupts, the guy who’s quiet, the pushover, the “alfa” dominant top dog, you name it.

One thing is for sure… there will be a lot of talking and the occasional flex.

Everyone knows there’s opportunity in these meetings, or water cooler moments with the boss, so everyone wants to speak.

Everyone wants to get their thoughts in and get some admiration or respect.

What’s more?

If it’s a formal meeting, it probably could be an email anyway, and its only a meeting so people can get more fluff in and try to score extra points.

What a timewaster.

But, on the sidelines, there’s a quiet and collected person just lurking.

Maybe he is drinking coffee and squinting, like a Corporate version of Clint Eastwood, maybe it’s just a regular guy.

But…

He does have something about him. He is quiet but everybody looks at him when they look for acceptance, validation, or agreement.

Most of the time, when someone brings up a question, you look at them to know if they are answering at all — what DO those suave guys think? What is on their mind?

You need to know!

Perhaps they are smarter, perhaps they are dumber, perhaps they are shy… you’ll never know if you don’t know them close enough. But they do command respect.

My grandfather always told me:

“ — We have two ears and one mouth for one reason”.

We have two ears to hear double what we say… and there’s truth to that.

It’s like the NFT world in Crypto — Common NFTs are rarely valuable… you’re looking for ultra-rare or legendary attributes.

When someone makes his opinion too common, he devalues it.

I’m often committing the mistake of talking too much, but at least I notice it and try to stop myself.

Do YOU want to command respect and make your opinion as valuable as a “Bored Ape” NFT with legendary attributes?

If so, then this article is for you.

Avoid Status Games: Discard Ego and Focus on Goal

There’s a corporate adage that says:

- Play Wealth Creation Games, Not Status Gain Games.

Well, this is a sentence you should definitely think about… those who pursue status or to stroke their ego, usually end up losing more than they can earn.

Nobody likes a loudmouth or a job title flex.

…and that’s not all.

If you’re a loudmouth, you don’t actually listen.

Do you know what makes companies succeed?

Listening to their target market.

Do you know how I became a better writer?

By listening to valuable feedback. I could go on…

Let people fight for their Egos, the more they try to hold their Ego up, the more other people want to tear it down.

Meanwhile, just make sure to listen to all of the arguments to find the pearls among the trash… you’ll gain more out of it.

Those who usually talk the most think that staying quiet makes them seem stupid or below average.

But here’s the kicker:

It’s the other way around.

Choose Your Words Carefully:

When Leonidas heard “Choose your words carefully”, he advised the Persian that he should have done the same.

The Persian threatened and talked a lot about his army – Leonidas just listened.

Who became the most respected person in this scene?

Yeap, that’s right!

This doesn’t mean you should always be quiet though. You want your opinion to be valuable, but you don’t want to withhold it all the time.

If you never talk, what’s the point in valuing your opinion?

Use a few words, and get your point across in a simple and succinct way.

People respect those who save them time and those who don’t dwell on useless information.

There’s a reason we don’t like to hear people tell parallel stories when they are telling us about something.

Do you really need to know that the reason person X saw your wife with another guy was because he was taking out the trash after a great party over his cousin’s wedding?

Stick to the point.

Now, knowing when to talk and what words to use, that’s the real challenge.

Be Seen as Valuable, Command Respect, Climb the Ladder:

At the end of the day, the goal with all of this isn’t to get you a short-term promotion, or to make your family like you the most.

The objective here is to get your opinion and your input to be valued.

This exercise in listening more and talking less is a great way to not only improve your life but to experience some personal development and self-growth.

What’s more?

You even get to learn way more by listening than by talking.

Finally, you’ll get to look less threatening to others, which gives you a huge leg-up in the corporate world, where people compete with each other all the time.

If you’re a “loudmouth”, practice listening on the next chance you get and see if you like it.

Spot the differences in how those meetings go…

…and thank me later!

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I’m always pushing some new personal development content, to those champs who want to improve themselves, one day at a time.