Project Manager Soft Skill: When People Don't Let You Talk
As a project manager your job entails talking to people, they might be clients, developers, executives, all with different communication approaches. There's one behavior that's hard to deal with; when people don't let you talk. Well, maybe that should be re-phrased as: when people love to hear themselves talk.
Let's identify the behavior and talk about approaches to dealing with them: After the individual has expressed their ideas you try to interrupt them but it sounds like they didn't hear you interrupting and keep talking. This behavior when encountered the first time might be interpreted as the other person not hearing your interruption, after the third time it's time to in a firm and polite tone interrupt them, until they stop and let you talk. Another behavior that I encountered is that they have decided not to let you talk, in this case interrupt them in a firm and polite tone and start with: I have listened to your thoughts and I would appreciate time to express my ideas. would you allow me that courtesy? Your mileage might vary with the approaches above and context of course is important. If you have identified other types of behaviors from people that don't let you talk share your expertise with others via the comments on this post.