057 I What to Say When You Don’t Agree (Without Over-Explaining)
episodePreviously titled “057 I How to Clearly Speak Up in Meetings” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Communication Skills for Working Women Podcast:Effective Communication, Healthy Relationships, Direct Communication
11 min
2 speakers
2 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why does over‑explaining weaken a disagreement at work?
Today we're talking about one of the most uncomfortable moments at work and sometimes in life when you don't agree, when your boss says something, a colleague proposes an idea, or a decision is being made. And initially you're thinking that's not the direction I would go. You guys, I'm not even through the teaser, and my mind has like five idea like stories that have come to mind in just reading that. Little intro, so I'm sure you all are connecting with something I'm saying here too. So internally we're thinking that's not the direction I would go, but instead of saying it clearly, we hesitate. We start thinking, How do I say this without making things awkward? What if I sound difficult? What if I'm wrong?
And so you either stay quiet, soften it so much it doesn't land, or over-explain, trying to make it acceptable. Today we're going to give you exactly what to say in those moments so you can disagree clearly, confidently, and without over-explaining. Welcome to Communication Skills for Working Women. I'm Elizabeth.
And I'm Rose May. Do you find yourself second-guessing or avoiding conversations because you're worried about being misunderstood? You're not alone.
On this show, we're sharing tangible tools for assertiveness, emotional resilience, and real-life communication wins and fails. Let's sharpen our communication together.
If you're listening to this and thinking this is exactly what I struggle with, we want to invite you to share it with a friend and leave a review. This helps other people find us. So I'm gonna tell you a story about a meeting that I was in, um that took place it was a group meeting and The the person that I was disagreeing with or who made this comment that I'm gonna share in just a minute. Technically on paper we were kind of in the same position, but culturally there was a hierarchy. There was a structure and I was technically culturally b beneath him in the hierarchy. And we were planning uh we were planning an activity and of this individual this individual Brought up an idea. Of certain members of this group
uh planning this activity and providing for this activity and logistically it made no sense. There were other members of the group that could have done the same thing and but again, like culturally in terms of like work culture, this is where These responsibilities often rested and I was a newcomer to this situation, but I just looked at it and I was like, that makes absolutely no sense. Why would we task these individuals with this project in in situations that that are going to exacerbate stress and um kind of chaos and just uh honestly it just wasn't fair to task these individuals with this. And so I found myself trying really hard to figure out like How to say it and way, you know, my first thought is always, I don't want to be difficult, right?
And I wanted to be very straightforward because I knew that if I wasn't clear and I wasn't straightforward, that they would be tasked with something else that was just as logistically impossible. And so there was this part of me that was going back and forth between like wanting to wanting to disagree, disagree in a way that was helpful um and not coming across as adversarial but also very clear so that the responsibility of these tasks didn't fall onto people that didn't have the means to do it just because it was It was acceptable in the war culture. It was kind of a difficult situation. Anyways, I did end up saying something and I s uh you know, and I just mentioned like, Hey, these are the tasks that these individuals are already assigned.
It r logistically makes no sense to ha to add this task. to their r list of responsibilities. Perhaps these individuals can do it. And the boss was actually one of the individuals that would that I suggested take on this task. And at first it was uh there was silence. And then it was something along the lines, well, I guess We could kind of do that. And then there was the question of, well, how do we do it? And I was like, Well, you figure it out. Um, I just remember being so furious in that moment because it was oh quite honestly, it was it was sexist.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
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