Speak First

Why you should speak first — a simple yet power­ful hack

Leadership isn’t always about mak­ing grand decisions or monu­ment­al ges­tures. Sometimes, the most impact­ful lead­er­ship strategies are minor beha­vi­our­al adjust­ments that can change the dynam­ics of an entire team. 

Here we go:

The Hack: Speak First

This is a power­ful yet decept­ively simple hack for com­mu­nic­at­ive leadership: 

Key takeaway: To assert lead­er­ship, speak first dur­ing form­al and inform­al occa­sions with your team.

Why does this mat­ter? It taps into a deeply rooted psy­cho­lo­gic­al pat­tern. In any group set­ting, we instinct­ively look towards those who take ini­ti­at­ive. This dynam­ic is observed con­sist­ently in social psychology. 

By speak­ing first, lead­ers sig­nal con­fid­ence and dir­ec­tion. This isn’t about mono­pol­ising the con­ver­sa­tion or wield­ing con­trol — it’s about set­ting a tone, provid­ing clar­ity, and build­ing an envir­on­ment where oth­ers feel groun­ded and ready to contribute.

Psychological research sup­ports this concept. According to Van Vugt et al. (2008), people nat­ur­ally look towards those who ini­ti­ate action as lead­ers, espe­cially in uncer­tain situ­ations. This phe­nomen­on, called “lead­er emer­gence”, sug­gests that the mere act of tak­ing the first step — wheth­er in speech or action — can cement a person’s pos­i­tion as a lead­er in the minds of oth­ers. ¹Van Vugt, M., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2008). Leadership, fol­low­er­ship, and evol­u­tion: Some les­sons from the past. American Psychologist, 63(3), 182 – 196. … Continue read­ing

Similarly, a study by Anderson and Kilduff (2009) found that indi­vidu­als who act con­fid­ently and make the first move tend to be per­ceived as more com­pet­ent, regard­less of wheth­er their actu­al abil­it­ies match this per­cep­tion. ²Anderson, C., & Kilduff, G. J. (2009). Why do dom­in­ant per­son­al­it­ies attain influ­ence in face-to-face groups? The com­pet­ence-sig­nal­ing effects of trait dom­in­ance. Journal of Personality and … Continue read­ing

Setting the Stage

The key to suc­cess is bal­ance. Speaking first is not about dom­in­at­ing the con­ver­sa­tion or dis­reg­ard­ing oth­ers’ per­spect­ives. It’s often about effect­ively fram­ing the discussion. 

For example, by open­ing a meet­ing with a brief intro­duc­tion, you cre­ate a con­text for the fol­low­ing dis­cus­sion, allow­ing oth­ers to con­trib­ute mean­ing­fully. In inform­al dis­cus­sions, being the first to express sup­port for an idea can make the envir­on­ment safer for oth­ers to share their thoughts.

Think of it as estab­lish­ing the ground upon which oth­ers can con­fid­ently walk. It might mean intro­du­cing a top­ic with a per­son­al anec­dote that makes it relat­able, or it could be some­thing as simple as express­ing excite­ment about hear­ing from a par­tic­u­lar team mem­ber work­ing on a great project. 

Key takeaway: The lead­er­’s pur­pose in speak­ing first is to pave the way, mod­el engage­ment, and help frame con­tri­bu­tions that allow team mem­bers to shine.

By striv­ing to speak first, you take on the often under­stated yet power­ful role of a lead­er who provides the ini­tial cues that shape a pro­duct­ive, col­lab­or­at­ive atmo­sphere. It’s about giv­ing dir­ec­tion without over­shad­ow­ing, build­ing momentum without tak­ing over, and ulti­mately, encour­aging oth­ers to fol­low with their contributions.

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Communicative Leadership

• Communicative Leadership in Organisations
• The Checklist for Communicative Leadership
• Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback
• The Sword of Certainty: Information is Power
• Principles of Communicative Discipline
• Speak First
• The Ritual of Giving Instructions
• Symbolic Pacing in Communicative Leadership
• Serve Decisions, Not Solutions (to be published)
• The Servant Attitude for Communicative Leaders (to be published)
• Troublemakers as Cautionary Totems (to be published)
• The Inverted Curve of Leniency (to be published)
• The Fireside Solace: Over-Sharing for Leaders (to be published)
• Leadership Rhetoric: Micro Speeches & Poethic Schticks (to be published)

Bonus Articles

• 11 Evil Leadership Techniques

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