Speaking Truth To Power: Pull Up Your Britches and Get On With It

“Speaking truth to power” is in itself a powerful phrase. It means to have the courage to speak your truth to people that have real or implied power over you. As William Faulkner said, “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.”

Speaking truth to power can mean speaking up for what you believe in, or telling someone, usually some type of leader, about something that isn’t working. As you can imagine, hearing truth as a leader or a person in a position of power is not always easy. Neither is being the one to say those truths.

Speaking truth to power is a lot harder than just saying what’s on your mind, though. People in power many times don’t want to hear unpleasant truths. The phrase “kill the messenger”, while hopefully not literal in most cases, can be a strong deterrent when considering just how much truth to tell to someone. Especially when they are in a position of power over you.

As leaders, and responsible humans, we have a responsibility to stand up for the truth, and for what is right. Our values make up a large part of who we are, and we should be cultivating that part of us that stands up for what we believe in.

So if you’re wondering whether you should or shouldn’t speak truth to power: pull up your britches, and get on with it.

Pick Your Battles

I think one of the most important things about speaking truth to power is to pick your battles. If you present yourself as the type of person who complains about everything, your complaints are less likely to be taken seriously.

This doesn’t mean swallow your discontent or something that makes you uncomfortable or unhappy. It just means choose your approach carefully, as well as the topics you want to take a stand about.

As a leader, I try to take feedback seriously. As we’ve talked about before, feedback is a gift, and it should be treated that way. However, when I think about the most impactful feedback I’ve received in my life, many times it was from someone who chose wisely which topics to address. Their words carried more weight.

Communication Skills

Speaking truth to power successfully depends on a variety of factors. Bravery helps, but how you say what you need to say also has an impact. The words you use, your tone of voice, even what you’re communicating without saying a word, through your body language. All of these factors will influence how well you are heard.

To be frank, these skills are not just for when you’re “speaking your truth”. Successful communication, whether while speaking your truth or not, can be summed up by what you say, how you say it, and your body language while you’re saying it.

Keep Yourself In Alignment

At the risk of turning this into a “how to communicate” article instead of “how to speak your truth to power” article, one last thing I’ll add is that the words coming out of your mouth, the tone you’re using to say them, and how you look while saying them must all be in alignment.

No one is going to take you seriously if what you say doesn’t match your tone or your tone doesn’t match your body language. Think about it: when someone tries to convince you that they’re not mad, but their tone of voice and body language are telling you clearly that they are, how likely are you to believe them?

Communication Tips

Here’s a few tips to keep in mind related to what you say, how you say it, and your body language.

What You Say

• Choose your words rather than letting them all spill out.
• End your sentences intentionally, don’t let them just trail off into nothing.
• Don’t use big words just because you can. For example, you do not need to say “utilize” instead of “use”. If a simple word will do, use it.
• For that matter, use as few words as possible to get your point across.

How You Say It

• Some would argue that the tone you use when saying something is more important than what you’re saying.
• Make sure your tone matches your words, and modulate your tone as much as possible.
• It’s very true, in my experience, that if you get overly excited, melodramatic, or too passionate about something, you may be taken less seriously. This can be even more true if you are already someone at a disadvantage when communicating, such as if you don’t speak the language natively, if you’re younger, or even if you’re of the opposite gender.
• Speak slowly (or at least, slower). This gives the impression that you’re weighing your words more carefully than if you’re speaking at the speed of light.
• If you tend to speak in a higher register, pay attention to keeping your voice lower. This combined with your speed of speech will lend you more gravitas.
• You can find lots more tips about how you say things in this article from Psychology Today. It focuses on assertive expression, which can be helpful when speaking your truth.

Your Body Language

• Make eye contact. Don’t stare, and don’t make it awkward.
• Don’t cross your arms. That can be taken as defensiveness.
• Avoid slouching or showing disinterest in your posture.
• Do what you can to control your facial expressions. It’s not always easy. My boss calls the expressions your face shows a “face journey”. If you’re not careful, this can betray you if your feelings don’t match your words or how you’re saying what you’re saying.

How to Speak Your Truth to Power

Here are a last few tips to keep in mind when speaking truth to power, specifically. If you’re not naturally assertive, these tips may help, and I’ve listed a few more resources below as well.

• Check your motivations. Understand your reasons why you want to open up this topic. This can come back to “choosing your battles” also. In my opinion, there are some battles you absolutely have to fight. Things that come to mind are those that keep you up at night, make you feel like you’re compromising your integrity, or being put in an unethical situation. Understand where you yourself are coming from.
• Check their motivations. Try spending some time seeing the situation from your listener’s point of view. Consider how your words may be construed as criticism, or what they might experience while hearing you. This may give you valuable insight about how to say what you want to talk about.
• Don’t lecture, pontificate, or criticize. Say what you need to say clearly, in as unbiased a way as you can, and then shut up and let the reaction come. If you take too long to get to the point, or if the person feels they are being personally criticized, their response may turn to defensiveness and that can be destructive to your message.
• Follow your instincts. This article contains an anecdote where the author says, “There will be moments when all of your instincts tell you that you’re in an untenable situation that needs to be challenged. When that happens, challenge it. Don’t pull yourself back and compromise your own value system just because the other person is more politically powerful or higher up on the hierarchy.” I think that is said so beautifully, I don’t have anything else to add.

Over to You

Speaking truth to power can be hard. Do you have a story to share about a time you successfully (or not) spoke your truth? What did you learn? What can you share with others that might be struggling with this?

Here are some more resources that you may find helpful:

• It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It | Psychology Today
• 4 Steps for Speaking Truth To Power | Thrive Global
• How to Speak Truth to Power | HR Executive