Does it ever feel like you are interrupted by your colleagues?  Are others being more assertive and talking over you even when it should be your turn?   If it happens frequently, make the following checks on your communication to determine why it is happening.

First of all, does it take you a while to make a point? Learning to get to the point quickly is a skill busy executives need to master.  We will talk about this issue more next week.

Secondly, is your speech, your vocabulary colorful and interesting?  And do you use vocal pitch variety?  Monotonous sounding speech is tiring to listen to and doesn’t command attention or  give you credibility.

And thirdly, are others speaking when you stop to take your breath?  Let’s work on that one today.  Many people are interrupted when they take a breath and there are listeners who grab that second of quiet space to interrupt.  Since most us pause to breathe at punctuation (even in conversation), do something out of the ordinary and a little bit  unexpected to the listener and pause for a breath in the middle of your sentence instead of at the end.  It will take practice to keep it from sounding artificial but the listener is less likely to interrupt if you pause in the middle.  Let me give you an example of what this strategy sounds like by repeating what I just said.  Here it goes:

If you are having problems with people talking over you// even when it should be your turn practice pausing for a breath// in the middle of your sentence instead of at the end.  It will take practice to keep it from sounding artificial// but the listener is less likely to interrupt // if you pause in the middle of sentences.