The Restless Line Volume 3

In this third installment of The Restless Line, host Tonya Richards explores a critical question that shapes professional presence and impact:

How do you find and trust your voice at work?

In this episode, Tonya responds to real questions about navigating communication in high-stakes environments from disagreeing with leadership to ensuring your ideas actually land.

She unpacks:

• How to disagree with leadership without creating friction 
• Why your ideas may not be landing and how to shift your delivery 
• The habit of over-explaining (and how to break it) 
• What to do when you’re interrupted or talked over 
• How to communicate confidently without being perceived as aggressive 

This conversation is not about becoming louder…it’s about becoming clearer, more grounded, and more intentional.

© 2025 Tonya Richards. All rights reserved.

Restless Excellence™ is a trademark pending.

All original content produced are the intellectual property of Tonya Richards and may not be reproduced or presented as original work without prior written permission.

Transcript

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This is Restless Excellence, a podcast for people who care deeply, work hard, and are quietly asking themselves, is this sustainable? I'm Tanya Richards. I created this space because I've lived the tension between achievement and exhaustion. The tension between being capable and being depleted. The tension between substance on the paper and something feeling off in my body. It's not about doing work. It's actually about telling the truth. The truth about work. The truth about leaders. The truth about ambition. And ultimately the cost of carrying too much for too long. These conversations that we'll explore in this podcast, they aren't going to be polished. They'll be reflective and they'll be honest. And they're for people who don't want to lose themselves while building something that matters. Let's get into it. If this is your first time joining, welcome to the Restless Line. I am Tanya Richards, HR leader, organizational strategist, and someone who've spent over 20 years helping leaders navigate challenging workplace events. The Restless Line is an evolution of the Restless Excellence podcast. It is a space where I answer real questions sent in by readers of the Restless Excellence newsletter or listeners like yourself to the podcast. The questions that I receive, they're questions that don't always get said out loud in meetings or even in leadership spaces. They sometimes are not even said in conversations with people you trust. This is actually the third volume of the Restless Line. And in volume one, we talked a lot about confidence. In volume two, we touched on leadership boundaries and burnout. In this particular episode, we'll be focusing a lot on finding your voice at work. Not just speaking more nor speaking louder, but really communicating in a way that is clear, grounded, and that actually lands with the audience. Oftentimes we find that a lot of people are speaking when we are in particular rooms, but not everyone is being heard. Now there's a difference. Your voice is not just what you say, it's how you say it, when you say it, and even how much you trust it when you do say something. So if you've ever felt overlooked, talked over, or like your ideas didn't quite land the way that you had intended them to, then this episode is for you. So let's delve in. Now the first question that I have here seems to focus on speaking up when you disagree. Here's that question. Tanya, how do I speak up when I disagree with leadership without it backfiring? Hmm. This is a good question. Similar to some that I've had in the past, but this one has a slightly different focus on the leadership component. Now, this one is really about navigating tension between your honesty but also a potential risk that may exist. That risk could be your job being adversely impacted, your work environment being adversely impacted. And it's important for you to know that disagreeing with leadership can really feel like stepping into uncertainty. You're not just sharing a perspective when you do that, you're actually challenging direction, and that in itself can feel exposing. Now, here's the shift that I want you to sort of think about. Your goal is not to oppose, it's actually to contribute, and I think how you frame that contribution actually matters. So instead of positioning your input as a contradiction, you should anchor it in shared outcomes. You should say things like, here's how I'm thinking about this, or here's a risk that I'm seeing here with this particular situation. Or even here's another angle that we might want to consider. When you say things like that, you're not saying that you're wrong. You're saying, let's strengthen this. That's a different posture. And over time, leaders don't trust the people who always agree with them. They trust the people who think and confidently share those particular thoughts. The next question, question number two, seems to be about when your ideas that you have don't land. And that question is, I feel like I say things in meetings, but they don't really land. What am I missing, Tanya? I think this particular question is less about what you're saying, and it's more about how it's being received by the audience. There are two things that I would like for you to consider here. The first is clarity. Are you getting to the point or are you circling the point because we do not want the latter? When ideas are layered with too much context, people can sometimes lose the thread of what you're trying to say. The second thing to consider is the confidence in your delivery. Not about the volume nor the force, but clarity. If you sound unsure, people can often see through that, and they will interpret the idea as you being unsure, even if the idea is a strong one, and of course, we don't want that. So I would say try something like this: state your point first and foremost, then you support the point instead of just building up to it. Lead with that particular point. When your message is clear, it has a much better chance of landing the way that you intend for it to land. Now, question number three that was sent into the restless line, it seems to be about over-explaining and over-qualifying. That question came in, and it reads, How do I stop over-explaining everything I say? Now, over-explaining that usually comes from a good place, but you want to be understood, you want to be accurate, and you also want to ensure that nothing you say is misinterpreted. When you over-explain, unfortunately, it often signals that there is a lack of trust, meaning a lack of trust in how your message will be received. So you have this tendency to add more and keep adding more and more and more. Please resist the urge to do that. The shift here should be to trust that your initial statement can stand on its own. You don't need to defend every point before it's even questioned. One practical approach is to pause after you make your point. Just take a beat, let it sit for a moment. If people need more information, they will just ask for that. And when they do, you can expand with intention. Don't do so preemptively. Wait for them to ask and then intentionally expand. Your clarity is actually more powerful than your completeness that you're trying to accomplish. Question number four, and for those of you who are listening for the first time, on the restless line, we typically answer about five questions just so that we can keep this short form podcast format. Question number four. What do you do when someone interrupts or talks over you? This happens more often than people acknowledge, and how you respond actually matters. In that moment, you're not just deciding whether to finish your thought, you're really signaling how you expect to be engaged. You don't have to escalate to assert yourself, you can simply just hold space. And what does that look like? Just say something like, I'd like to finish that thought, or let me complete this point, and then I'm happy to hear your particular perspective. Ultimately, what's important is that you really have to be calm, direct, and unapologetic. Because what you're doing is resetting the dynamic of that space without trying to create any friction. If it continues, however, I think that becomes a separate conversation about norms and rules in that space and even about respect. So in the moment, your goal is simply to don't disappear from your own sentence. Now, if you're noticing a pattern with regards to the questions and the answers, I would say that you're correct, and that pattern is really about finding your voice, is not about changing who you are. It's actually about removing the habits that keep your message from coming through clearly. With that said, let's transition to question number five. And this one actually seems to be about confidence without aggression. And that question is, how do I communicate confidently without sounding aggressive, Tanya? I think this one is a bit more nuanced because it's often shaped by how different people are perceived when they speak with authority. And I'm sure you've heard before, perception is reality. So I would say that we should first separate two things: the tone and clarity. Confidence is not about being forceful by any means, it's really about being clear. And you can be warm and direct at the same time. You can also be thoughtful and decisive at the same time. What I think often gets labeled as aggressive is simply the unfamiliar, especially when someone is used to you communicating in a more softened way. All of a sudden, you're being direct, you're being decisive, and this is really not familiar to them, so they label it as aggressive. The key is really to stay anchored in your intentions. Because if your intention is to contribute and doing so to move something forward, or even to be clear, then your tone will ultimately align with that. Not everyone, though, will interpret it the same way, so just be cognizant of that. But I think clarity is still the standard, at least that's what I've seen from my experience, personal and just observing. You are not responsible for managing every perception that comes your way. You are only responsible for communicating effectively and ensuring that you're doing so with integrity. So, what I would want you to take away from this particular episode is that your voice is already there. It's not about finding something new, it's about trusting what's already present. You don't need to over-prepare every thought or even soften every statement. You don't even need permission to contribute meaningfully. Your perspective has value. Know also that your clarity has impact. And your presence in the room, it's not by accident. You're meant to be there and to contribute clearly and with impact. So the more you trust that, the more your true voice will ultimately follow. This is Restless Excellence.