Sorry... Can I Just Finish?
What being interrupted at work teaches us about power, voice and leadership.
Picture the scene.
You're halfway through explaining an idea. Someone starts talking over you. You pause. They continue. The room follows them.
Your sentence disappears.
If you're a woman, there's a good chance this doesn't feel unusual. Because it isn't.
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WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE 2023 · 27,000+ EMPLOYEES · 276 ORGANISATIONS Women are 2× as likely as men to be interrupted — and to hear comments about their emotional state. |
For many women, interruption isn't an occasional annoyance. It's part of the landscape.
This Isn't About Manners
It would be easy to dismiss interruption as poor etiquette. It isn't.
Interruption is most often a signal about power. Who is expected to speak. Whose ideas are considered important. Whose voice the room naturally follows.
Sometimes people interrupt because they are enthusiastic. Sometimes because they are unaware. Sometimes because they simply think faster than they listen. And sometimes because the dynamics of the room quietly permit it.
The point is not to assume bad intent. The point is to recognise that interruption is rarely experienced equally.
The Cost Of Being Interrupted
The obvious cost is that your sentence never gets finished.
The hidden cost is what happens next.
You begin editing yourself, or speaking more quickly. Waiting for bigger gaps. Choosing safer contributions.
Eventually, some people stop offering ideas altogether. Not because they have nothing to say, but because they have learned, through experience, that getting to the end of a sentence is uncertain. (The same study found that women who experience these microaggressions are far less likely to feel psychologically safe — which makes it harder to take risks, propose ideas or raise concerns.)
Voice doesn't disappear overnight. It erodes. One interruption at a time.
And an interruption may not just be verbal. Sometimes you're silenced with a look — or a hand.
So What Should You Do?
This is where much communication advice falls short. It offers techniques:
Speak louder. Interrupt back. Take up more space. Project authority. Work on your presence.
Sometimes those things work. Sometimes they simply escalate the situation. And notice — they all rely on the individual changing their behaviour, not on the conditions in which they operate.
Voice Intelligence requires a different starting point: a question.
What is your most important objective in this moment? Is it:
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WHAT ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO DO? To finish the sentence? To influence the decision? To preserve the relationship? To challenge the behaviour? To choose a better moment? |
Those are different outcomes, and they require different responses. Here are two.
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Option 1 — Hold the floor Choose to continue speaking. Calmly. Without apologising. Without raising your voice. "I'd like to finish this point, if I may — then I'd love to hear your perspective." It reclaims the floor and keeps the relationship intact. That isn't aggression. It's conviction. |
Option 2 — Choose a different moment Sometimes the room is no longer capable of hearing you. Politics, hierarchy or emotion have changed the conditions. Send the email. Arrange the one-to-one. Return when people can listen. This is strategic silence — chosen by you, not imposed by the interruption. |
The distinction that matters: silence and surrender are not the same thing. In Option 2 your voice stays available and your judgement stays intact — you've simply chosen a better channel. The decision is yours, not the interruption's.
The Responsibility Of Leaders
There is another audience for this conversation. Leaders.
Because interruption is not only an individual experience. It is a cultural signal.
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WHAT LEADERS SHOULD NOTICE Who gets interrupted. Whose ideas get picked up only after somebody else repeats them. Who apologises before speaking. Whose confidence is quietly shrinking over time. |
These are not simply communication patterns. They are conditions. And leaders shape conditions.
The PowerVox Perspective
One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership is that voice is simply the ability to speak.
It isn't.
Voice is the ability to ensure your judgement has a fair opportunity to enter the room. Sometimes that means holding the floor. Sometimes it means making space for somebody else. Sometimes it means choosing another moment entirely.
Voice Intelligence is not measured by how often you speak. It is measured by whether your voice remains available when the moments that matter arrive.
Because being interrupted is not a skills gap. It is often a power dynamic.
You can only control your own actions, thoughts and behaviours. You can influence the conditions around you — but more often than not, you have to navigate them, developing your Voice Intelligence with those conditions taken into account.
At PowerVox we've spent years in boardrooms, courtrooms, meeting rooms, and amidst the dynamics that shape leadership behaviour. Helping leaders — women leaders in the first instance, as they have the most urgent need — develop the capability to keep their voice available under pressure is our mission.
And we won't be interrupted from that mission now we've begun.
Research Reference
LeanIn.Org & McKinsey & Company (2023). Women in the Workplace 2023. Based on data from 276 participating organisations and more than 27,000 employees across corporate America and Canada.
Curious how available your own voice stays under pressure? You can take our VQ Assessment here (opens in a new window) — it measures all six dimensions of your Voice Quotient™, including Conviction.
We hope you've enjoyed this blog post. If you're interested in working with PowerVox you can email us [email protected]. Learn more about The Greenhouse at https://www.powervox.co.uk/the-greenhouse. To find out more about PowerVox Play Sessions, visit https://www.powervox.co.uk/studio-play. You can also follow us on social media, using the handles at the footer of our website.
