Why can I argue with friends for hours but go completely blank around senior people at work?
This has become a serious professional problem for me and I’m trying to understand what’s actually going on.
I’m articulate with friends/family like I can argue about politics, history, philosophy etc. But put me in a room with senior people or clients and I become almost completely silent. Sometimes someone asks me a simple question and I genuinely can’t form a coherent sentence.
It’s not just nervousness, I assume.
I’ve tried preparing scripts, but that’s becoming a crutch. I’m now experimenting with webinars where nobody knows me, extempore speaking, recording myself, and gradually speaking without scripts.
\*\*Has anyone experienced this exact difference where you articulate normally, but cognitively blank under professional/status pressure and actually managed to change it? What genuinely worked for you?\*\*
I’m especially interested in people who used to be \*the quiet person in the room\* and aren’t anymore. What changed?