The person least able to speak persuasively may have the strongest claim to be heard.

Being able to argue well is a skill, and it is distributed unevenly for reasons that have nothing to do with the strength of anyone’s claim. Someone tired, frightened, unpractised, or speaking in a second language may hold the most important point in the room and lose to a fluent person with a weaker case. Rooms reward articulacy and mistake it for being right.

So listen for what someone is trying to say rather than how well they said it. If you run meetings, build in ways for the less confident case to be made, in writing, in advance, in private. And notice when you have won an exchange mainly because you are better at exchanges.