25/09/2026
A senior engineer led a product line for a decade. After the merger, she goes quiet in planning meetings. This has nothing to do with how much she has to offer. The problem is that she needs a few extra seconds to form her point in English, and the meeting has already moved on.
This is one of the most expensive things that happens after a deal closes, and it rarely shows up in any report. The most fluent speakers start to dominate. They talk faster, fill more of the airtime, and shape the decisions and the email threads, regardless of who actually knows the most. Expertise gets excluded, not because it is missing, but because it cannot keep pace with the conversation.
Left alone, it compounds. The people who go quiet in week two are often the people you most need to retain, and their silence gets misread as either agreement or a lack of capability.
Closing the gap is practical. Give people business English coaching tailored to their real scenarios before the high-visibility moments. Create lower-risk settings to practice. Slow the meetings down enough that a few seconds of thought does not cost someone their seat at the table.
How to close the confidence gap after a merger: https://hubs.li/Q04slFsN0
