It doesn’t matter if you are a business owner, work in corporate or in a nonprofit, finding your Leadership Voice is crucial.
Most of the time, experts talk about the skill set you need to be a leader but neglect to mention that when those skill sets don’t work, where does that leave you? Those skill sets are important but they don’t always work in every situation.
When you know your Leadership Voice, you can be nimble in handling every situation. Does that mean the perfect outcome will happen? Of course not. But it will have you in the best position for yourself. You will be leading the situation for yourself and then others.
Sometimes, when I mention lead yourself first, there’s a backlash because it’s interpreted as being selfish. There is nothing farther from the truth.
What do the flight attendants tell us before we take off?
“In case of emergency, put your mask on first, before your child’s.”
The concept is the same. We lead ourselves first because we are responsible and accountable to ourselves so we have the capacity to help and lead others. It shapes your reputation and your integrity because others get to know your personal brand of leading.
That is the key concept in leadership that most don’t talk about in leadership development – personal brand of leading. Whether you are leading personally or professionally, they are both the same. The personal is the professional and the professional is the personal.
Again, something most tell us that can’t happen in the workforce.
Yet, it does every day!
Why – because we are human beings who are shaped not only by our physical DNA but by all our experiences, thoughts and emotions we have had since the moment we came into this world and the doctor cut the umbilical cord. That’s why we bring the personal into the workplace and it’s where we begin our leadership development in finding our voice.
When I first start working with individuals and teams around leadership, not many like that I’ve gone back to our families to begin finding what’s working for us in leadership and what’s not working for us. It’s not a blame game but an understanding of where it all started and how we can reshape your leadership based on your best that will come naturally and much easier once you know what your foundation gave you or didn’t give you.
The work itself is interactive, exploratory and in that aha moment when someone sees the possibilities for a new way of leading, has the ability to tap into neuroscience and actually help change your neural pathways. I would never had believed it until I experienced it myself while getting my certification and literally felt my brain shifting. It’s a combination of skill set, transformation, neuroscience, psychology and interaction with your origins of how you started in the world.
Finding your leadership voice explores the origins and the substance of your leadership in business and in your personal world. It’s important to explore, identify and resolve patterns that rule individuals, organizations, teams and leadership systems. When you are willing to put limiting patterns down that stop your leadership voice from developing, you discover how personal and professional alignment creates an integrated and evolving leadership voice.
Working in the field of human potential, first as a therapist and now as a systemic consultant for over 20 years, I want to show my clients their rightful path to unlimited self-worth, purpose, and success where a major component is leadership. The greatest breakthroughs stem from going deep and finding out what’s at play because it can be passed down from generation to generation.
One of my clients had a limiting pattern that was in the way of her leading her department to its best ways of working within the company. The pattern that kept repeating itself was not within her nucleus family (dad, mom, siblings) but the interaction of a young child with her paternal grandfather. Once recognized, she understood why she was hiring the same person over and over again that stood in her way to lead and have a strong voice.
When I get to help someone identify an inherited behavior pattern, good or bad, it’s transformative. You can literally watch a profound shift take root as they realize how this pattern has affected their leadership and their voice in their career and life. This is when neuroscience enters and the brain begins to rewire. To watch this human reaction as your client becomes unstuck is pure gold.
Here are some basics you can start thinking about for you to discover your true leadership voice that’s ready to come out:
– Identify your current leadership patterns at home and in the workplace.
– See what pattern wants to rest.
– See what new pattern wants to emerge.
– Take simple notes to document and over a few weeks, you will be able to see what is happening for you.
– Review what unresolved family events may be playing out at work and your leadership.
Understand that leadership is an ongoing evolution for all of us. What version of yourself do you need to be to go from your current leadership style to the one who is trying to emerge inside of you? Ask yourself, what would it take to set down the limiting pattern that’s holding up my leadership and voice from emerging?
When you use your own leadership voice, you become more visionary and truly live your purpose and affect the world. My question to you is, “Are you more addicted to the struggle of the limiting pattern than you are to finding your leadership voice?”
If not, contact me. I’d love to have a conversation with you. Connect with me here