Hey ,

Imagine walking into the room and already making an impact with your mere PRESENCE. 

Imagine leading conversations where everyone feels included and part of the team. 

I'm going to share with you 3 things you can do:

1 - Create opportunities for others to speak. Practice "directing the spotlight"

As leaders, you may naturally receive more spotlight (aka, people have their eyes on you as you speak).

Real leaders know how to direct the spotlight by creating opportunities for others in your team to speak.

I used to assume that being a leader is to speak well, know the answers to everything and be the loudest in the room.

Turns out I was wrong - both on grounds of research and my personal experiences.

Leaders who talk 90% of the time and have the strongest, often overpowering, opinion in the room - these are leaders I tend to listen out of intimidation.

Leaders who create safe spaces and facilitate diverse discussions, allowing everyone in the team to speak - these are leaders I admire, respect, and deeply connect with.

Recent research and surveys done by Deloitte University Press shared actual quotes by employees that illustrate some of the tangible behaviours of inclusive vs non-inclusive leaders.

Inclusive Leaders:

• Aren't afraid to share their personal weaknesses: “[This leader] will openly ask about information that she is not aware of. She demonstrates a humble unpretentious work manner. This puts others at ease, enabling them to speak out and voice their opinions, which she values.”

• Acknowledge team members as individuals: “[This leader] leads a team of over 100 people and yet addresses every team member by name, knows the work stream that they support and the work that they do.”

The LEAST Inclusive Leaders:

• Overpowers others: “He can be very direct and overpowering which limits the ability of those around him to contribute to meetings or participate in conversations.”

• Discounts alternative views: “[This leader] can have very set ideas on specific topics. Sometimes it is difficult to get an alternative view across. There is a risk that his team may hold back from bringing forward challenging and alternative points of view.”

Do the above look or sound familiar to you? Do you know of leaders who display such behaviours? Have YOU yourself display such behaviours?

As an extrovert, I used to dominate conversations unknowingly. I say whatever is on my mind with excitement, without realising that others may want to speak (they simply take a bit longer to process and prepare what they want to say).

One of my earlier coaches asked me: "Rae, after each conversation you have, do you actually know anything new about the person? Or are you the only one talking?"

This was when I realised - Owning Your Voice is NOT just about working on identifying your unique voice and communicating effectively.

Owning Your Voice is also acknowledging that communication is a two-way street. This means we need to learn how to:

• Actively listen and observe (down to observing the nuances of someone's facial expressions to know how they feel during the conversation/ discussion)
• Set the frame and create a safe space for everyone to have the opportunity to contribute
• Facilitation and direction of discussions, building rapport and camaraderie

On the other hand, if you consider yourself a leader but you're afraid to enter conversations and share your perspective, then directing the spotlight means you pluck up the courage to enter circles by asking questions.

Leaders see the BIGGER PICTURE. They don't speak (and keep or avoid) the spotlight for the sake of it... they speak or hold back on speaking - all for a purpose.

2 - Shifting the energy in a room starts by first shifting the energy within yourself.

Owning Your Voice as a leader is learning how to shift the energy in the room. A leader brings an uplifting and influential energy into the room, shifting it when necessary. It's not just what they're DOING, it's how they're BEING.

Being a leader starts with leading YOURSELF.

If you don't lead yourself and you try to lead others, you're not a leader, you're simply performing leadership.

Leading yourself as in:

• Leading your thoughts (first, observing your thoughts, feeling your emotions, shifting the way you respond to challenges)
• Growing your awareness to know when you're not living in alignment or being honest with yourself
• Caring less about what others think about you and instead focus on how you feel about yourself

^^ Because when you do all of this, you'll effortlessly shift energy in any room. Leading and shifting energy in the room requires you to first be present, and by leading yourself you'll start growing to be more and more present.

Most of my clients work with me because they want to speak with greater impact, and deep down they know that the work starts from the inside.

Shift your inner world, and the outer world shifts with it.

If you're committed to doing the inner work together with the outer work to lead with your voice, here's a special invite for you :) [before I share the final point number 3..!]

A SPECIAL INVITE

If you want become a confident, inspired, and CONSISTENT creator so you can magnify your impact and establish thought leadership, I’ll love to invite you to consider this limited-time opportunity!

As you may know, we just wrapped up the Rising Leaders House Party 🎉

I’ve created 3 perspective shifting lessons that will help you become more strategically-intuitive in your writing, speaking and content creation.

Here’s what some peeps said about the course!

Here’s the thing: I’ll be putting this course out for purchase soon, and it’ll be a self-paced learning course.

But what makes it ULTRA effective is the 1-1 coaching you get with it. I won’t be offering this course with the 1-1 coaching included for long. If you’re keen to experience coaching with me (which usually only my oyv coachees in my 4-figures coaching program have access to), then this is your chance!

I’ll love to support you and get you started in owning your voice at a whole new level.

Simply purchase here, and you’ll get instant access to the lessons! You’ll then receive an email on how to book your 1-1 call with me within 48 hours.

Sign me up!

Now last but not least...

3 - Embrace the screw ups. In fact, take advantage of it!

It's okay to screw up - in whatever contexts - because we're human. In the context of using your voice for example - if you start rambling or say something unplanned...

A. Pause, Breathe and Centre yourself. Allow yourself to rest in the moment instead of feeling the need to blabber on. Breathing gives you that supply of oxygen into your brain so you can start thinking clearly. 

B. Redirect the attention, Laugh it off, Move on! Some examples are:

• Speak your inner dialogue. You can say “oh wow, I just lost my train of thought, Jenna, do you wanna go first?” You can be confident in your imperfection. It's not about the 'mistake' itself, but how you respond to the mistake.
• Smile it off, laugh it off. — i.e. Once, my voice cracked when I started my speech (in front of an entire auditorium of C-suite execs) I took a deep breath, laughed it off and said “Opps! My voice hasn’t had its coffee yet” Everyone laughed and we moved on!

Remember, being a leader starts with how you lead your thoughts - in every moment. So set intentions, look at the bigger picture, and never stop building a relationship with your unique voice.

Remember, you’ve light in you that the world is waiting to see. Go thrive 🫶🏻💗<3

Love,

Rae x