your voice is tool of leadership

This morning, in conversation with colleagues on the topic of voice as a tool of leadership, I remembered myself as a bright-eyed bushy-tailed 24 year old bossbabe in her first job. 

Sitting at the Mount Nelson, around the boardroom table for a strategic breakaway with 12 other people... definitely the youngest person on our management team, which we affectionately called  "Oceans 13". 

I remember the rich brown of the wooden table and the room's old-world ornateness. I remember being so lit up by the dialogue. The mental stimulation of the conversations. The fascinating concepts and the positioning of topics to get us all thinking outside the box. As an ideas girl, outside the box is my favourite place. 

I remember having things to say, with all the permission to say it, but holding it all on lockdown internally... waiting, waiting... waiting for the right time, waiting for the right cue;  only for someone else to share what I had been thinking and have the whole room agree them.

Dammit. I missed my opportunity. I doubted the value of my perspective, which is to say - I doubted my value.  I was looking for some morsel of validation that it would be "good enough" only to miss the boat entirely.  I would continue to do this for the rest of that afternoon. 

And I would continue to do this on and off, for years still.  This exhausting waiting game, having to summon gargantuan courage simply to speak up and take my gap in the silences between other enthusiastic voices. 

That 24 year old would be so proud of us now. 

I've come to see and know that the voice is one of the most powerful leadership tools available to a person;  and there is nothing I love more than to teach you how to use it like a musical instrument, 

like a pied piper, 

like the noon gun, 

like a love song, 

like a candle in the dark, 

like a floodlight, 

like thunder, 

like poetry.

The boardroom can be an intimidating, high-stakes place and not always the safest training ground to find one's voice. 

You might think that by the time someone has earned their right to be at the table, they would have mastered this skill - but this is not always the case. 

In all instances  the responsibility lies on both ends: 

Firstly, on each person to own their proverbial howl. 

And secondly, on the leader.  More specifically, on their values and how that impacts the team culture. On the set up of the environment and the structure of the gathering. These things either create equality and safety for each voice in the room, or undermine it. 

Whether you're navigating your own personal boardroom presence, or whether you're a leader desiring to build greater potency and authenticity in your leadership team discussions - Howling Wolf can support you.  The personal and the systemic are always influencing each other and we have tools for both.