Lead Radical Change By Finding Your Voice
Thought Leadership: Are You Ready to Find Your Voice as a Thought Leader?
I believe that every one of us has a unique voice that needs to be heard. Every single person! But only you can share your unique voice with the world. Indeed, if you don’t, who will? I have also found that those who are able to find their unique voice and share it with an intention to be of service to others have the opportunity to bring about radical change.
For the last decade, many friends and colleagues have asked me to speak, write a book or write a blog to share my thoughts. But I couldn’t find my voice because I believed that the best work is done humbly, behind the scenes. I worried that my voice is not that unique, that I am not that special, and that people might not like what I have to say.
But now that I’ve started writing and sharing my ideas more widely, I am learning that my voice matters and my words are helping people. Not everybody likes everything I have to say but the notes I am getting about how my writing is helping somebody speak up, do their work differently or learn a new skill, inspire me to do more.
My hope is to always plant seeds. This mini-series on “Thought Leadership” is to plant seeds in more people – helping them to find their unique voice and start sharing it with others in ways that work for them. To get started, I have invited one of the leading experts on the topic to get us started.
Denise Brosseau, CEO, Thought Leadership Lab
Are You Ready to Find Your Voice as a Thought Leader?
As a consultant in the arena of personal branding and thought leadership, I’ve long been fascinated by how others view the role of thought leaders and thought leadership. Twice in the last week I’ve had people tell me they could never be a thought leader because thought leadership is really only the purview of extraverts and people who like being in the limelight.
But is this truly the case?
Or is the journey from leader to thought leader more about finding and honoring your voice, identifying a cause, issue, or idea that matters enough to overcome your reticence to speak up, or building your expertise little by little until the idea of being in the limelight is no longer frightening, but instead seen as an opportunity to make a difference?
In my experience, the journey from leader to thought leader is often driven by one of these.
Honoring Your Own Voice May Mean Overcoming Years of Programming
Depending on the family or the culture you grew up in, there may have been a spoken or unspoken expectation that ‘children should be seen and not heard' or a tradition that the family patriarch or matriarch will be listened to, while others…not so much. When we’re raised to believe that others’ ideas and perspectives matter far more than our own, it can take a while before we step into and honor our own voice.
Add to that the dominant media (movies, books, television) narratives that showcase some stories while overlooking others, that feature some perspectives while ignoring many more, and it is no surprise that the vast majority of immigrants, people of color, women, and those without wealth or connections came to adulthood believing that their voices were not only not going to be listened to, they were not going to be believed, honored or respected.
It often takes considerable effort to overcome these externalities, especially when they are internalized as ‘the truth’. We first must recognize the subtle and not so subtle programming that we received, then we must proactively and consistently replace those narratives with a new one – that actually others want to…indeed need to hear our voice.
It isn’t easy, I’ll admit.
It is often far simpler to fall back into our old, comfortable ways -- sitting back and letting others’ ideas and voices dominate. Falling back under the spell of our internal ‘itty-bitty-shitty-committee’ that tells us that we don’t matter or that others are far more confident and capable to carry the ideas forward, even when they are our ideas that others are taking credit for.
When Others Take Credit for Our Ideas…We Get Galvanized into Action
Sometimes, what pushes us out of our comfort zone is a situation just like that -- seeing others writing or speaking about something that we’ve been thinking or experiencing or mentioning privately, or worse still hearing others take credit for our ideas without honoring where those ideas originated. That inner discontent, or even fury, when nurtured, can galvanize a whole set of new actions that might previously have been seen as impossible.
That was certainly true of my friend Laura, a super smart foundation leader who often conversed privately with her organization’s CEO about her perspectives about the future of philanthropy in their sector, only to see him repeat her ideas in meetings without giving her credit. When he later drafted an article for SSIR based entirely on her views, and the piece became one of the most popular on the site, she realized it was time to change her ways. She could no longer be privately angry that he was building his name on her ideas, instead, she needed to claim those ideas for her own, by writing her own articles and giving her own talks at industry events.
Finding Your Imperative Can Change Everything
In other cases, it is seeing others getting it wrong that pushes us to speak up. When Stephanie Sarazin’s seemingly perfect marriage of more than 20 years abruptly ended following the revelation that her partner was not who he seemed, she went through a long period of grieving and mourning. Unfortunately, everywhere she turned for help people shared the Kubler-Ross model of grieving as a way to help her recover from her loss. But what Stephanie quickly realized is that this model was created to help someone through the grief experienced by the death of a loved one, not the ambiguous grief experienced when we lose a loved one who is still alive but no longer as they once were. She also began to meet others who were experiencing ambiguous grief due to a family member with Alzheimer’s, drug addiction, or other life-altering conditions.
Over time, despite never having been someone who had been in the spotlight before, Serazin started Rise Up Rooted, offering tools, frameworks, and community to others seeking support. She began speaking and writing and connecting with others who were working in adjacent fields, identifying partners who could share her ideas more widely. She would never have imagined a few years ago that she would be playing this role, but she also knew that the ideas she had uncovered and developed could help many others who were similarly struggling to find peace in the midst of loss. Often, it is when we find that imperative -- an issue, cause, or idea that truly matters to us, that are called to share, that we get into action, despite our fears.
Hone Your Voice by Playing the Small Venues First
So, what do we do to overcome our fear of the limelight and find our voice if we don’t have someone stealing our ideas, or we haven’t yet found our imperative? Perhaps we can learn from Jerry Seinfeld. I was scrolling through Netflix or Amazon last year and I stumbled on a documentary about Seinfeld preparing for a show. Night after night he was dropping in to small comedy clubs all around New York City, trying out his jokes over and over, watching people’s reactions, seeing if they laughed and at what, tweaking, and then trying again the next night. This is after Jerry was already a famous comedian…he was still starting over from scratch, playing the small venues first before attempting to get in front of a large audience…practicing, honing, and refining his craft.
Seinfeld exemplified the discipline and the craft of thought leadership. We can’t possibly know what people want to hear if we don’t test and iterate and pay attention to our audience’s interests and responses. We can’t get better if we don’t practice, starting in smaller, safe(r) venues, with the humbleness of the beginner’s mind. Then, when we have the opportunity to step onto a larger stage, we are confident not just of our message but of our ability to stand in the limelight and shine.
Get Started Today
What will you do this year to overcome whatever cultural or familial messages might be holding you back from sharing your ideas? What cause, experience or idea will galvanize you to take action? And how will you play the small venues first to ensure you are ready for the larger stage? Read on for other ideas from Prashanthi Ravanavarapu.
About the Author Denise Brosseau
Denise Brosseau is a thought leadership strategist, leadership coach, consultant and speaker. She works with leaders and their teams who want to get their voices heard, advance important causes, build their brand and reputation, and spread their ideas widely through thought leadership. She is the author of the best-seller Ready to Be a Thought Leader? and she has two popular courses on thought leadership on LinkedIn Learning. Learn more by joining her mailing list at www.thoughtleadershiplab.com.