How to find your leadership voice

Learn how to develop your leadership voice by aligning your communication with your values and building trust with your team.

Want to inspire your team and lead with confidence? Developing your leadership voice is key. It’s about aligning your communication with your values, building trust, and motivating others. Here’s how you can start:

Define your style: Identify your core values and reflect them in your communication.
Be consistent: Align your words, tone, and body language to build credibility.
Learn from the past: Reflect on key leadership moments to refine your approach.
Use storytelling: Share personal experiences to connect with your team emotionally.
Seek feedback: Encourage honest input to improve your communication.

What Makes a Strong Leadership Voice

Defining Your Communication Style

Your leadership voice combines your values, strengths, and passions into a style that genuinely represents who you are.

Start by identifying your key leadership drivers - whether it's innovation, collaboration, or excellence - and reflect these in every communication. For instance, if transparency is one of your core values, your messages should consistently show openness and honesty.

Then, consider how these values shape the principles that guide your actions.

Elements of Clear Communication

Strong leaders ensure their communication aligns across the three V's: Verbal (the words you use), Vocal (your tone and pace), and Visual (your body language).

"Great leadership is built on a foundation of trust - and establishing trust begins with great interactions. That's where the power of communication comes in. To be a successful leader, at any level in any organization, you must communicate with clarity and confidence, consistently." - Canadian Management Centre

Once you're clear on your communication style and delivery, ensure your words, tone, and actions consistently reflect your leadership values.

Matching Values to Communication

Finding Your Leadership Principles

Your leadership voice becomes stronger when it reflects your core values. Start by pinpointing the principles that guide your decisions and actions as a leader. These values lay the groundwork for clear and purposeful communication.

"Thinking deeply about not only your origins as a leader, but also how you want to be seen and remembered as a leader allows you to become more intentional in your leadership and align your actions with your values".

Your chosen principles influence everything - from your tone to your word choice and even your body language.

Here’s how to define your leadership principles:

Identify Your Core Values: Pick 3–5 values that resonate with you and describe them through specific, actionable behaviours.
Create a Leadership Framework: For each value, outline 2–3 behaviours that others can observe.

Once you’ve identified these values, take time to revisit key leadership moments in your past to see how these principles have already shaped your actions.

Learning from Past Leadership Moments

"Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it".

Think back to the experiences that have shaped your leadership style. What worked during your successes? How did you adapt during challenges? What feedback from your team stood out? These reflections can offer valuable insights into how your values have influenced your leadership.

Aligning Words with Actions

Use what you’ve learned from reflecting on your past to ensure your daily actions align with your values. Consistency between what you say and what you do builds trust and credibility.

Here are a few strategies to keep your communication aligned with your values:

Craft Messages with Purpose: Make sure your words reflect the impact you want to have.
Stay Present: Show genuine interest by being actively engaged in conversations.
Review Your Communication: Regularly check if your messages align with your core values.

Your leadership voice should remain true to your principles while being adaptable enough to connect with different audiences effectively.

How To Find Your Authentic Leadership Voice

Steps to Improve Your Communication

Once your words align with your actions, the next step is refining how you deliver your message through focused practice.

Effective Ways to Practise

Work on synchronising your words, tone, and body language to ensure your message is clear and consistent. These elements should complement one another to effectively convey your intentions.

How to Get Meaningful Feedback

Feedback is a powerful tool for improving communication. Create an atmosphere where team members feel comfortable providing honest input about how you communicate.

"Feedback reveals blind spots and guides your improvement."

Here are some tips for gathering constructive feedback:

Encourage an open and honest environment for specific input
Request forward-thinking suggestions that you can act on
Show you’re listening by being receptive and implementing changes

With consistent practice and actionable feedback, you can use storytelling to make your communication even more impactful.

Using Stories to Lead Better

After fine-tuning your communication skills, consider using stories to create deeper connections within your team. Narratives are a powerful tool - they make information 20 times more memorable than plain facts and can inspire meaningful change.

Connecting Through Team Stories

Storytelling is a great way to build trust and emotional connections within your team. When leaders share personal experiences, they foster a sense of engagement and belonging. Stories that evoke empathy can strengthen relationships among team members. Share anecdotes that reflect your leadership journey and highlight shared challenges or achievements. Picking stories from your own experiences ensures they feel genuine and relatable.

Making Messages Matter

Once you've established an emotional connection, use stories to reinforce your core messages. Make sure each story aligns with your communication style and values.

"Logic makes people think; emotion makes them act."

It's worth noting that audience retention drops significantly - by 40% within a day and 90% within a week. To make your key points stick, consider:

Sharing personal experiences that illustrate important lessons
Analysing stories to understand why they resonate

Speaking to Different Groups

Tailoring your storytelling approach to different audiences helps ensure your message hits home. By understanding your audience's needs and challenges, you can address their specific context.

When speaking to diverse groups:

Understand your audience: Think about their background, experiences, and current challenges.
Adjust your style: Use language and examples that are relevant to their situation.
Stay genuine: Share real experiences that show personal growth.
Be present: Fully engage during your delivery to read and respond to audience reactions.

Conclusion

Finding your leadership voice takes self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and consistent practice. To build a strong and impactful presence, focus on aligning your communication with your values, creating emotional connections, and delivering clear messages.

Key Takeaways

Building presence and staying authentic strengthens relationships and boosts your ability to influence others. Here’s how you can start applying these ideas:

Steps to Keep Growing

Take time to reflect on your values and ensure they align with how you communicate.
Ask for feedback from colleagues or mentors to fine-tune your approach.
Improve your skills by practising public speaking and active listening through specific exercises.

Shaping your leadership voice is a continuous process. Stay engaged, question the status quo, and lead with confidence and respect. Over time, your voice will grow and inspire those around you.