C-Suite Leadership

How The CIO and CEO Find Their Own Voice

Leaders who find their own voice drive their organizations; leaders who fail to do so drag their organizations along. Do you know how to find your own voice?

Scott Smeester

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August 20, 2020

Photo credit:
Luke Stackpoole

Voice matters. No matter the vehicle of it, verbal, visual or printed, voice drives your company.

You have a voice. But is it your voice?

We have all met leaders whose ideas were not their own, whose language was borrowed, whose speech was the parrot of another. They may have had a position, but they didn’t have conviction. They may have had the floor, but they didn’t have the force. People didn’t listen because they knew the leader didn’t believe.

I love quotes. I utilize them often in writing or speaking. But the greatest speeches of our times are quote free. Martin Luther King Jr., declaring his dream, was far more potent than if he had quoted a series of others.

Anyone worth following has forged their own voice; that which they speak to is born of originality, molded in the trials of their life, inspired from the dreams in their life. Original voices, even those expressing bad thinking, have moved millions in movements. Why? Because people are looking for a voice to hear and follow. They want your voice.

How do you find your voice?

Over time, my voice has emerged from paying attention to several questions:

  1. Who has made the biggest difference in my life, and what was their one, consistent message that has become a guiding principle for you?
  2. What do you talk about all the time? What have people heard you say before?
  3. What are the frameworks you operate in? How do you filter opportunities? How do you size up a person? What are the tests someone or something has to pass?
  4. What information has made the biggest impact on you? How have you put it into your own words or language?
  5. What are your doubts? What is the other side of that coin? “I don’t know about that, but I know this…”
  6. What has a person said that you wish you said?
  7. What did you learn from the mess in your life?
  8. What have you learned from the successes?

If you fail to find your voice, people will listen only so long until they want to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about.

If you fail to find your voice, your integrity will not hold up over time.

If you fail to find your voice, people will wonder “Where is this coming from” and “What is the agenda behind this?”

Find your voice, and it matters less what you say than that you said it. Find your voice, and people will want to know more. Find your voice, and you are a well to draw from rather than a drink to turn from.

Leaders with voice rarely need to intrude; they are invited in. People want to know what you think because they know that you have thought.

CIO’s and CEO’s especially are drivers; your own voice drives. Betray this, and you will just be spinning wheels.

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