Hello all, we’ve previously discussed How to Use Your Voice and want to continue on that trend. This is one of the key points in taking responsibility in leadership. No matter what industry you are in, or what your position is, everyone needs to take responsibility in leadership. This includes everyone from executives of a large organization to someone just starting their career taking leadership in their own actions. I’ll show you some essential tips below.

Use Your Voice

We have greatly discussed Tips for Using Your Voice. I’d like to focus on why using your voice is such an important part in taking responsibility of leadership. This includes not only using your voice to express who you are, your goals, and how they fit in with your team. It also includes being able to engage with others. I always find myself saying, “you have to allow everyone to be in the room, not just women.” This includes other people from different cultures and even different regions, as they can offer new and exciting perspectives. This doesn’t just go for those involved “on the floor” or even in my industry. Everyone should have a voice from sales, to engineering, to administrative, and more.

2. Use a Group Voice

Some organizations have rules that only certain people are “allowed in the room” where all the important decisions are made. Why not break these rules? The worst-case scenario of doing so is wasting 10-15 minutes. The worst case in not doing so is missing out on a ground-breaking idea, solution, or other spot of wisdom that can make it all worth while. I myself have seen the success of allowing all voices to speak up in a group. Using the same ones over and over will only get you the same results.

3. Tips for Getting Voices Out

It’s no secret: some people tend to shut down in a group environment. Need someone to open up? Ask them about something they care about. Follow up with thoughtful questions and just listen. Don’t be afraid to share your own experiences or the things you care about. Maybe one of your group participants doesn’t feel comfortable. Is someone being too quiet? Call on them directly to pull them out of that comfort zone. You may engage everyone in a fun activity where they have to collect a bracelet from each participant by getting an answer to a specific question. It’s all about getting them to feel as if their voice is allowed and valued.

4. Marketing Matters

Now that you have a voice, put it to its best use. Marketing is important because it feed sales and vice versa. So these two teams need to talk to each other. They need to know what objectives can be done, how long they take, and other details before making assumptions. Sales people tend to be more focused on numbers, while marketers tend to think of the strategy to get those numbers. These two teams can learn a great deal from each other from what marketing campaign is the most successful to which sales pitch has the lowest numbers.

It is also important for marketers to be “in the room” when ideas are pitched, developed, and finalized. Who knows what sort of ideas and strategies they can get just from being there when the product or service was born?

5. Look at Marketing As a Buyer
Look at it through your own eyes: if you are interested in buying something, you usually have a process before you make the purchase. Do you research it, ask around, read reviews, visit the manufacturer site? It is marketing that fills in the answer to these buyer questions. Part of being a leader is knowing both the questions and the answers.

Remember to tell yourself you are a leader every day. If you don’t believe it, no one else is. Want to hear more on taking the responsibility of leadership? Click here to listen my interview on The Leadership Lanuchpad Project to learn more on how I became a leader before I even knew it, my thoughts on the three types of leadership, and a little on how basketball helped me out.

Sources:
https://app.livestorm.co/upkeep/cdf-leadership-panel
https://app.livestorm.co/upkeep/cdf-mentor-panel
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/empowering-leaders-in-industry-with-charli-matthews/id1530978841?i=1000511062844
https://app.livestorm.co/upkeep/cdf-leadership-panel
https://app.livestorm.co/upkeep/cdf-mentor-panel
https://app.livestorm.co/upkeep/cdf-leadership-panel/live?email=l_fabry%40hotmail.com&key=19db79678f2ae71b067503&s=ca439a51-6516-4816-98aa-353edb500b0c#/chat