If there’s any doubt in your mind on whether or not you have ability to lead, I want to celebrate right now (and make clear) that you do. You have ability to take time to think a little about what views and ideas are most timely or important. You have ability to lead those ideas toward a little more clarity and share them as a speaker. You have skill to ponder and steward outcomes for how you want your audience to be affected by what you say.
For more perspective: here’s a fantastic, related interview with author Priya Parker about practicing generous authority. I invite you now to let yourself embrace your voice as the anchor to your leadership ability.
Your voice is not just a den of vocal chords. Your voice is where your point of view differentiates, forms, asserts meaning (or denies meaning too or undermines it or confuses it). This is one of a suite of building blocks in my panel moderator leadership & content tutorial: your voice is your leadership.
While observing panel programs, the moderator’s role stood out as a distinct leadership opportunity to me, often unsung or under developed. So I became fascinated in these past 10 years with crafting + consolidating resources to support your leadership as a panel moderator (and speaker overall) to make clear how to forge an experience that captures your panel’s best.
— and for Lorde’s mindset to permeate your esteem in the process!
“I am deliberate…and afraid of nothing.” Audre Lorde
Image The Voices of Poesia by Patrice-Photographiste, Creative Commons License