Have You Found Your Voice?

It’s a question I keep hearing. Raise your hand, speak up, lean in, and dive in? We, as a collective of ambitious women – and those who coach, employ and inspire us – are dedicating a lot of time to figuring out how we can communicate better by improving our delivery and presence, how to better negotiate, and how to build our confidence to get our message across. But wait—before you find your confidence to speak your mind, what exactly is it that you want to share? What do you want the world to hear?

Last week marked the passing of legendary poet and author, Maya Angelou. The following day, I attended a conference of 1800 women, and this quote from Maya was shared, “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

I think this is a perfect focus for women. Everyday I see this practiced from young to senior women, from coast to coast. We do not have all the answers, but we have songs and value that contribute, collaborate and influence for the better.

What if this week, instead of asking yourself how you’re going to get your point across, think about your song, your message—what do you want to accomplish with your voice?

Over the last couple of weeks, Women of Influence has heard from some incredible voices. We heard from senior executives at our Global Women of Influence dinner in DC; at our Ottawa luncheon, keynote speaker Sally Armstrong was honoured with a standing ovation; and last but not least, high profile influencer Martha Stewart spoke at The Art of Leadership for Women conference. These events all touched on how we can help women to find their voices.

This is WHY I’m so excited to offer my own advice by way of a workshop on how to Find your Passion. Join me on June 24th at The Spoke Club in Toronto for a day of working it out and designing an action plan to take you one step closer, right now, to living it.

Read about how I found my passion here.

If you haven’t met me yet, this video will share my passion.

What to read right now:

• Harvard Business Review: Women, Find your Voice

• Winning From Within

• You First

Here’s to you finding your voice!

Ps: For our Diversity champions out there, did you see that Barbara Annis released her new book on Gender Intelligence?