Why Having a Voice Matters in Leadership
In leadership, silence can sometimes feel safer than speaking up. Yet, authentic leadership is not about holding back. It’s about finding and using your voice with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Coaching plays a crucial role in helping leaders uncover their voice, refine it, and utilise it to influence, inspire, and create meaningful change.
The Power of Having a Voice
A voice is more than just words. It symbolises identity, perspective, and agency. Leaders who use their voice effectively don’t merely communicate; they influence culture, ignite innovation, and promote belonging.
Research on psychological safety shows that when people feel secure to speak up, organisations become more adaptable and resilient (Edmondson, 1999; 2019). Silence, however, suppresses creativity and breeds fear.
Voice is also crucial to emotional intelligence. As Daniel Goleman (1998) highlights, the ability to recognise and manage our own emotions while understanding others’ emotions is key to effective communication. Leaders who align their voice with authenticity and empathy display behaviours that build trust and foster collaboration. These insights remind us that finding one’s voice is not just a personal skill, but a foundation for collective success.
Coaching as a Pathway to Voice
Coaching provides a safe and confidential space to explore what holds us back from speaking with authenticity. Leaders often discover that their hesitancy is not about a lack of ideas or insight, far from that. Instead, it is often linked to confidence, past experiences, or fear of judgment.
Recently, one of my coaching clients, a senior manager at a large not-for-profit organisation, asked me to work with her on voice and positioning as part of her search for a new professional chapter. She used to freeze when she introduced herself in an interview or just after her introduction, and then lost her train of thought. Although she definitely had the knowledge and skills for the roles she applied for, her inner voice would be filled with doubt.
In our coaching sessions, she reflected on what she perceived as “failed” interviews and uncovered how these experiences shaped her anxiety. Together, we worked in partnership at a deeper level of self-confidence — reconnecting her with her strengths, clarifying the unique value she brings, and reshaping her inner dialogue from self-doubt to self-belief. This deep work was complemented by practical strategies, such as pausing, breathing, and centring herself before speaking. Over time, this combination of reflection and practice enabled her to move from silence and fear to expressing herself with calm confidence.
This is just one of many examples, but it sparked me to write this article. It illustrates how professional coaching, grounded in the ICF Core Competencies (ICF, 2025), enables transformation through deep-level trust. Through reflection and practice, leaders learn to use their voice not only to communicate but to create conditions for meaningful change.
Why It Matters for Leadership
Leadership today is not about command and control; it’s about conversation and co-creation. Whether in boardrooms, community settings, or international responses, leaders must engage in dialogue that includes diverse voices. Without this, we risk decisions made in echo chambers, detached from the realities of people and communities.
When leaders use their voice with integrity:
They foster trust and transparency
They model courage for their teams
They shape healthier, more inclusive cultures
They open doors for others, especially those whose voices are too often unheard
One of my clients, a leader managing a diverse team, believed that being “soft and caring” would undermine his authority. His default voice was sharp, sometimes abrupt, leaving his team disengaged. Through our coaching partnership, he explored the false choice he felt forced to make between strength and empathy. By reflecting deeply on his values and experimenting with new ways of expressing himself, he discovered that authority and compassion could coexist. As he shifted, his team began to engage more openly, building trust and collaboration.
And this is why having a voice matters for leadership at every level, because it determines not only how we show up, but how others are empowered to show up too.
Beyond the Individual: Creating Space for Others
Leadership isn’t only about having a voice; it’s also about lifting others. Coaching helps leaders create a space where team members can share their views safely and meaningfully. This shift from “the leader’s voice” to “every voice matters” fosters stronger, more innovative teams.
As Kouzes and Posner (2017) note, exemplary leaders empower others to act by fostering collaboration and amplifying the voices of others. This generates ripple effects beyond the individual, embedding inclusivity and resilience into organisational culture.
Having a voice matters because leadership is about influence, impact, and integrity. Coaching helps leaders uncover the clarity and courage to use their voice, not to dominate, but to connect, inspire, and empower others. And in doing so, leaders set the tone for workplaces and communities where everyone feels they can make a meaningful contribution.
A question to leave you with: In your leadership, are you holding back – or are you using your voice to shape the conversations that matter most?
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly
Edmondson, A. (2019). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books
International Coaching Federation (ICF). (2025). ICF Core Competencies, updated version, ICF
Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2017). The Leadership Challenge (6th ed.). Wiley