Know Yourself - to Empower Your Self, Team and Company
by Christine N. Lee
How can looking inward empower your next level journey for your career and company? Further, what is the value of having employees who know and lead with their strengths, and the company impact of building team synergies bolstered by, and not intimidated, by the varying strengths represented in the room?
Our modern work environment is shifting quickly and will continue to evolve quicker than we’d like. The reality is that just knowing the landscape of how things work in our
industry or city will no longer be enough. In order to navigate your career and company well, you have to know yourself well - and ultimately, lean into your strengths and intrinsic motivations, in order to lead yourself and your team powerfully.
The Five Voices Framework by GiANT Worldwide is a powerful summary of your wired-in strengths and intrinsic motivations - both at work and in life. Simply put, you bring more value when you operate out of what you value. In this way, identifying your natural leadership strengths and motivations helps maximize your contributions to your company - and develop your personal “hedgehog concept” à la Jim Collins’ Good to Great.
Could this be a test of your self-awareness? Absolutely. But the Five Voices Assessment is meant to empower, not to intimidate. Understanding your natural strengths and motivations captured by the Five Voices Framework will catapult your contributions to the next level, while also empowering you to intentionally lead others based on their Leadership Voices as well. And next to leading yourself well, developing an effective leadership pipeline in a healthy work culture is arguably the most important objective for thriving companies today.
The 5 Voices Assessment stands out from the other assessments in both efficacy and empowerment:
While the Working Genius and Strengths Finder identify person-to-task orientation, the Five Voices identify people-to-people orientation - this enables building effective teams who lead and communicate better and build powerful synergies, instead of working in silos.
EOS is a powerful implementer but less effective at the most important, early stages of aligning people with strategy and vision. Only after you have set the correct course with the right people on the bus, will implementation matter - otherwise, you can head off speedily in the wrong direction and end up in the wrong place altogether.
The DISC profile is similarly limited in observing external behaviors but short on training for development - is everyone meant to fall in line to further the Dominant style’s objective, or are there powerful next steps to growing and developing everyone’s’ leadership and influence and building team alignment which will multiply impact for each individual and ultimately achieve that much more to the team?
Lastly - Whereas MBTI and Enneagram fall short in applications to the workplace, the Five Voices assessments are designed for maximizing work team effectiveness and alignment while also having powerful implications for how we lead ourselves in all our spheres of life.
The Five Voices can empower you beyond your current role to maximize your contribution, leadership, and communication to the next level and build powerful teams and companies. Through our training, we have seen clients upleveling their team contributions and leadership to attain promotions at Northrup Grumman, Collins RTX, USBank, Daimler Truck North America, and more. We also partner with companies to build thriving work cultures where intentional alignment of empowered voices elevates team deliverables and company performance for the long haul.
Imagine a work team where the Creative voice is able to capitalize on future opportunities and communicate clearly - the Guardian speaks into possible gaps and respectfully helps substantiate dreams into plans - the Pioneer executes on the plan and spearheads new initiatives while letting others speak first - the Connector multiplies resources and impact by selling the deliverable to enthusiastic buyers - all the while the Nurturer operates as the relational oil for the team so that this dynamic troupe could and would want to work together for the long haul - this is the power of the Five Voices at work in your world, and this is only just one possible scenario of the synergy within reach.
What’s more, because everyone has all five voices within them, but in different ordering by strengths, each person’s Voice Order enables intentional alignment between team members - by empowering each individual to elevate varying voices within themselves in order to better communicate with a different Voice in the room. This is powerful team alignment in action.
The Five Voices also provides salient pathways for growth and development for each individual as well, by intentionally developing a lower voice - which will multiply impact and effectiveness for the individual, team and company as a whole.
Take a plunge and see for yourself what the Five Voices training can do for your leadership. You can take your Five Voices assessment - with the caveat that the assessment has 50% accuracy due to aspirational answering - but you can certainly utilize it as a starting point for your leadership growth journey.
Knowledge and insights alone won’t change you, though. Workout regimens are what build your new leadership muscles. This is the difference between music appreciation vs. being a formidable pianist, and the gap between having a big brain vs. having big muscles - and we can absolutely help you build salient muscle memory of powerful leadership behaviors well-suited to your Voice.
So consider joining our Next Level Leaders Training to identify and work out your particular leadership muscles, and gain new muscle memory in how you can lead and show up to all the teams in your life. These salient leadership tools powered by GiANT Worldwide, can help you make maximum impact right where you are - in your self-leadership, your team, and your company.
