Own the Room

Own the Room

How can you develop your leadership? By working on your ability to speak both for yourself and the community.

Author(s): Amy Jen Su, Muriel Maignan Wilkins

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Date of publication: 2012

Manageris opinion

What creates charisma? What makes the difference between managers who have trouble making their voice heard, even though they are appreciated for their performance and loyalty, and those who make their mark on discussions? The coach-authors propose to tackle leadership as the ability to speak both for oneself and the community. When one or the other of these two “voices” takes a back seat, your impact declines. This is true for the executive who focuses primarily on collective success, but whom others perceive as too unassertive. Or the manager whose back goes up immediately to defend his point of view, but who is eventually passed over due to a lack of trust in his ability to defend the interests of the organization as a whole. To develop these two “voices,” the authors invite us to work on three dimensions: how we conceive our role, how we communicate, and the impression we project by our physical presence. They review these dimensions very concretely, and strike a good balance between conciseness and precision. This book makes an original and enlightening contribution regarding the basis of leadership and is rich in practical advice.