A professional performance coach shares advice on how to become a leader in this well-organized guide to understanding your own personal values and authentically express them, whether in a team at work or as a mentor and example to others in your personal life.

Former business executive and Certified Professional Performance Coach Paul Larsen has developed his philosophy over twenty-five years of studying many organizational systems, listening to other inspirational guides, and living the tenets he teaches. In his introduction he lays out the simple model that he will follow—his definition of “voice”: Values (find and utilize your own core values), Outcomes (know your goal from the beginning), Influence (be someone that others admire), Courage (don’t hesitate to make bold decisions when necessary), and Expression (learn techniques to express your ideas in a way that others can easily grasp). Each chapter focuses on one of these aspects of the “voice” model. He offers convincing examples for each key concept, and ends the chapter with questions designed to point you to your strengths and weaknesses and give clues as to how to improve and expand the positives. He has created short statements illustrating the right and wrong leadership style with regard to each key concept (“You are confident,” or, “You are insecure”). He has prepared five declarations that demonstrate each concept, and cleverly, he ties the five concepts to the five days of the work week, offering practical daily action plans.

By presenting both the philosophical and the concrete elements of the concept of “voice,” Larsen gives the reader food for thought and an energizing push to action. Being a facilitator and motivator who regularly takes these written concepts on the road and helps real people utilize them directly, he writes in a straightforward, compelling manner, as though he were talking to the reader face-to-face. He invites us to use the book as we wish, while constantly reminding us that being an effective leader, using one’s “leadership voice,” is a choice and a commitment. It requires work and self-examination. But it’s worth the effort.

Larsen doesn’t hesitate to quote from other self-help gurus, but the techniques and ideas detailed in this book are clearly his own. He communicates his personal abilities as a leader—control, realism, passion, organization—as he engagingly invites others to develop these qualities in themselves.

FIND YOUR VOICE AS A LEADER is a solid working model for leadership, encouraging us to study and use our personal Values to create Outcomes that will Influence others, with Courage to find and perfect our own means of Expression.

~IndieReader