The voice everyone hears isn’t always the one running things.
Your leadership in this energy isn’t designed to look like the person with the microphone at the front of the room. It’s the conversation before the meeting that shapes what gets decided. The word to the right person at the right moment. The strategic perspective offered when someone finally asks the question you’ve been sitting with the answer to for weeks. That’s where your influence lives, and it’s more powerful than it looks from the outside.
I often observe this energy in family situations. One parent becomes the voice, the more vocal energy of the parental unit. But it’s often the other parent, the less vocal one, who is the true leader. That was true for me as a child, and it was often the case with our boys in our family. My dad was the voice of authority, but my mom was the energy behind every decision. That same dynamic carried out in our family when I was the stay-at-home mom while the boys were little. For many years, I was the voice off to the side, while my husband was the voice of authority. Over time, that changed, and I took a much more active voice. But that early pattern taught me something. The voice everyone hears isn’t always the one that’s really running things.
When I worked in corporate, my voice often guided my bosses along the way. I wasn’t out front, but I knew the company, the product, and the consumers in a different way. I shared my thoughts along the way, and then often saw them reflected in the final decisions.
In everyday life, this energy means making peace with the behind-the-scenes nature of how you’re wired to lead. You’re the right-hand person, the strategic advisor, the one the decision maker turns to when they need to know which direction to go. That role isn’t lesser than. It’s often where the real work happens.
This energy also means being patient about the invitation. Your influence grows through trust, through demonstrated vision, through showing people over time that when you point toward something, it’s worth paying attention. That kind of credibility can’t be rushed, and it shouldn’t be.
When the invitation comes, and you step into it, something shifts. People can tell the difference between someone whose advice they trust and someone who’s just trying to take charge. Yours is the earned kind.
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
