? How often have you felt uneasy making a contribution at a meeting or sharing your thoughts, needs, and feelings with significant others even though you had a strong yearning to do so? The fear of not saying it right, of your feelings and needs not being taken seriously or simply being rejected, has kept you holding yourself back for years. When have you felt that, in spite of all the effort you put into your work, you are not noticed or promoted? You feel invisible—unnoticed, overused, and undervalued. The truth is that you cannot keep quiet and expect to be heard, and you cannot hide and expect to be seen. Did you know that your inability to own your voice and visibility stems from old patterns in your life that have held you back? These old patterns inform the choices you make, the decisions you have taken, and how you behave, which reinforces the outcomes you get. 1. You will go through “sourcing practices” to unlock the patterns that have held you back from becoming your best self. 2. The 4-step formula for breaking through those patterns 3. The skills and capacities that will enable you to get the outcomes you want from your communication with people 4. Prepare to walk through doors of opportunities that only having a voice and visibility can bring to you. Having trained as a teacher and being somewhat extroverted, talking and joking was my favourite pastime. In fact, I have often been commended for being an excellent public speaker, so for me, that was what voice and visibility were about. It wasn’t until my mid-forties that I realised I was often hesitant to express my opinion on issues in professional settings. I was constantly second-guessing myself. Also, I was constantly resisting any attempt to articulate my achievements or contributions, for fear that it would be seen as arrogance. It was then that I realised that there was more to owning one’s voice and visibility than I thought. As a counsellor and a coach, I have learned to apply these two qualities in ways that harness my own growth and that of others. In my 30 years of professional practice, I have helped all of my coaching clients find their voice and visibility. This has included people who were afraid to make contributions in their workplace, those who were afraid to speak in public and before large crowds, others who could not share their feelings and needs with their loved ones, people who felt they were not enough and did not want to be seen, those who wished to articulate major decisions to their superiors but did not knowhow, and those who needed tomarket themselves appropriately to shift fromwhere they found themselves to open up to the opportunities they yearned for. In my family, I have supported all three of my children, Gifty Addobea Twum (a contract and compliance legal writer and an expert in international business law and arbitration), Natalie Fort (a broadcast journalist and news anchor), and Daniel Ohene Twum (an architect), to own their voices and visibility, step into their destiny contributions, and become impactful in society. QUESTIONS TO PONDER What is your voice? How do you hone that voice to create the visibility you need to excel and impact the space you have been provided? yellow feathers likewell-tailored clothing, their delightful chirps holding volumes of coded gossip. Lemons are in full bloom, hanging off trees like Chinese lanterns, giving off images of well-lit streets. Pollen dust sweeps across the streets, beckoning to butterflies and bees. Yellow-colored fish adorn the aquarium, adding a touch of magic to the pure, clear water. Most of all, the sun smiles from the sky, giving off warmth and hope, bright and clear as yellow can be. Sure, Adoley. The colour yellow is associated with optimism, energy, joy, and intellect. Owning your voice and visibility evokes these qualities while brightening up the spaces in which you present yourself. 37
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTAyMTM3NQ==