⏳ Read Time: 4 min

New here? Read about the BETTER Team and Mission here.

📌 What’s inside:

• 🧭 How Leadership → Culture → Performance connects to identity

• 🧬 Why your leadership is shaped by nature, nurture, and choice

• 🎙️ What we’ve learned from the Voices of 1,000+ readers

• 📘 How to build your own Voice Guide in PowerBook 2

📖 Part 1: Back to the Framework

If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve seen this before:

This past summer, we detailed the entire process by which your team's performance starts with your leadership.

Your leadership creates the culture.
Your culture drives the performance.

Here’s Steve Kerr talking about his values and how they impact performance.

That framework hasn’t changed — but what’s underneath your leadership has.

It’s the part we often skip over: the who behind the leadership.

🧠 Part 2: Nature. Nurture. Choice

Three things shape every leader’s voice:

• Nature: how you’re naturally wired — your temperament, instincts, and strengths.

• Nurture: the environment, mentors, and experiences that have molded you.

• Choice: the conscious decisions you make to grow and adapt beyond both.

The best leaders don’t ignore any of these. They integrate them.

That’s what this next step in our journey is all about: learning how to lead as yourself — not as the person you think you’re supposed to be.

📊 Part 3: The Voices of Our Readers

A few months ago, we built a 5-day leadership course for anyone who took the 5 Voices Assessment — a simple tool that helps leaders identify their natural communication style and leadership tendencies. The course is custom-built to highlight the strengths and shortcomings of your Voice based on your primary Voice. You’ve probably seen it at the bottom of our newsletter for the last few months.

As part of our second PowerBook — Know Your Voice, Coach From Identity — every reader is encouraged to take the 5 Voices Assessment.

Hundreds of coaches and administrators who read the BETTER Letter or Know Your Voice, Coach From Identity have taken the Assessment.

Here’s what the results show:

This snapshot says something powerful:
There’s no one “right” Voice for leadership.

Great programs thrive when leaders understand how their voice shapes the culture — and learn to bring more clarity to their leadership.

If you haven’t yet taken the 5 Voices Assessment, you can take it free here:
👉 Take the 5 Voices Assessment

The 5 Voices Assessment is the first step in building your Voice Guide—a custom-built document that brings clarity to your coaching—the highlight of PowerBook 2.

💡 Part 4: The Next Step — Build Your Voice Guide

Once you know your Voice, the real work begins — learning how to use it.

That’s what our second PowerBook, Know Your Voice, Coach From Identity, helps you do. It guides you step-by-step through building your own Voice Guide — a practical tool to help you:

• Understand your natural tendencies

• Identify where your Voice helps or hinders your culture

• Create rhythms to lead from identity instead of imitation

If you’ve pre-ordered our book, you’ve already received PowerBook 2 in your inbox.
If not — this is your way to get it first.

(If you need an extra push, everyone who’s pre-ordered gets to participate in our Webinar today at 12 PM EST on “Managing Your Time Well”! Do it!). 🙂 

🏁 Conclusion: It Starts With You

Leadership, culture, and performance always start with you.
And who you are — your Voice — shapes how you lead when it matters most.

Pre-Order The Full Book: Lead Yourself First!

When you pre-order, you’ll get:
✅ Immediate access to the next two PowerBooks as soon as they’re released
🗒️ A downloadable implementation guide for PowerBook 1 - You Are The Culture
🎥 Access to our monthly leadership webinars inside the BETTER Community
📗 A physical copy of Lead Yourself First when the full section is complete

The Culture Playbook

We haven’t talked about it in a while — but we are still welcoming Coaches and ADs to the Culture Playbook and our online community every week.

Just this month, we’ve had 15 new leaders join our community and dive into employing the Culture Playbook for their program or entire Athletic Department.

Use the exact Culture System we employ with every NCAA program that invites us to help them establish, maintain, and maximize their team culture.

🛠️ Want to win more? Know Yourself First.

Just last week, nearly 400 leaders signed up for our 5-day leadership course based on your Voice!

It will be sent to your inbox starting the Monday after you take the assessment and run for that week.

The assessment takes 10-15 minutes. Take it below.