Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others: Best Leadership Book for Diverse Leaders in New Jersey of 2026
Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others is named Best Leadership Book for Diverse Leaders in NJ of 2026, focusing on cultural identity as a leadership
Evergreen Awards proudly recognizes Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others as the Best Leadership Book for Diverse Leaders in New Jersey of 2026. Written by award winning author and multicultural communications strategist Susana G. Baumann, the book is honored for its distinctive approach to authentic leadership, multicultural personal branding, and cultural storytelling. By encouraging professionals to recognize their cultural identities as sources of leadership strength, the book offers a meaningful perspective on professional growth and personal empowerment.
A Leadership Book That Challenges Conventional Thinking
What if the qualities that make someone feel different in the workplace are actually their greatest leadership strengths?
That question captures the central message of Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others, a book that challenges traditional ideas about leadership presence and professional success.
Rather than encouraging professionals to imitate established leadership personalities, the book invites readers to discover the leadership capabilities already embedded in their cultural backgrounds, personal values, and lived experiences.
Evergreen Awards recognizes this approach as a defining reason for selecting Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others for the Best Leadership Book for Diverse Leaders in New Jersey of 2026 distinction.
A Multicultural Approach to Authentic Leadership
At the heart of the book is an inside out approach to personal branding and leadership development.
For many immigrant and multicultural professionals, career advancement can come with subtle pressure to change how they communicate, minimize their accents, or distance themselves from their cultural identities.
Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others challenges that expectation.
The book explores how cultural identity can become a foundation for authentic leadership rather than a perceived professional limitation. It encourages readers to understand how their backgrounds shape their judgment, communication styles, relationships, and leadership decisions.
This perspective makes the book particularly relevant to diverse professionals, emerging leaders, and individuals seeking to develop confidence without sacrificing authenticity.
Four Pillars That Turn Cultural Stories Into Leadership Capabilities
One of the book's most distinctive features is its framework built around four essential pillars: values, character and personality traits, cultural attributes, and leadership interaction skills.
Values reflect the principles that guide decisions, especially when no one is watching. Character and personality traits reveal the consistent behaviors that colleagues and professional partners come to recognize.
Cultural attributes represent the perspectives and habits developed through personal backgrounds and lived experiences. Leadership interaction skills demonstrate how individuals communicate, navigate disagreements, receive feedback, and build trust.
Together, these four pillars provide a practical foundation for understanding how personal stories can become meaningful leadership resources.
Evergreen Awards highlights the framework's clarity, relevance, and applicability as important strengths of the award winning book.
Turning Cultural Identity Into a Professional Advantage
What makes Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others particularly compelling is its ability to connect cultural experiences with recognizable workplace capabilities.
A multilingual professional, for example, may develop an exceptional awareness of communication styles, formality, and interpersonal dynamics. Someone raised in a community that emphasizes collective decision making may bring valuable consensus building skills to a leadership position.
Similarly, individuals who have experienced limited resources may develop strong problem solving abilities and an instinct for working within constraints.
The book encourages readers to recognize these possibilities without assuming that every individual from a particular background shares the same traits.
By helping professionals identify the strengths within their own experiences, the book presents cultural storytelling as a practical leadership development tool.
Written by an Experienced Multicultural Leadership Advocate
The book's credibility is strengthened by the extensive professional background of its author, Susana G. Baumann, MAA, MLS.
An Argentinean immigrant and President of Excel Branding, Baumann has spent more than two decades working in multicultural communications, leadership development, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.
She previously founded LCSWorldwide Multicultural Marketing Communications in New Jersey, providing multicultural leadership and staff development training to healthcare corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.
In 2014, she established LatinasinBusiness.us, an initiative dedicated to empowering Latina and minority women entrepreneurs. The initiative later evolved into Latinas in Business Inc., reaching more than 1,900 members and promoting over 850 Latina businesses and professionals.
Her experience brings professional depth and real world context to the leadership principles explored throughout the book.
Literary Recognition and Professional Accomplishments
Published in 2024, Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others has also received recognition from literary organizations.
The book earned a Bronze Award in the Women's Issues/Multicultural category from Reader Views and was selected as a semifinalist in the 2025 BookLife nonfiction Business/Personal Finance category.
According to information provided by the author, the book has also received a 4.5 out of 5 star rating on Amazon.
Baumann's professional recognition includes being named Journalist of the Year by the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey for her service and advocacy supporting Latino small businesses.
These accomplishments add to the book's credibility as a resource informed by years of professional experience and community leadership.
Why Evergreen Awards Selected This Leadership Book
Evergreen Awards considered several important qualities in recognizing Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others as the Best Leadership Book for Diverse Leaders in New Jersey of 2026.
The evaluation emphasized the book's original multicultural leadership perspective, demonstrated author expertise, practical four pillar framework, cultural inclusivity, relevance to immigrant professionals, clarity of communication, personal branding applications, leadership development value, literary recognition, and commitment to authentic professional growth.
Its ability to connect personal identity with workplace leadership capabilities distinguishes the book's approach.
For professionals navigating cultural expectations, leadership responsibilities, and career advancement, the book offers an alternative to conventional advice that prioritizes conformity over individuality.
A Valuable Resource for Emerging and Established Leaders
Speak Up! Tell Your Story to Influence Others is particularly relevant to multicultural and immigrant professionals, rising leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals working in diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
Its message encourages readers to recognize that leadership confidence begins with understanding their own experiences, values, and capabilities.
Explore authentic leadership and cultural storytelling at susanagbaumann.com. Follow her on LinkedIn, and Instagram for more insights and updates.
For inquiries, contact contact@susanagbaumann.com.