Through her coaching, writing and 3Hearts initiative, Duong brings a human question to the conversation about success: Are the people around us being heard?
Dr. Linda Duong began writing a book with two readers in mind: her children. According to her account, that purpose expanded after she learned of three deaths—an industry colleague’s sudden passing and the deaths by suicide of two teenagers. What had started as a personal gift became a message she wanted to share more widely.
That decision offers a starting point for understanding her approach to leadership. Rather than beginning with a position of authority, it began with a concern for other people and a willingness to respond.
Today, Duong’s work spans life coaching, motivational speaking and author development. As the founder of Link Coaching, she offers guidance centered on confidence, communication, personal direction and helping people put their experiences into words.
The leadership question running through that work is practical: How can people contribute fully when they struggle to express themselves—or feel that no one is listening?
From a Personal Message to a Community
When Connection – The Currency to Happiness; Access Your Happiness Right Here, Right NOW! was published in October 2017, Duong envisioned places where people could develop meaningful relationships. That vision took shape through 3Hearts, an initiative drawing partly on the community life she had experienced in Vietnam.
“Connection is what keeps our souls alive and provides the answers that we are seeking,” Duong writes in the initiative’s account of its origins.
There is a useful leadership distinction in the move from writing a book to organizing a community. A book can introduce an idea. A gathering asks people to practice it. The responsibility shifts from delivering a message to creating conditions in which others can participate.
For a leader, that distinction matters. Encouraging openness is relatively easy; making room for an uncomfortable answer requires more discipline. Inviting participation means little unless people have an opportunity to contribute beyond agreeing with the person in charge.
Viewed through that lens, connection becomes more than an expression of goodwill. It becomes a question of how a group operates: who speaks, who listens and whose experience receives attention.
Making Listening Part of the Work
3Hearts describes its guided meetings as welcoming, nonjudgmental spaces for sharing experiences. Its ambassadors support the community’s purpose. In a testimonial published by the initiative, Sydney ambassador Andrew Cheng describes joining to develop his communication skills and strengthen his professional presence.
His account illustrates the connection between personal participation and professional development. The opportunity to articulate an experience, hear another perspective and contribute to a conversation can itself become something to practice—not simply something to admire.
For managers and entrepreneurs, the application need not be elaborate. A meeting could begin with a genuine question rather than an immediate instruction. A leader could ask a quieter colleague for their perspective without putting them on the spot. A difficult conversation could leave room for explanation while keeping expectations clear.
Listening does not require abandoning accountability. MIT’s guidance on coaching as a management practice emphasizes both: developing employees’ confidence and competence while holding them accountable to mutually established performance goals.
This offers a useful counterpoint to the idea that compassionate leadership must be permissive. Respect and responsibility can belong in the same conversation. The challenge is to address performance without reducing a person to a problem that needs fixing.
Helping Others Find Their Voice
Duong’s emphasis on communication also has a personal foundation. Her biography describes arriving in Sydney at 15 without speaking English, an experience she connects to her subsequent focus on confidence and personal growth.
Her author-coaching work provides another expression of that focus. The process she outlines includes clarifying a book’s message, organizing its structure, developing the manuscript and maintaining progress through feedback and accountability. It is designed for people seeking to turn their knowledge or life experience into nonfiction.
The leadership value in that process extends beyond publication. Helping someone communicate an idea requires resisting the temptation to replace their perspective with one’s own. The task is to provide enough structure for the person’s thinking to become clearer while preserving their ownership of the message.
A similar standard can be applied to leading a team. Does the leader remain the source of every answer, or help others develop the confidence and judgment to contribute answers themselves?
Duong’s work offers a perspective on leadership that is less concerned with commanding attention than with making participation possible. Its most useful challenge is also its simplest: before asking how to become more influential, consider whether the people around you have room to speak.
A leader’s voice matters. So does what happens when that leader stops talking.
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