Considering Ourselves Leaders
Have you noticed that many people, especially women, don't consider themselves to be leaders, even though they are clearly often exhibiting leadership qualities?
I have certainly seen this, and lived it too.
Leadership needs some redefining and redesigning.
That's what we are up to in the Leadership Redesigned Conference happening this week. It's off to a very powerful start!
Here's another question: have you seen this definition of leadership before?
"Leadership is authentic self-expression that creates value."
(If you were at our Making Room For You Ground Into Confidence, Bloom Into Leadership Retreat last fall, the answer would be "yes".)
Reading that definition by Kevin Cashman in Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life made me realize I'd been living with a lot of false assumptions about what leadership had to look like.
I read that definition and thought to myself: “Wow, oh, I can do that. I can lead like that. I can show up in an honest, open way to offer something of value to some people… And my clients can lead like that, even though they don’t necessarily see themselves as leaders… And so can anyone for that matter.
"What about you?
You may not have considered yourself a leader, or if you have, you may have felt your leadership was limited to one context in your life. Maybe you have seen yourself as a leader at work, but not at home, for example.
Well, I'm all about synergies, in work and life. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We do ourselves and each other a disservice when we fail to see ourselves and each other wholistically. With this definition of leadership, the field is wide open for us to be showing up as leaders wherever we go.
Let's practice this way of leading together, feeling permission to show up as we are, wherever we happen to be, in a way that is valuable to us and others.
Are you in?
We're all beautiful works in progress, so let's let go of any need to be perfect here... even embracing some messiness. Let's see how this way of leading feels and what its impact can be!
This is the kind of conversation we are having at the Leadership Redesigned Virtual Conference.
Make Room For You and your version of leadership.
We need You!
P.S. I’ll be talking with the incredible Lisa Barnwell of The Imperfect Leader on Friday May 22 at 10 am ET (-5). My topic will be What Happens When Leaders Harness Their Big Feelings? Register for the Conference and get access live or to the recordings, which will be available for a short time: https://www.lisabarnwell.co.uk/leadership-redesigned
