ike many people, the last year has
brought a lot of challenges to my life. I
left my job as an executive of a fashion
company and stepped into a completely new, entrepreneur version of myself.
Unlike organizations where people have specific roles and more specialized jobs, as an entrepreneur you have to be a bit of everything. All the things you can’t do yourself, you have to be able to lead people into the best roles and help them succeed. With all these new, varied responsibilities, I’ve been thinking about my ideal of a strong leader.
Like the beginning of any learning process, one question I like to ask is “who’s someone I can aspire to in this regard?” That allowed me to think about many of the amazing women in my life who I’ve both worked with directly and admired from afar.
Next, I had to break down what it is I admired about them. In some, there’s a natural charisma that all eyes in the room are drawn to. In others, there was a quiet approach, a prioritization on the work. In terms of personality and specific approach, there’s no one path or archetype of ideal leadership.
But there remained many commonalities. Dissecting these, one stood out. Every leader I’ve looked up to (and that succeeded over many years and not just as a flash-in-the-pan), showed up to lead themselves.
Often high achievers with well-intentioned goals want to prioritize their team and those they want to serve. This attitude and leadership approach is often lionized, seen as a great sacrifice to help the team succeed. There are a lot of good leaders with this approach. In the short-term you can succeed like this.
L
Photo Credit Christina Wocintechchat