It is a great responsibility for a leader to understand their journey and their lived life, how it impacts their leadership, and influences the culture of the organizations they lead.
Whether a conscious choice or not, as leaders, you have direct accountability in what you create in the workplace and creating a culture EQUIPPED FOR THRIVING.
What you model is what will grow.
You are a modern day tribal elder.
I would guess that your journey is underpinned by some of the same characters, emotions, and themes that mine is....
➡ Antagonists, protagonists, heroines, heroes, heralds, victims, victors, villains, liars, rescuers, persecutors, optimist, pessimist, and truthtellers.
➡ Elation, powerful, disappointment, shame, embarrassment, grief, fear, anger, disgust, sadness, joy, loneliness, thankful, and surprise.
➡ Wins, losses, miracles, recoveries, near misses, overcoming odds, gut instincts, hard won, hard work, and faith.
💡 Bottomline....
All that living makes a human.
What makes a human is what makes the leader.
What makes the leader is what makes the culture.
➡ All journeys involve this essential pattern: the loss, the transformation, the gift.
No matter if you have "journey judgement" and lump those stories into their respective binary buckets of good/bad, or somewhere in the middle, there is value in what you have lived and how you've brought that lived experience forward into your leadership.
💡 Reviewing Your Journey....
To take a first step in understanding your journey, consider three things:
the events/stories, the people, and the emotions.
Next, use these 3 questions to gain insights around the meaning.
1️⃣ What did you lose?
2️⃣ What did you find?
3️⃣ How did what you found make you the leader you are today?
📖 Keep a notebook of your observations....
There will be themes.
Patterns will emerge.
Each insight is worth reviewing.
And every step you take in understanding your journey is equal to the depth of understanding how you lead and the impact you're making.
Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash
