Four powerful words. They open the door for conversations… understanding… learning… vulnerability… and trust. And I use them… a lot.
When changing roles, industries, and now as I embark on this blogging adventure, those words are useful. So I was was super grateful when they (or at least the gist of what the words mean) were recently used on me.
First… thank you Rachel for taking my request to heart and giving such thoughtful, valuable, feedback. She pointed out that she wasn’t really getting the connections between Recipes of Leadership as a blog… Leadership Ladder as my website and consulting name… and the services or offerings available. If she doesn’t get it, I’m guessing others feel the same. So here’s Part 1 of my attempt to “connecting the dots.”
Were the dots hidden in past blog posts?
What do previous blog posts have to do with Recipes of Leadership? Let’s review a few examples… shall we?!
- Ingredients – I am … — My experiences and background make me who I am. Those experiences built certain skills, abilities, and traits that helped me grow my career and build into senior leadership roles over time. What “ingredients” make up who you are?
- Different but the Same — Patterns are all around us. The skills we learn in one setting may not exactly fit in a different scenario… but there are likely parts of that skill that are transferable. Just like you can substitute similar ingredients in a recipe, you can likely take existing skills and use them in a new or different space.
- You’re Different… Get Over It — Being a woman of color and an immigrant, the ability to accept being different and not letting that be an excuse or hindrance to my career progression was a huge component to building confidence. Confidence opened doors for me and continues to part of my leadership recipe.
- Managing Beyond Four Walls — A common question among those I’ve coached is: how to I become a manager? One response: learn to influence and bring people together to accomplish something larger than yourself. Communication styles can help or hinder your ability to influence… what are you doing to grow this component that is critical to becoming a leader?
- Try Everything… Even the Oboe — Failure isn’t fun. But if you aren’t willing to fail or can’t manage through failure, you will be challenged as a leader. Blaming others for the failure will damage your credibility and undermine your ability to lead. An inability to learn from the failure will set the table for continued frustrations. Where does “failing forward” fit in your personal leadership recipe?
Ahh… So dots link to create a recipe
Through sharing my stories, my hope is that you can start critically thinking about your experiences… the ways you grew from them… the super cool and exciting ways you leveraged them forward… and how they all came together to create your personal leadership recipe.
Are there more dots?
Next week, I’ll take a stab at the other segments of Rachel’s questions. For now, a reminder: this really is a work-in-progress. I really do want to have the conversation with you. The feedback offered gives me a sense for what resonates… doesn’t make sense… hits the mark… or is just too wackadoodle and doesn’t help at all. Stay tuned for more “I don’t get it…” updates… and THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts!