Awhile back, I wrote about an amazing leadership training that was being offered for emerging leaders in the community-based conservation and community development fields, and the challenge I faced getting my employer to support me and my goals to become the best leader I can be.
I am happy to report that I am now almost half-way through the 6-month training–and it’s been everything I hoped it would be. Challenging for one. Rewarding for another.
I have decided to write about my experiences so far both to share and to help me reflect in a deeper way on the things that I have learned and put to work so far:
- Set Your Intentions:
Barbara Wyckoff, of Dynamica Coaching & Capacity-Building and our teacher for the Leadership Training, asks herself “Who do I want to show up as?” before each workshop or consulting job. For me, answering this question before going to work in the morning, or before entering an important meeting, helps me to set my intentions for how I want to show up. It helps me remember the person I want to be, and to embody the leadership qualities that I admire in others.
It seem like a small act, but it has helped me to get a new attitude about my job–which had begun to deteriorate in the months leading up to the training.
- Act, Don’t Think Your Way into Being a Better Leader:
As part of the leadership training, each of us gets bi-weekly coaching sessions with Barbara. During one of the sessions I was feeling overwhelmed by the path ahead of me and the challenge of putting all that we had learned into action. Barbara said something that helped me to put some of my feelings into perspective: she said that we cannot think out way into being better leaders, we must act our way into being the person we want to be. As an Aquarian, mental planning is what I do best. I can prepare for most anything and all of the associated contingencies without even trying. Barbara’s advice really hit home. It was only through each of my actions each day, especially those which I approached with intention, that I would learn to walk the path of a leader.
- Be Forgiving:
All of us have a little bit of the proverbial Catholic in them–the propensity to be overly critical of ourselves and beat ourselves up. Probably the hardest lesson that I am learning is to be more forgiving of myself. I cannot move forward when I am focusing my energy on where I am not, and what I cannot do.
- Be Thankful:
The other key to reviving my attitude has been a shift to the “glass half full” mentality. I consider myself a pretty positive person, but even I can get stuck in ruts. To maneuver out of these ones, I found myself thinking of the contents remaining in the glass. With the recession in full swing, it started with being glad to have a good job. Not a small thing, to be sure. Then I began thinking of how much confidence I have gained since starting my current job. About the lessons I have gleaned from my co-workers, the opportunities I have been given to put those skills to work. And on it went, until these kinds of positive thought became a more natural way of thinking about the same things that had caused dark clouds before.
Up Next: Finding Your Purpose, Vision and Ideal Leader
