Can letting-go help you be a better leader?

An essential element of being an effective leader is knowing yourself.  That is, to explore yourself as a person, particularly your values and beliefs, and find your identity. Through this exploration, it is vital to remain open to the thoughts and opinions of others. I think that knowing yourself, including your values, is fluid and must be continually reassessed. As our life circumstances, society, technology, and our community change, we must be willing to step into needed roles and embrace change. Ask questions of yourself and others to explore values, dreams, and aspirations.

Values I embrace as a leader include empathy, passion, and authenticity. These values influence my leadership in my work-life, home life, and volunteer work. I have a passion for mentoring and guiding others to build resilience. This requires self-reflection and embracing who I am as I teach and guide them to embrace their uniqueness and identity. Through this, we are developing a sense of self-awareness, which is a key component of understanding your own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives.

I think that self-awareness evolves and must be continually sought after. Early in my career, fueled with passion and motivation, I filled much of my life with busy work disguised as opportunities without regard to a trajectory. These experiences assisted in jump-starting my career through the development of skills and resources, however, I found many opportunities challenging to let go of. Over time, I learned that letting go of these opened up other opportunities. Instead of responding to prior experiences as lost time, I try to reflect fondly on the skills, friendships, and community resources that I now have, which will be a terrific asset as I go through my next journey.

Focusing on my potential trajectory and on what brings me joy during this part of my life is key to managing my life, work, and studies. School has on some terms, forced me to hand over other responsibilities. Helping the next person who is taking on the role to get started has been critically important for me to be able to let extracurricular responsibilities go. I have learned that succession plans are critical to any organization.

Each experience has played a role in the person I am today. Now, I am excited to focus on my passions and discover a different trajectory, one that is being written in real-time.