Tag: enjoy

10 Ways to tap into your leadership potential

These past few years I have written at length about leadership from various angles: what I discovered from my own experience, what I have observed around me, what may be more relevant for women, and what I have come to understand. In helping others develop their own leadership skills I have discovered 10 ways to tap into your leadership potential. Let me share with you today the following tips:

  • Be clear and deliberate. Do not get caught up in details and slow down – enjoy the ride in life!
  • Stay connected to your own voice. It is essential to be anchored from within. Develop a solid sense of self. 
  • Make sure you can stand silence, and seek moments of stillness away from noise to remain in touch with yourself.
  • Give support to others through connections, even if only your presence.
  • Nurture your ties to your community. If you do not have a tribe, create one: friends, neighbors, colleagues, loved ones. You need others, their support, guidance, and companionship.
  • Choose carefully what you let into your space: i.e. people, information, vibrations, food, noise.
  • Be mindful of the beauty around you and all that makes your heart sing.
  • Look at the big picture and realize that your approach to life is one of many. Widen your perspective and open up to other views, cultures, and ways of doing things.
  • Keep on your toes and challenge yourself. Avoid routine. Life is never dull.
  • Be active: your body needs movement and you need energy and vitality.

Leadership: it is not the title it is the job

In the past decades, I have occupied many positions with various levels of professional satisfaction. I discovered that a high-status job did not necessarily mean job satisfaction, but that positions that allowed me to live in accordance with my values and contribute something of myself ensured professional satisfaction. I understood that what I did was far less important than how I did it. I could even turn a mediocre job into a fulfilling occupation by exploring how to be helpful to others. Service to others is always possible and gratifying for all.

For many of us in society, our titles – including our job titles – define who we are, even our worth. Society does not look at all jobs equally. Yet, “ordinary” jobs may be occupied by people who manage to contribute their skills and talents to the world irrespective of the tasks they accomplish at work. It is not what we do but how we do it that matters. As leaders, setting and meeting goals are important. However, the goals are everyone’s business, but how people achieve these goals, whether they enjoy the experience and thrive or become miserable in the process, is the job of leaders. Ultimately, leadership lies with who you are as a person and how you care for others, rather than what you do for a living. It is a quality of heart rather than an occupation.

So, if you are wondering how to find a fulfilling job, or perhaps how to find your job fulfilling, the key lies less in the job title or menial tasks involved, and more in being your true self as you go about it day to day. If you are a waiter, be proud of your work and enjoy the contacts. Try to contribute your talents and skills to your surroundings, whatever may be the job. It is not the kind of work you do that takes you to lead your life happily, it is the choices you make in leading the way towards your own happiness that will make a leader of you.