You Are A Leader

I just spent the weekend with my grandsons… They’re at those early ages where they switch in an instant from happy, loud, loving and adventurous to scared, mad, hurt and/or demanding.

It’s like they are trying on all sorts of new emotions, with an ease that is breathtaking!

Doesn’t menopause feel like that sometimes? I know I can go from ecstatic to the-world-is-ending, from I love you to don’t-touch-me, in moments.

Luckily I have over 50 years lead time on this little fellow, so I have some tricks up my sleeve.

When I am with my grandsons it brings home my responsibility, as an adult and a grandma, to show them how they can embrace their emotions and communicate feelings (without making others miserable). It’s my part in changing the status quo for little boys.

They are already learning to learn…and even though you may be several decades older, you may have realized, as I have, you will always be learning.

I am aware that both you and my grandson are looking for direction, for clues on how to keep growing and learning. This keeps me on my toes, helps me to be more true to what I love and am reaching for, and more honest about my foibles.

This is what leadership is all about. Not being perfect, always right, or never wrong.

For me it has a lot to do with this Dolly Parton quote:

If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.

I think I can help people to “be more, become more” by becoming more myself.

You are a leader, whether or not you would describe yourself that way. You have people who are counting on you, who take your example and use that to bolster them on their journey.

As women I think we have even more responsibility than men, because nothing in the world changes until we do. I see women leading cultural change because we are the glue that holds the status quo together.

When you change, when you take the risk to be a new example of what is possible, and other women are influenced to do the same – the “way things are” becomes unglued. And ultimately life has to reorganize itself around you.

As you have probably already experienced, this can be a messy process, but it works.

Think about it…

Who are the people in your life that look to you?

What is your influence on them now?

How would you like to influence them in the future?

Influence is a different word than support. It implies a measure of force and responsibility that we women are often afraid of. Step into it, we need you.

There are too many people, companies, and institutions willing to exert influence for the wrong reasons, we need a positive counterforce! Imagine if all the women over 40 understood and stepped up to this?

Allow this burden of responsibility to pull you towards the risky business of being more of who you are, or stepping outside the accepted boundaries.

Lets create a new and better status quo for men and women by stepping even more fully and consciously into our roles as leaders and change-makers.

Now tell me, what do you think of this perspective and what would you like to add to it from your own experience?

Banner Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash; passion Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash