My Leadership Journey

Over the next week, I’m taking Seth Godin’s Leadership is not Management course on Udemy. The course encourages participants to reflect on each lesson via an online leadership notebook – warning: posts are designed to be fast, not perfect. Thanks! 

The difficult work of leadership begins with this ability to describe a place where we want to go. The problem is … once you say it out loud, you have to deal with the fact that it might not work. – Seth Godin

Prompt 2: What about your leadership journey might not work? Put 20 minutes on the clock and write.

First, I don’t like when people ask me “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” How does anyone see that far into his or her future? The answers people typically want me to say are, “Oh, I’ll finally be married with children.” or “I’ll be a CMO for a Fortune 500 company.”  Typical career or personal milestones.

That’s not the picture I see.

I see myself collaborating with a group of writers, designers – innovators of bold, visual content. I see myself excited every day to share and connect with people through storytelling. Stories that help change lives and inspire people to dream bigger. Maybe you can’t see this picture – but it’s extremely clear to me.

What about my journey to this future state might not work?

1. Self-Doubt: A couple of years ago, I participated in an Executive Leadership program. As pre-work, my peers and I had to score me on various leadership skills and characteristics. For creativity, I ranked myself as a five.  My peers gave me a nine (average). Why the gap? I could only visualize creative people as artists, film makers, web designers. People with creative titles. I was being so literal and doubting my capabilities. I was a marketing department of one – obviously, I had to be creative every, single day. Influencing others – creativity! Marketing strategy with little to no budget – creativity!
2. Playing it safe: to be creative, to innovate – you have to be bold. You have to take chances. I’m reading Jeffrey Tambor’s book, Are you anybody? (hilarious, thoughtful and highly recommended) and my favorite chapter is Fuck ’em. Jeffrey defines fuck ’em as “an attitude – not of hatred or aggression – but of freedom from self-censorship and the need to please.” It’s doing your work “unfettered by fear.” Go big or go home, right?
3. Striving for perfection: I love lists. I love deadlines. I love project plans. I love competition – sadly, I’ve never been athletic (last pick for softball in PE class every spring. Really, girls?!) With a Type A personality, my desire for constant perfection eroded some joyous moments in my life. I’ve had to learn that success doesn’t mean perfection. Mistakes are okay. Failure is (and will be) an option.