Are You Ready to Be A Leader?
What is Leadership?
What is Leadership Mojo?
These questions are not difficult for me to answer. However, I have learned that others attach different meanings and have varying beliefs when it comes to leadership.
People think leadership is about a role or a title.
People think leadership is about getting other people to do things.
People think leadership is about rallying people around a vision.
People have issues with the label or the concept of leading and following.
People admire leaders.
People criticize leaders.
I get it now. What is simple and interesting to me is not that simple to communicate to a broader audience. So let me explain how I came to be interested in leadership.
Leadership wasn’t something I was seeking. No, I was actually trying to find someone else to provide me some leadership.
I was in my early twenties when I fully owned up to being a leader. My medical team had just given me the news that the treatments for my cancer were not working. They said there were no other options.
I had about six months to live.
I was stunned. That was not the news I wanted to hear, nor was it the vision for my life.
I walked out of my doctor’s office and saw a brochure for a workshop on Life, Death and Transitions by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. I picked it up.
I didn’t have any money, but I had nothing to lose. I was dying. I wrote Elizabeth and asked if I could qualify for a scholarship because I wasn’t sure I had the time to pay back a loan.
I told her, “My doctors tell me I’m dying, and I should be thinking about that. I don’t really know how. Can you help me?”
She quickly replied, “Yes, come.”
I can’t say I was thinking of myself as a leader at that point. However, it really was my first step to taking charge of my given situation, which is how I have come to define leadership.
At that moment, I recognized where I was and I stepped out of being a victim and waiting for someone else to fix me. I asked for what I wanted and shared what I could do.
I won’t go into all that followed. That is a much longer story.
The gist is that I stepped into leading my life. In terms of my health, I wasn’t the expert, but I was the designated leader from that day forward.
I sought the expertise of many medical, non-medical, spiritual, emotional, psychological experts, and I took their information, weeded, sorted, and I decided what I would and would not do.
I often met strong opposition for my choices, and resistance among the experts who refused to work together. However, I showed up, spoke up, and took charge.
I later shared this story with a business leader, who said to me, “That is the best organizational turnaround I have ever heard. I want you to help me turnaround my organization!”
Since then I have worked with organizations, teams, designated leaders, and individuals who have simply been called or forced to take the helm of their own direction.
I repeatedly help people find their “muchness,” their Leadership Mojo in a specific area of their work or life and support them leading from the inside out. Which is why I decided to launch my new Leadership Mojo Coaching.
I would highly recommend Thrive! for anyone in a leadership role who is either trying to make the leap from personal excellence to empowering excellence in others or for someone who knows they are not getting all the feedback that they need to get the results they want.
Jon Fleming, President Guidacent
To me – everyone is a leader. Many never realize this or take on the task of consciously leading.
It’s not easy and it takes a lot of courage. However, leading from the inside out creates freedom and aliveness, which is priceless and worth every heartbeat.
Just look at me still around 30 years later because I stepped into my Leadership Mojo!
What area of your work or life needs your leadership, your “muchness,” your leadership mojo?
Stop abdicating your leadership.
Stop suffering.
Stop following.Step into your own leadership and create what you want.
It doesn’t matter if it is business or personal. I can help you step into your leadership and create what you want!
Check out my new Leadership Mojo Coaching – no horses required.
Let’s get started together.
You can take charge of your work and your life!
CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke
Coaches, Business Consultants, Speakers and Authors of The Beauty of Conflict
CrisMarie and Susan work leaders and teams, couples in business, and professional women.
They help turnaround dysfunctional teams into high performing, cohesive teams who trust each other, deal with differences directly, and have clarity and alignment on their business strategy so they create great results.
Check out their website: www.thriveinc.com. Connect with CrisMarie and Susan on LinkedIn. Watch their TEDx Talk: Conflict – Use It, Don’t Defuse It! Find your copy of The Beauty of Conflict: Harnessing Your Team's Competitive Advantage here.