Apr 26, 2019 | Your Business, Your Relationships

What authentic leadership looks like. Do you have the “it” factor?

I can still remember that day when a leader I esteem and trust took responsibility for a mistake I had made.

My palms were sweaty, my stomach constricted, that guilty feeling rumbling inside. When confronted with my error, I was mentally preparing myself to own up to it.

And before I had the chance to, my supervisor took responsibility for all of it, my errors yes, but also his lack of oversight.

All of a sudden, I exhaled.

This incident added another layer of respect in my regard for my already highly-esteemed supervisor. His sufficiency and confident sense of self to be able to take responsibility for his entire team’s performance, or lack thereof, was impactful to me and made a lasting impression on me.

That incident made it crystal clear to me what constituted a true leader.

I believe the best leaders are those who are willing to show their vulnerability and humanity.

This doesn’t come easily to most.

I’ve watched many people who once they’ve reached leadership status, remove themselves from the masses and fail to acknowledge their errors or show their humanity.

This isn’t leadership…it’s ego-speak.

People follow leaders who they can relate with, who they understand, who they can trust.

Many of the clients I work with are recovering ‘perfectionistas’ as I like to call them. (If you’ve been following me for a while now, you likely know I’m a recovering perfectionista myself.)

What I’ve learned over time is that it’s very hard for us to acknowledge responsibility and fault. But why is this? Everyone makes mistakes, right? There are many of us who feel that anything less than perfection is unacceptable.

Seeking perfection breeds perfectionism.

I don’t believe leadership is perfectionism. On the contrary. I’ve observed many leaders over the years, and what I’ve noticed is certain leaders stand apart from the pack by this very factor…

One’s willingness to own and acknowledge their imperfections and humanity.

If you want to be truly great, you will need to practice acknowledging (and apologizing when called for) your mistakes and errors along the way.

It becomes a gift to be able to say, “my mistake,” without it fundamentally meaning something about who you are as a person. Remember, you are simply acknowledging responsibility. It is not an indicator of your inherent-worthiness.

A leader knows they’re worthy.

A true leader doesn’t need to prove this through their perfectionistic ways or getting it right all the time.

Breathe easy, knowing you can still be an effective leader, and you don’t have to get it right all the time.

This is good news for us all!

Get the Essential Reading List for Ambitious Empaths

Snag a copy of our favorite confidence-building + intuition-honing business, money mindset, and leadership books to help you embrace a holistic approach to your success. Grab a cup of tea and let's reverse engineer your life, removing the hustle and grind and replacing it with more joy and leisure.

Mindful Spending & Navigating Lifestyle Creep with Cris Caruso

In this episode of the Prosperous Empath®, I’m sitting down with financial advisor and UNBOUNDED Mastermind Alum, Cris Caruso to talk about a phenomenon that many people have experienced in recent years: lifestyle creep. Cris has been in the financial services industry since 2004 and a financial advisor since 2008. Beyond that, she has pursued additional education in understanding how our behaviors shape financial outcomes by earning the Behavioral Financial Advisor designation from Think2Perform. She also earned the Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor credential prior to 2015 as a way to support her LGBTQIA+bclients and continues to use this knowledge to work with unmarried couples and non-traditional families. You’ll appreciate her unique experience throughout today’s episode as she speaks on lifestyle creep, or lifestyle inflation, which is overspending on things that you don’t actually need as your income increases. When you’re early in your career, your spending habits focus on must-haves like housing and groceries. But as your income increases, it’s easy to lose track of what is a necessity and what are simply too many luxuries, and to just keep buying more. Cris and I discuss both values-based and practical strategies on how to identify the areas of your life you should spend generously on and where to be more mindful to reach your long-term goals. How do you live in alignment with your money, especially as an entrepreneur and an empath? You’ll get an answer to this question as you listen to our thought provoking conversation on purposeful spending, the importance of allowing yourself to have fun & fabulous experiences, and more.

Visit this episode’s show notes page here.

The Prosperous Empath® Podcast is produced by Heart Centered Podcasting.

Check out this episode!



×

Download The Book List Now