Who are you? Where did you come from? Where are you going? These are questions leaders ask themselves and then are able to ask others who are growing on their continuum of leadership.
Then something like a pandemic hits. No wait, it is not “like” a pandemic, it is one!!
Just like you are not “like” a leader, you ARE a leader!!!!
So, LEAD LEADER!!
I don’t know what week you are on in this pandemic (depends where you are in the world), personally, I have lost track. Each day looks like the one before and yet somehow it is on me to make it different.
Week 1 felt like a vacation (since we had just returned from an overseas trip).
Week 2 I was having a pity party because I am an extreme extrovert and needed people around me.
Week 3…rather 2.5, I had a wake-up call during a conversation. The other person said, “you are such a great leader”. Little did she know that she was reminding me of who I WAS, not who I felt I was in that moment!!
You see, by Week 3, I was realizing that I was living like who I WAS not who I wanted to be. I wanted to be a growing leader. Shoot, even the tagline of my business is “Growing Forward Together”!! The truth was, that I was not growing forward at all. I was feeling stuck, ignored, forgotten and the list goes on!! Ingredients for a recipe to destroy my dream…my calling!!
(Once I came to my senses and chose to step out of my own story, I realized that this pandemic was something happening to ALL of us and that I wasn’t alone in the grander scale, it just felt like it on a personal level)
That is what leading looks like. Choose to step out of your own story. I think the phrase is “think globally and act locally”. This requires all of us to think outside ourselves. It can be a challenge for some, but I encourage you to try. It is worth it. Over the years I have practiced the phrase, “Kinita, get out of the way”, apparently, I forgot to do that in this season.
As I took that step to get out of my own way, I realized a loss I was ignoring, the loss of freedom. Albeit a freedom that only met my needs. The freedom to “go where I want to, when I want to, how I want to”. Some have compared to this loss of freedom as “imprisonment or slavery”. Plain and simple, it is not either!!! Read the history books and you will understand why.
So, you see, since leaders lead, it was time to get out of my own way. When I did, one of my personal leadership values was more visible; to consider others better than myself. I also believe in servant leadership which, in this season, I was not serving very well because I was so focused on my needs.
Who wants to join me in LEADing the change?
Even though I am a person who thinks globally as part of my nature, here are some ways in which I have implemented “think globally and act locally” in this season, maybe there are some new ideas to help you get growing forward.
- Hosting online groups including friends from different countries.
- Encourage parents who are home trying to work and school their children.
- Encourage therapists (front-line workers who help people maintain mental health) to make sure they are implementing self-care and letting them know I am praying for them.
- Make large batches of Indian food and randomly drop them off for friends to enjoy and be blessed.
- Blogging and Podcasting to spread encouragement and tools to help others (not sure if that is helping because I am not getting much feedback). #KeepingItReal
- Not posting food pictures so as to be sensitive to those who are going without.
Below is a chart that has been circulating on social media that I thought would be beneficial to help you grow forward from the spot you are in!!
Here’s to Growing Forward Together!!
Thank you for joining me.
Kinita
