Do any of these situations sound familiar?
- Being passionate about what you do but not getting the results you want
- Not being trained in skills for dealing with conflict and difficult conversations
- The frustration of having your ideas repeatedly ignored
- Redoing things because other people haven't done them properly
- Exasperation with men in the work environment who still don't treat you as an equal
- Working so hard you're wearing yourself out instead of gaining satisfaction
Navigating even one of these situations on a daily basis is stressful and can be disheartening but it doesn't always have to be this way.
There are ways to feel confident and gain respect as a leader, so that you can move forward and reach your goals with more ease and certainty.
To achieve this, it is necessary to have:
- Clarity about your vision so that you know where you're going and move steadily towards what you want to achieve
- An advanced level of self-awareness and understanding of others so that you can anticipate and smooth out potential discord
- Good boundaries and effective time management so that you get your work done without getting distracted and building up stress
- Confidence in your ability to make good decisions and hold your own, regardless of what kind of craziness is going on around you
- Clear, transparent communication and the ability to build trust, so that your team - and everyone you interact with - knows the goals and priorities, and what is expected of them
Gill's story
We had moored our expedition yacht to a large ice floe offshore from the Russian Antarctic base we were to visit the next day. A jostling maelstrom of pack-ice separated us from the base but a helicopter was to land on a nearby island and take us ashore. It had been a tricky passage to reach the base and the skipper and crew slept, leaving me on watch.
I stared blankly out of the wheelhouse into the dusk at the restless ice and the cold grey ocean. Long months of discord amongst our small team had taken its toll, and the 3000-mile sail across the Southern Ocean back to Australia stretched into the unknown as I stood watching the ice.
Suddenly I realized there was a change. The ice was moving and we were moving with it, bearing down on a massive wall of pack-ice that would crush the boat. My heart was beating fast, stay calm I thought to myself, take a really good look... but I didn't need to see any more, we needed to move, and move fast. I woke up the skipper and crew, we got the engine fired up and cranked the boat back just as the lead between the floes closed in front of our eyes. We headed for the open sea and never looked back.
It was a defining moment for me as a young person, providing insight into the clarity that is available when we trust ourselves.
I stared blankly out of the wheelhouse into the dusk at the restless ice and the cold grey ocean. Long months of discord amongst our small team had taken its toll, and the 3000-mile sail across the Southern Ocean back to Australia stretched into the unknown as I stood watching the ice.
Suddenly I realized there was a change. The ice was moving and we were moving with it, bearing down on a massive wall of pack-ice that would crush the boat. My heart was beating fast, stay calm I thought to myself, take a really good look... but I didn't need to see any more, we needed to move, and move fast. I woke up the skipper and crew, we got the engine fired up and cranked the boat back just as the lead between the floes closed in front of our eyes. We headed for the open sea and never looked back.
It was a defining moment for me as a young person, providing insight into the clarity that is available when we trust ourselves.
In our roles as leaders, we often have to deal with things that are unexpected, rapidly changing and sometimes even perilous.
It is our job to respond with clarity and decisiveness.
I would love to have a conversation with you to see how you respond in these critical moments by offering you a free Leadership Accelerator call.
In this call, we'll examine the places where you are strongest as a leader, so that you can lean in more, and we'll identify three areas that you could strengthen as a leader, so that your confidence in your ability to lead grows.
You can sign up for your free Leadership Accelerator call by clicking Here.
I would love to have a conversation with you to see how you respond in these critical moments by offering you a free Leadership Accelerator call.
In this call, we'll examine the places where you are strongest as a leader, so that you can lean in more, and we'll identify three areas that you could strengthen as a leader, so that your confidence in your ability to lead grows.
You can sign up for your free Leadership Accelerator call by clicking Here.
Joanna says: "Gill has an amazing gift at making the intangible tangible, and bringing your attention to the subtleties of what actually drives success in leadership. Her pragmatic approach was a real game changer in how I now tackle the work that I do."