Expressing Your Leadership ID

What is your leadership ID?

Your leadership identity is grounded in your definition of leadership.  But what if your definition was wrong?

Last Thursday in the inspiring Google offices in Sydney and facilitated by the founder of Roar People, Suzi Skinner, we were challenged to redefine leadership. Based on her Harvard award winning research into leadership, Suzi led us through a number of exercises to challenge and reassess our leadership ID.

Reinforcing that in this world of rapid change, organisations will move from employees to co-creators, it is more important than ever that we all see ourselves as leaders, no matter what our title is.

It was stressed that leadership is your own personal journey. Throughout the day we experienced a number of exercises to highlight our strengths, reminding us that our leadership style is unique and to capitilize on these strengths.

One of the first exercises was using the CCS Express Fans.  In a simple, but insightful moment, we were able to identify 2 strengths, which were then tied back into our authentic selves and the way in which we lead people.

One of the ‘ah ha’ moments for me was when we had to rate where we saw ourselves in terms of our leadership identity – was leadership a part of who we were and how we saw ourselves, or was it a separate title and we were not that comfortable with it.

The interesting discussion that came out of the activity was that where you saw yourself depended very much on what your definition of what leadership and being a leader was.

We can be so influenced by role models, titles, societies expectations, that we fail to step back and assess what being a leader really means for us personally. The most successful leaders, it was revealed, take a peronalised approach to what leadership means to them. We can all bring something unique and powerful to leadership if we are true to who we really are.

Our leadership ID is very much our personal ID.  Remember to know who you are and stay true to that.  Be intentional and authentic.

Thanks to Suzi and the Roar People team for facilitating and co ordinating such a robust day!