My brutal but beautiful lesson in leadership

I say random , crazy shit , which is why I called this podcast the way that I did , and I really hate long drawn out intros . So let's fucking go . I was working a little bit on my website last night because I'm obsessed with it . Yesterday's episode I said that I couldn't stop talking about my website and today that still remains to be true .

I'm still fucking talking about it . I'm talking about it to everyone . I love it so much . What is amazing about it is that if you click around , you're going to find little like different stories about me , different things about my brand . There will be little surprises every once in a while , little deals and cool things , and I just love it so much .

It's like I don't know hide and seek , but I started thinking about one of the little hidden corners of my website being about leadership .

Now I have won two leadership awards two national awards and a regional one for stewardship and I am so proud of those awards , but I am most proud of the one that I received last , which was not I was nominated by my team , I don't remember what . I think you had to be nominated by 50 or 60 or 70% of your team , something like that .

But my team was large , so I think at that time , maybe 58 people on my team . I think at that time , maybe 58 people on my team , and so having more than 50% or whatever it happened , to be nominate me and support the nomination was pretty spectacular . I was so proud of that . I was so I'm so proud of them .

And so when people ask me , like you know , how did you step into leadership ? What did you do to really step into this leadership role in order to win a national award ? It's amazing , because there's one thing that I really did , and it was step into my authenticity .

When I first started as an acting manager , I was acting in a way that the previous person who had the position , who held the position , would want me to act . I felt as though I was truly acting as her . I had tried to be someone else . It did not go well and the entire team did not appreciate my leadership . I had people that absolutely hated me .

In fact , when I would show up at work , I had people that called in sick every single time I was going into that remote office . Isn't that sad ? But the most beautiful thing happened . I knew I would be running meetings . People were disrespectful to me .

I had some of my team that knew me really well would say I can't listen to them talk to you like that . It was very volatile , and so I thought what do I need to do here ? What is happening here ? I like people to like me , so what is happening here ? What do I need to do ?

And I realized what I needed to do was sit down one-on-one with every single person on my team and ask them what was their issue with me and my leadership ? What did they like about me ? What did they not appreciate about me ? What would they like me to change ? How could I support them in a better way ? Here's what's interesting .

I started with the people who I believed hated me the most . They were the toughest conversations I have ever had . In fact , one conversation was so brutal . I sat listening , I didn't react at all , but my eyes leaked . Have you ever had that happen to you ? It was like my eyes leaked . Have you ever had that happen to you ? It was like my eyes leaked .

I wasn't physically crying , but it felt like my soul was crying , that her comments about me and who I was was so brutal . She had misunderstood who I was , but I didn't give her the opportunity to really know me because I wasn't showing up as me .

We had the most honest , beautiful , brutal conversation and I've learned so much about how I was showing up , how they perceived me , and I really understood that me showing up as like I was , someone else was creating a problem . So what I needed to do was show up as me , show up as the leader that I knew that I was , show up in my authentic self .

I mean , I worked for the federal government and there would be national calls and I would swear , not all the time , not a lot , but every once in a while it would come out , and I'm not joking . I was known in .

I was known in like we would go to leadership events and people would know me as the girl who swears and the one that they just had to meet , and the girl that said it like it is and the girl that says things we're all thinking , but no one has the guts to say . I was that girl .

And when I stepped into that , my authentic self , owning who I truly was , that's when my team started to thrive . That's when my team started to see that I had their back . That's when my team started to see that I would do anything to make sure that they were thriving as best as I possibly could .

That's when our team started to suggest changes to head office that changed the way the entire department ran . We started to become such a cohesive group . We started to become such a beautiful collection of different strengths . We were untouchable and that is when they nominated me for this leadership award .

When we can step into our authentic self , exactly who we are , when we can support each other in this beautiful , vulnerable way , magic happens . I truly believe that it is impossible happens . I truly believe that it is impossible .

It is impossible to lead anything without having that level of vulnerability , without having that level of compassion , without having that connection with the people that are with you , without having that personal connection , if you show up inauthentically , there's no possible way that they can connect to who you are at the soul level .

It doesn't jive , it doesn't make sense , because who you are at the core of who you are and what is spewing out of your mouth or your actions . They're two totally different things , and people can smell bullshit a mile away .

What if you stepped into your authentic self on social media , in your business , with your friendships , in your relationships , in how you parent ? What if you were just willing to be wrong ? What if you were willing to ask for advice ? What if you were willing to be apologetic when you've made a mistake ?

What if you were willing to say this is not a strength of mine , but let me tell you what I can do , what I do really well . What if we started to lead , not with fear , but with going all in on who we are ? What if that makes the difference ? It does .

When you lead your life , your family , your team , your business , your social media presence , when you lead with authenticity , your social media presence , when you lead with authenticity , you become magnetic . Authenticity truly is the key Step into it . Thank you so much for listening .

I hope you've had some laughs , maybe some ideas , and that you've been inspired to take some type of action toward the life you've always dreamed of . If you feel so called , I would love it if you would share with your besties and leave a review down below . I look forward to bringing you along on this journey and I will see you in the next episode .