Leadership, Legacy, and the Wisdom in Between.
While my website was being refreshed last year, I had the chance to review my career biography. Something struck me. Put simply, my career gave me experience that led to my hard-won wisdom, and I had never considered that before. (Insert face-palm here...)
I find the concept of wisdom fascinating. Wisdom has depth. It speaks to knowledge and all its manifestations. Wisdom itself is less important than how we apply it.
It's about deep thought and intentionality.
Wisdom is considered action that allows us to thrive as leaders and ultimately enables our people to live our organisational values because they are thriving, too.
Wisdom doesn't come from age but from sense-making. When we deeply examine our experiences, actions, and behaviours, we naturally add to our knowledge base and wisdom 'pool'. From here, our ability to connect and manage relationships grows. Our human skills flourish, and so does our emotional intelligence.
Developing self-awareness (and, subsequently, wisdom) is highly individualised. However, it doesn't have to be a solo endeavour. I learned firsthand that going it alone limits potential and perspective. Experiencing coaching many years ago helped me to 'see' my direction. It taught me how to channel my strength to give me ownership over my leadership legacy.
It also inspired me to formalise an element of my work as a leader that I'd automatically embraced: coaching and mentoring others, eventually becoming a confidante to senior executives.
A leadership legacy reflects years of unravelling complexities and wading through the weeds, anticipating, forecasting and responding to shifting priorities and competing demands. This is what makes my work with leaders valued and valuable.
Clients know that working with me allows them to access decades of experience. I'm known for my practical ideas and strategic insights, which are forward-thinking and sustainable within psychologically demanding roles. And yes, I'm going to own it. At 59, I'm accomplished and respected, and I'm proud to say I've trailblazed.
The work I do with C-suite leaders is a human exchange. It's a space of vulnerability, trust, and authenticity where you can drop the 'unflappable' mask that you wear at work and allow yourself to be seen and heard, to develop your wisdom.
So, here's a tip: if you've been wondering about your leadership legacy, take a moment to review your career biography, too.
Really read it. Absorb all those years of learning, practising, perfecting, unlearning, and learning again. Make sense of where you've been and landed now, and consider where you want to go next.
And if you need a trusted partner to help you think that through, I'm all ears.
Go gently.
