I recently saw an acronym for the word “real:”
Relationships
Environment
Attitude
Leadership
I decided that those were the four areas that I would focus on for 2015… in my business and in my personal life. But here, I’d like to talk about business and this month I’m going to reflect on Leadership.
This is the one that’s going to take the bulk of my time and energy… leadership is the thing I struggle with the most. I know I’m not alone, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about it. Several times in my career, I’ve been in a management position, and everytime… without fail… I have hated it. It seems that my nurturing personality gets in the way of being a good manager. This year, I’m trying something a little different.
This year, I’ve decided to embrace my God-given nurturing side and let that determine the type of manager that I am. I’ve also decided to get rid of the word manager, and replace it with mentor. I’m really good at being a mentor. Since I don’t have any employees (I outsource projects as needed), you might be wondering how I’m going to apply this when it’s just a one-woman show. Yes, my business is just me, but I have lots of areas where I volunteer and serve as a chairperson of a committee or a board president. I’m hoping that my new attitude of mentoring will allow me to feel more free when it comes time to delegate (another struggle of mine that I’m working on). But I think the biggest change that I’m hoping to see, is that by changing that one word “manage” to “mentor”, is that it gives me permission to change my expectations. I will no longer need to expect the person that I’m working with to know how to do every part of the project. “Mentor” gives me permission to teach and to nurture. Servant Leader — Servant Mentor… that’s my goal for 2015 because I’ve learned that I don’t like being the king, I want to be the king-maker.
