I’m a podcast guest! Recently, I had the great honor of speaking with Jess of The Art of Speaking Up Academy and fellow academy alum Ashley. Vicky from two years ago may have spent so much time panicking over the idea of being on a podcast that she’d have missed the opportunity altogether!
I used to think, “Leadership is not for me.” I thought the only successful leaders were those who were assertive (aggressive, even), opinionated, knew everything, and, most of all, never messy. That’s just not me! But I’ve learned over the past year that there is so much more to leadership than being the loudest, most intelligent in the room and that even I could be a leader I am a leader.
Fun fact: 6 years ago, I almost missed the application deadline for the apprenticeship that started my career in tech. I felt like I had to make sure I was confident in Ruby on Rails before I could apply for this position, and by the time I’d finished preparing myself for the job, they had already gotten so many applications they’d closed applications!!!
Professionally, I am a chronic over-preparer. If I don’t arrive with all the answers to every possible question or the plan with all the contingencies already figured out, I’ve failed. If anything, that line of thinking has caused me to become less likely to pick up new tasks or try new things. After all, you can’t fail at something you don’t even try.
Surely, that’s an acceptable way to go about life? …Right?
If I look around at the leaders I look up to, I slowly begin to realize that none of them are perfect. (Nobody is perfect.) A commonality between them, and one of the traits I most admire about them, is their willingness to admit they’re not perfect. Rather than coming to every meeting with a prewritten script, they instead ask questions. They open themselves up to possibilities they hadn’t thought of and ideas that are unfamiliar to them. At the end of the day, doesn’t that end up delivering better solutions than one person attempting to solve all the problems ahead of time? (Because if you can’t arrive to a meeting with the solution already mapped out, are you even doing anything?)
I’ve learned a lot from participating in The Art of Speaking Up Academy, but if there’s one thing I could say to sum up my takeaways, it’s that messiness is good. Failure is uncomfortable but can teach us valuable lessons. However you do it, I encourage you to embrace messiness and discomfort a little bit at a time.
If you’re interested in hearing more about what I learned from the academy and my growth in leadership over the past year, please listen to our episode!
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