I was at a conference last week and one of the consistent comments I heard was, "It is so nice to know I am not alone!" That got me thinking about leadership, isolation, and vulnerability.
Leadership
Let's be honest, leadership can feel very challenging. Sometimes that is a result of having to make tough decisions that impact other people. At other times it can be connected to the weight of expectations we feel from many different sources (people, the organization, decisions, responsibilities, the sheer volume of work, etc.). Regardless of the reasons, being a leader is hard work and can really require a significant amount of energy!
Isolation
I also know that leadership can feel lonely. Sometimes those tough decisions have very real implications on people and their work and lives. It requires courage to lean in, but it can also produce those feelings of isolation. There is also a realistic amount of professional distance and healthy boundaries that are part of leading, and that can add to the loneliness.
Vulnerability
I heard one of the participants of the conference say, "Figuring out how to lead with vulnerability is critical to leading in a healthy way." While this may seem contradictory to the previous idea about healthy boundaries, finding the right people and peers we can be vulnerable with, is absolutely essential to recognizing we aren't alone in our journey. When we can open up and share with others in safe spaces, we quickly find that others are often experiencing the same things we are, and they were also feeling like they were the only ones going through it!
With all of this as background, the people I was with last week were all leaders. Some of them were at the top of their organizations, some of them were somewhere in the middle, but all of them were leaders, and all of them expressed a sense of loneliness and isolation in their lives. However, as we gathered together and began to open up with vulnerability, even if it was just with one or two others we felt safe enough to share with, almost everyone experienced a sense of feeling, "It is so nice to know I am not alone!"
Where in your life and leadership are you feeling isolated and alone? Who are the people that feel safe to you that you're willing to open up to with some vulnerability? How do you think taking some risks and sharing about your situation might help you both discover you aren't alone in what you are experiencing?
Here's to taking a risk and discovering we aren't alone this week!
Be Well,
Stephen
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