42: Leading and Inspire others

Welcome to Woman Leadership show. I'm Janet and in this episode, I will be sharing with you in leading and inspire others. 

When I first started as a manager, first thing that I focus was on allocating resources to the team members to ensure we deliver results to internal stakeholders in the company and delegate what is needed to complete. I would spend more time in building relationships with senior stakeholders so I was able to get feedback on how our team can improve and work with them and their teams

It was only after I attended my own programs externally that I learned and applied to workplace how I can lead and inspire my team and others. I started with my team , whenever I attended a program whether internally or externally, I would go share with my team and hope my stories can inspire them and align everyone on our team goals and mission. The first team that Led, one of the team member wrote a card that I was great boss to work with and she enjoyed my inspiring stories and motivational quotes. I felt touched to receive the card and such kind words and that continued to inspire me to do more and better in what I do. 

Following that leadership role, there were more team members shared with me that I have inspired them with what I did by setting an example for them by being with them on the ground and guiding them with what I knew and experienced before so they do not make the same mistake. With my coaching they feel supported that I had the intention to help them to be successful if they are willing to be coach and put in the hardwork to make it happen. 

Having observed few hundreds leaders in my 20 year sof corporate life, I have seen many respected leaders who walk the talk and gained a lot of respect from those who follow them. I have also seen leaders who do not walk the talk but just wanted to take credit for themselves and took advantage of followers by taking and not giving back to them. 

I will pick what I like about the leadership style and tell myself that I will not do what they do if it does not resonate with me, my beliefs and values. For example there was this incident when I had to do something to change the results of a survey by only getting feedback from key stakeholders who likes us. I felt it was not a good way to have true reflection of the results since it was skilled towards people who likes us to meet our Key Performance Indicator KPI. I was upset as it does not resonate with my values that we have to do that and so I decided to leave the manager and move on. 

There are times when I was not in the mood when something happened at home or there was something on my mind which I have to resolve yet I have to conduct training that day. What I did was to energise myself thinking positively by visualizing what I want to achieve for the workshop and not allowing my feelings to affect my performance for that day. 

At home with my children, no matter what unhappiness that I had at work, I tried not to bring home and focus on my kids so my mood do not affect them and their moods. I will greet them with a cheerful smile every morning and whenever I reached home. It also helped me to feel better and more aware of my physiology in terms of my mood and mindset. 

Takeaway
If I want to lead, inspire and motivate others, I have to first lead, inspire and motivate myself. I work on myself a lot and not allowing things happened to me daily to affect others. I do hear about colleagues who said have to wait till boss mood is better and check in what is the weather of the day and know when to approach the boss. For myself, I will keep myself open and in the right mood anytime so my team members can come to me anytime. 

- I have many friends who will share a lot of negativity about themselves their lives and people around them. IF one feel negative and bad about oneself, naturally what you focus will expand and so attract more negative energy and be sucked into the negative world. I learn to get out of it and start doing something better than doing nothing about it. 

I hope that through my sharing, it draws inspiration and personal reflection for you. I believe every woman can be a leader in your own way. I look forward to seeing you in my next episode where I will be sharing with you tips and ways to realize your full potential as a leader on Woman Leadership.