I've been exposed to #leadership since I was a child. My father raised me to be a leader, he taught me what it takes to stand strong as a leader. He wanted that for me. He envisioned me as a leader of my own life.
I studied #business and #finance, and leadership development was a fundamental outcome of graduating in business. Early on in my #career, I joined an entry level leadership development program with General Electric - the number one leadership development #organization of its time, which led me into a 12 year career with them. #Executives of other Fortune 500 companies came to General Electric to learn. The #training was that good.
Somehow along the way though, I didn’t resonate with how I was being taught. I didn't feel it. I was intimidated by it. I labeled myself as shy and so did others. It must just be the way I am. I felt I was long ways to go from being “that leader". The #leader they expected me to be, and the one I set the expectation for myself to be. I felt I fell short in someway. It wasn’t until later that I realized I fell short of my own self, my own #authenticity.
What this process of learning missed was recognizing the innate and infinite power of the human being at face value. Of seeing every individual for who they are. Of creating methodologies of teaching and environments that bring out the leader that already exists within us, the leader that inevitably has been in some form suppressed by conditioning.
Why was I shy? What was I shy from? Who was I shy from? No one encouraged me to ask these questions. No one encouraged that self #discovery. I appeared shy because I was hiding behind a facade of expectations that I was not comfortable with nor resonate with. I behaved shyly because I didn't feel safe being seen and exist in the world as a leader true to my unique individuality. I had a deeper intelligence and knowing that “this wasn’t the way”, I just didn’t have the tools at the time to break out of it.
We've designed leadership education to mold individuals into shapes defined by societal expectations. Society is not your identity, you are you. We are members of society, but it does not define us individually.
Understandably, it's convenient, it's convenient to have status quo, to create #systems and structure. It leads to #productivity, #efficiency, #community, trade, a process that facilitates our life experience. But how much of yourself have you given up in the process? How much is too much?
With my newfound #awareness, I look back at my life experiences and at the way the world works from an objective lens. To learn from it, to grow from it, not to judge it. It’s time to acknowledge and to prioritize self inquiry and self discovery.
An optimal human experience is our birthright. It needs to feel good, it needs to feel safe, and you need to feel empowered to lead a life of freedom, a life that allows you the authentic expression of your true self within our society. This is not a call to retreat from the world, it is a call to find yourself in it.
The power of the leader is birthed within each of us. I had to teach myself these lessons on my own, through my own journey of self discovery. Only then did I truly feel the freedom to set free as a leader. The leader that will bring about change because the world needs change.
The way we learn in the future will fundamentally change. The way we educate will fundamentally change because the world is at a point of major transformation. Because there are better ways to live, there are better ways to work and there are better ways to lead an optimal life experience.
I'm blessed to be a part of the journey of transforming education with the founding of my dream project Deemah Bader Consulting & Mentorship.
Cheers to change and growth,
Deemah Bader
Founder, Deemah Bader Consulting & Mentorship
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