She spent years holding back. Then she learned to lean in.
This is the leader who doesn’t push to the front of the room. She already knows where things need to go, but she waits. Not because she’s afraid. Because she knows real leadership only works when the people she’s leading asked her to lead them.
This energy is one I didn’t have access to until much later in life, so I’ve been learning about the voice of this energy, and now you get to learn about it while we are all in it. And here’s the thing nobody tells you about waiting to be invited. Sometimes you have to unlearn holding back before you can even recognize the invitation when it shows up.
I’ve always had a tendency to hold back. My childhood definitely conditioned me to hold myself back, to be sure not to take up space or, heaven forbid, the spotlight. That said, I ALWAYS responded when I was needed. I felt the need, people talked to me, and I would step forward to help. But it was never my first, second, or even eighteenth impulse. Because the younger Linda had been burned when she used her voice and stepped forward. She learned. She held back.
And now? I lean in. When there’s a need, I step forward. And what I’ve come to understand is that every one of those moments people came to me, however small, was its own kind of invitation. Nobody handed me a title. But they handed me their trust, and that’s what this energy is really built on.
So yes, at this stage of my life, I lean in to this energy.
There’s an old song that captures this energy better than I ever could. Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings.” It’s not about being the one everyone sees. It’s about being the reason someone else gets to fly. That’s what this leadership looks like when it’s working. You lift people. You don’t need the spotlight to do it.
This week we’re going to look at all sides of this energy. What happens when the waiting turns into resentment. What it looks like when you get it right in everyday life. And what it looks like at its very best, the version of you that leads because you were asked, and because the people around you freely gave you that voice.
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
