She didn’t take the job. The invitation came anyway.
Today we look at what this energy looks like when it’s working as it’s designed to, in everyday life.
This one is about practice more than performance. It means leading not from your own vision alone, but instead, leading from a real understanding of what the people around you actually want and need. In everyday life, that looks like listening more than you speak, especially in the early stages of any leadership opportunity.
It also looks like building the kind of credibility that makes people want to elect you. Showing up consistently. Delivering on what you said you would deliver. Being the person whose track record makes the invitation feel obvious by the time it arrives.
My best example of this is when I was hired for a pretty basic job. I was untested. Nobody knew me. Over time, my habit of arriving early and being able to stay late if needed, combined with being reliable and doing a thorough and downright good job, led to the offer of a leadership position.
I would love to tell you that I took the position. Nope. I relocated to be with my now-husband and found a job there. And started the whole process again.
Here’s the thing though. Whether or not I took that particular offer doesn’t change what the story proves. The invitation showed up because I did the work first, and it showed up again once I started over in a new place, because the pattern works no matter how many times you have to rebuild it.
There’s a collegial quality to this leadership that matters more than people realize. You’re not here to stand above the people you lead. You’re here to stand among them, connected to what they care about, using your voice in service of that instead of your own agenda.
That’s the difference between a leader people follow because they have to, and a leader people follow because they want to.
Find your happy. Love what you do. Make a difference. Come back to me safely. See ya!
