The best leaders know how much they don’t know

This past weekend I spent some time out in Kananaskis sleeping in a bunk bed surrounded by 60 other business students each also out of their comfort zone. The experience was definitely unique. I didn’t know what to expect but I did recognize the value in developing soft business skills to become a better team member, which drew me to participate. Little did I know that I was a leader and I would need to set goals upon my return home in order to realize my leadership potential.

I was reminded of many important ideas…

• Not everyone follows the same path or contributes in the same way
• First a leader must lead themselves
• Leadership takes many forms beyond directive leadership

I thought that I would be learning about leadership qualities and leaders that I should aspire to become. Instead I spent a lot of time this past weekend learning about myself. Learning about what I value, how I work with a team, how I can enhance the leadership qualities I already posses. As a leader I bring value through knowledge, rational thinking, forward thinking/ planning, organization and inclusion of others. I realized that these traits may tempt me to work with people who possess the same skills that I possess. In reality I would be best to work with a team of other individuals who have skills different than the skills that I have. The creative type might get a headache working with someone who likes to work with checklists but the best final project would come from the collaboration of both of these qualities.

Besides all of the things I learned about myself my favourite part of the weekend was the communication norms that we had established as a group at the beginning of the weekend. The group respected each others ideas, welcomed meaningful conversations and strived to work together. We did not have preconceived ideas about each other and valued the unique contribution that each person was able to bring to the table.

I left leadership challenge weekend more well prepared to be a good team member moving forward and inspired to develop my leadership potential.

The biggest mistake I ever made

I practiced day in and day out. Saying my parts of the presentation in the mirror over and over for the last three days didn’t matter now. I could feel my hands shaking around my cue cards and there was nothing that I could do about it. I told myself to breathe. Then I made a weird noise in between my sentences. My lines jumbled out of my mouth in a weird order. I took a moment to look at the PowerPoint screen behind me. I don’t think that I was supposed to do that. Hopefully I didn’t look for very long but I’m not sure what happened. “And now my partner will discuss the next few slides”. I’m done. I hated that.

Behold, the great mistake I ever made wasn’t turning around to look at the slides momentarily. The biggest mistake I ever made was caring about what other people think. It can be easy to become victim to our insecurities. However, letting insecurities take over and manipulate your choices only holds you back.

Public speaking remains the number one phobia. There are sharks, lions and bears in the world. I think that pin pointing exactly what makes public speaking so challenging is what will help us conquer our fear. It is our insecurities and not the act of public speaking itself that is challenging.

Then I realized that people do not actually care about what I am doing as much as I thought. Mind blowing. I can’t say that I have overcome my insecurities and now public speaking is a walk in the park…. but it gets easier every time I practice.

–@nlatter