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Do you consider yourself a leader? Whether you lead a team at work or not, the truth is that we are all leaders in our own careers. Yet many of us forget that we do have some control over the direction we take our professional lives. Cultivating a deeper connection to what it means to really lead our career can allow us to release the stress and anxiety we can feel about our careers. I sat down with Leadership Coach and Consultant, Camille McKinney, to learn about her simple self-leadership philosophy which is designed to help you start showing up as a leader in your life and creating the career you truly want.
Before becoming a leadership coach, Camille felt the frustration of feeling stuck in her corporate career. Over 25 years, Camille had worked hard in her comfort zone but wasn’t seeing the results she wanted.
“I had this belief system that if I worked really hard, I’ll be rewarded. I’ll get those promotions. I’ll be seen as the person who needs to have that role. And that just wasn’t happening.”
It wasn’t until Camille realized that she was standing in the way of her own success that she began to take the risks and chances she needed to take charge of her career. Now a successful coach at Leveraged Leaders, she is helping countless women lead their own lives and has developed an easy system to start building a sense of self-leadership.
Tip #1: Start by leading from the inside out
Building our self-leadership skills can be a game-changer in our professional lives, helping us plot out our career and take charge of where we want to go. For many of us, we may have never thought of ourselves as leaders when it comes to creating our career paths. Fortunately, Camille’s self-leadership philosophy is a simple 6 step process that we can follow to build a greater sense of confidence in our own talents and abilities as a leader in our organizations and businesses. To start, Camille states that we have to look within and gain awareness of how we are showing up in our lives.
“It has to start with self-awareness. What was that emotion or that fear I just experienced? What is that about? It’s that willingness to be curious about ourselves [and] what we learn about ourselves through that.”
As we start to get to know ourselves in this way, we can start to see the pieces of a road map to further personal development. From this state of self-awareness, we can continue on Camille’s steps to Self Leadership.
Tip #2: Move yourself up to the top of your list
As we continue to work on becoming more aware of ourselves and what we need in our career, we can begin to take action on addressing those needs. Camille’s next tip, which is a personal favorite of mine, is to remember to start putting our personal development first instead of pushing it off.
“There’s a sense of martyrdom that if I put everybody else first [and] everybody else is okay, then I will be okay. When it comes to our careers, we need to rethink that strategy.”
In order for us to truly grow as leaders in our lives, we have to be willing to stand up for our goals. Whether this means taking a course online or asking your organization to invest in your development of new skills, advocating for our needs will boost our confidence and propel us forward in the direction we want to go.
Tip #3: Trust others to do their genius work
Once we have built a foundation of confidence within ourselves with the first few steps of Camille’s Self Leadership model, the final step is to examine how we are working with others. As a leader in both our career and in our lives, we cannot control every little thing. We have to delegate and Camille stresses the importance of learning how to trust others as they do their part.
“When we trust others, they are able to show up as their best selves.”
Trusting others is the key to making us truly great leaders. It inspires others around us to work harder and smarter. However, the trust we have in others can only be built when we first trust ourselves. By beginning with self-awareness and taking care of our needs, we cultivate the trust within ourselves that will empower us to lead our lives and careers the way we want to.
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Have you heard? Self-love accountability has gotten a whole lot easier! We’ve launched Self Care In Action, a brand new virtual self-care accountability group to help you relax and recharge in the comfort of your own home! Learn more here and join us for our next session on October 13th at 5:30pm ET!