Navigating Leadership with Grace: A Personal Reflection on Year-End Growth

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Leaders who embody grace focus on the needs of others, the team, and the enterprise before theirs, thereby creating a culture of service, respect, value, and appreciation that empowers, uplifts, and nurtures a sense of belonging.

"Leadership is however not just about leading others; it's also about how we lead ourselves."

As we near the end of the year, it's crucial to emphasize grace during this reflective period for those who have had some end-of-year performance, business, career reviews, and feedback.

Feedback sessions are typically enlightening, yet they can also bring forth feelings of vulnerability and self-doubt.

In this edition, I'd like to invite you to embrace the feedback with grace for yourself so that you can act upon the feedback on your leadership journey.

This quote is a stark reminder.

“To become more effective and fulfilled at work, people need a keen understanding of their impact on others and the extent to which they’re achieving their goals in their working relationships. Direct feedback is the most efficient way for them to gather this information and learn from it.”?—?Ed Batista

Reflecting on Feedback Sessions— Embracing Grace at?Year-End

By practicing empathy, we can foster a compassionate environment that allows introspection to lead to a positive growth mindset.

I am preparing for my final check-in call with my accountability partner this week, mindful that he will ask tough questions and be upfront as we scrutinize my time, processes, and systems.

If you are wondering, this is a similar process in my coaching process, and interestingly, when I mentioned my apprehension about going into this session to a coaching client, they smiled, for it made them feel much better knowing they weren't alone.

I had yet to achieve two goals (publish my book and start learning how to play the sax), expressly slated for 2023, despite prior check-ins and numerous guarantees to the contrary.

As a result, I intend to enter the space of reflection with honesty and grace, knowing that sometimes we miss our goals and, regardless of the rationale, choose to learn from them.

These remind me of two types of leaders:

• The Leader Who Practices Self-Grace: The leader who practices self-grace is the one who understands the value of reflection and uses feedback as a constructive tool. They consistently set realistic goals and approach their audits with kindness and understanding.
• The Leader Who Overlooks Self-Compassion: This leader neglects the importance of self-grace, leading to harsh self-criticism and, unfortunately, limited learning moments. They need help recognizing the value of learning from successes and failures.

Some leaders oscillate between both types often, hoping you settle on the first type as we wrap up the year.

Please consider the following three areas:

1. Reflective Analysis with Grace: Reflection is a powerful tool, especially with self-grace. Look back and acknowledge the successes and failures while understanding and forgiving my missteps. This approach creates the space to learn from your experiences without being overly critical or harsh.
2. Goal Setting with Self-Compassion: Building upon your reflections as you set goals for the new year is essential. Resist the urge to set new goals when some of the ones you are currently working on are multi-year and should be sustained. Approach your goal-setting process compassionately, mindful of the right mix of achievable, realistic, and 'stretch' goals.
3. Financial and Social Audit with Kindness: A review of finances and relationships should also be done with kindness towards oneself. This involves recognizing efforts made throughout the year, even if some financial goals still need to be met or relationships don't evolve as expected.

Appreciate your growth and journey for who you are becoming. Remember, it's not just about what we've achieved or what goals we set for the future; it's also about how we treat ourselves in this process.

Leadership, self-grace, and compassion open the door to a more fulfilling and sustainable journey.

Let's enter the new year, embracing our strengths and vulnerabilities, ready to grow and lead gracefully.

Thank you for being a part of the "Leadership is Not a Title" newsletter. I wish everyone a reflective and graceful end to the year and a compassionate start to the next!

Dr. Flo.

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A hybrid leader: American-born, British-trained, and Nigerian-raised. Leadership Psychologist, Inclusion Strategist, and Executive Coach, KornFerry

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