Tip #13: Leadership and failure have a lot in common, but in a good way.

Last Thursday, I attended the YWCA's 6th annual Women's Leadership Conference. Since I was already transcribing my notes from the event, I used them for this week's professional development tip.

The conference theme was "Our Time Is Now," and the list of speakers included our very own Dr. Brenda Flannery (Dean of the College of Business), Dr. Cindra Kamphoff (Sport & Exercise Psychology), and Louise "Lou" Dickmeyer (Director of the Center for Talent Development).

Although the event is directed at women, most of the advice applies to everyone. The five takeaways of the conference were to identify your purpose, challenge yourself, build your network, be resilient, and create a strong personal brand. But that is a collection of headlines. My unofficial motto is acta non verba or action, not words. (Believe me, the irony of a technical writer using that motto isn't lost on me.) So here are some lessons and action items that we can all take to heart.

• Leadership is learned by serving others. 
• To inspire others, we need to know ourselves first and seek an integrated life. We must also take care of our personal growth and professional development. 
• Leadership requires commitment and joy, but it's not glamorous or easy. It is uncomfortable. You will be criticized and challenged. And you probably won't be thanked. 
• Leaders don't always know the answer, but they understand the journey and know the final objective. They select the right pace and hold the group together.
• We tend to assume that the loudest people are the natural leaders, but we can't overlook the introverts. After all, they are watching everything!
• Authentic leadership requires self-awareness, integration of our many selves, reflection on our challenges and reactions to them, development of formal and informal networks, and willingness to listen to feedback. 
• Authentic leaders have the following characteristics: confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, transparent, transparent, moral/ethical, future-oriented, and associate building. 
• Leadership is uncomfortable, but growth happens when we step out of our comfort zone and into our courage zone. Choosing courage will always feel better than living with the fear of the unknown or the difficult. 
• We can't compare ourselves to the "highlight reels" of other people. That's unhealthy and dangerous.
• Mentors are all around us, but we need to be mindful and notice it. We should also try to mentor others. It helps us grow, too, and builds a pipeline of leadership. 
• Develop your expertise. There isn't much room at the top of your field, but you can carve out a space at the intersection of two areas you feel passionate about. 
• Build your network and make time for the relationships. Send thank you notes. Keep the ones you receive and read them when you're having a tough day. 
• Plan for balance. Cut out the activities that don't help you do what you want or need to do. Unvolunteer for things that you aren't passionate about or that aren't in your area of expertise. Outsource what you can. Create boundaries. (This sounds a lot like self-care, doesn't it?)
• Say yes to opportunity. Raise your hand. Get on committees. Volunteer in the community. Ask for stretch assignments. Do things that make you nervous.
• Establish a personal brand. What do people say when they talk about you? What do you want them to say? 

The final suggestion is from me. As I listened to speakers talk about the characteristics of leaders and the challenges they face, I wondered about the many people who don't step forward. Many of us hesitate to take the first step, to speak up, or to move into leadership roles because we don't want to look foolish if things go wrong. We don't want people to realize that we don't know all the answers. (It's particularly hard for people who spend years becoming experts in our fields of study to admit that we don't know something.) But Dr. Abdul Omari, who visited our campus last month to talk about unconscious bias and cultural intelligence, pointed out that by staying quiet and letting others take the lead, we are depriving people and projects of ideas that could make a significant impact.

So having reviewed these notes, I realize it's quite a list. And you probably won't remember most of it, so here's the executive summary:

Don't be afraid to look foolish.
Learn from your mistakes.
Take the next step.