111 - How to Be the Leader of Your Life

The MaYapinion® Podcast

What does it mean to be the Leader of Your Life?

Most people believe that you must have a title like Director or Vice-President at a Fortune 500 company to be a leader. Others think you must own your business or be an advocate for a great cause. None of that is true to be a leader. In my opinion, we have leadership backwards. We put so much pressure on people to achieve a certain status before they can “lead’ that we have lost the true meaning of leadership. Before you can lead others, you must understand how to be the Leader of Your Life.

We have leadership backwards because we often are throwing individuals into situations before they even know who they are, especially who they are as a leader. We promote someone to lead a team before she knows what her values are for herself. We decide someone is ready to take on a new project before even examining whether it aligns with her personal mission. When we are interviewing and hiring, we often fail our teams as we don’t take the time to understand what their vision for their life may be or what they feel their purpose is in this life. Why do we do this? Because no one did it for us and we are repeating the pattern.

How do we change the narrative of leadership? And most importantly, how do we take control and be the leader of our own lives first? The core basic steps for us to take are to truly understand what our values, mission, vision and purpose are before we even step foot into an interview, a job, an office, a promotion, new business endeavor, the list goes on. Leadership begins within you and understanding yourself so that you can give back to others with your core values from a place of purpose, clarity of vision, and feel aligned with your own mission.

What happens when we go about jumping into leadership the other way around is counterproductive and we learn what doesn’t work. It can be helpful and that’s exactly how I discovered what my values, mission, vision and purpose were not at all. However, it led me to start to understand that I got lost in corporate “culture” and like a chameleon, I would change into whatever those key elements were for the companies I worked for. I’m sure without a doubt that you have done exactly the same thing. It does not matter if you are a CEO, Business Owner, Stay at Home Mom, Part-Time Worker, Full Time Student, Unemployed individual seeking your next role, or just taking time to learn about yourself. You are the Leader of Your Life. Therefore, you are already a leader.

How to become the Leader of Your Life?

You do not need someone to give you permission to lead or be given the corner office with a title. You are already a leader. Your values, mission, vision, and purpose will drive you throughout your life and dictate your personal leadership. These four important pillars will guide you to succeed in any aspect of life that you choose to embark upon because you will have clarity about yourself as a person and as a leader. That is why we have leadership backwards. We bring people into different cultures; work, home, community, church, and so on. People oblige and join these communities. However, you will join, create, and naturally attract and lead the right communities in every aspect of your life when you are the leader of your life. Why? Because you will dictate your environment, your environment will not dictate you, and your values, mission, vision, and purpose will drive the environment you create and attract. You will ultimately know yourself.

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