Let’s have an honest conversation. Whether women work out of necessity or choice, they often assuage their guilt by trying to be everything to everybody at work and at home. While not the exclusive territory of women leaders, I have found this issue to be particularly true for them. Often it comes in the form of not delegating for a variety of rationalizations:
- I’m the only one who can do it right.
- Others are so busy.
- It will take too long to explain so I’ll just do it myself.
- I don’t want to burden them.
Pick your own reason why you choose not to delegate responsibility to your workgroup or to your family.
It is time to have an honest conversation with yourself to find deeper answers about what is really important to you, therefore, how you should be spending your time. No matter what kind of magician you think you are, you only have 24 hours in a day and, yes, sleep is a necessity.
Block out the noise, distractions and static to listen to the still small voice in your head so that you can become the person you are capable of becoming; what Abraham Maslow calls “self-
actualized.” Your mind is most open in the morning. In fact, several of the successful women I interviewed for my new book, Women Driven to Success: You Can Have It YOUR All, told me that they rise especially early in the morning to have this time. It is their “me time,” which is often the first thing that gets overrun in a busy schedule.
The key trait of effective women leaders
According to How Remarkable Women Lead by Barsh and Cranston, meaning is the key trait of effective women leaders. It allows them to love what they do instead of wishing they were home or somewhere else.
First, understand that this honest conversation takes time. It is a process not an event. It requires stopping and reflecting from time to time. Life is not static and as life changes, your priorities may also change.
You may be a millennial who is single and focused on work. Then, you get married and begin to try to figure out work in the context of life.
Add children to the mix and that context becomes even more important.
This work is critical to do so you can flourish. Women leaders need to flourish first before they help others. Live your life out of your vision rather than out of circumstance.
The most effective way to do it, is to do it.—Amelia Earhart
