I have to share that I recently attended a terrific session on Being A Leader-A Breakthrough in Leadership Development taught by Cookie Boudreaux of Mark Kamin, Inc.
Tidbits of wisdom and extraordinary useful guidance filled the time that passed too quickly.
Ms. Boudreaux began by clarifying the distinction between management and leadership. She defined management as taking something or an idea to reality. Leadership she defined as asking key questions and going beyond what is safe. She said her time and remarks would be on leadership.
What resonated most for me was two components of what Ms. Boudreaux described as the foundational elements of leaders and leadership. These two elements we touched on in our personal stories on the Stilettos and Sneakers website. Those two elements are:
(1) Being a person of integrity
(2) Being authentic
Lean In: Women, Work and The Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg introduced baby boomers, millennials, and every generation of women to the concept of the importance of being authentic. However, integrity as a part of leadership caught my interest. I never really thought much about integrity other than meaning being a moral or ethical person.
- Integrity was defined as honoring one’s word.
- Doing what you said you would do and doing it on time
- Doing what is expected of you
- Willing to be held accountable
When integrity is defined like this, I have to ask myself do I have integrity consistently in my professional life? What about that accountability meter?
This was well worth my time with a session providing much information to process and ponder!
~ Janice Zarro