Pearls of Leadership Wisdom Pt 1

{{I love my new shirt :) }}

Yea..seems like a weird title for this blog post but hear me out first.

I've been immersed in leadership courses, books, experiences, mentoring, etc and I feel like I have learned alot from these experiences and can't wait to learn so much more. What's even better about this...I want to be able to share some of the greatest "pearls of leadership wisdom" that I have learned from these various encounters.

First, let me rewind to yesterday and give some background on this post. Yesterday morning I woke up so thrilled because it started the 2 week countdown until I will be home and back to our "normal" life (I've been 1000+ miles away since March 1st and I'm just ready to get home and see my husband and dogs! Total side note: you will never realize how much you miss a kitchen until you're stuck without one for a few months!). Ok, so anyways, I woke up yesterday morning and started my morning by reading the Bible and taking my time with the morning. It may seem trivial, but when reading the book Lead Like Jesus, Ken Blanchard talks about how Jesus is the greatest leadership model of all time and discusses the 5 habits of Jesus that we should follow in order to attempt to exemplify His leadership skills--we all know that we will never get even close to that style of leadership but we can always TRY! The first habit is Solitude. Jesus spent time by Himself quietly and we should do that also. It's interesting point that is brought up in this--where the alarm clock should really be called the Opportunity Clock. We have the opportunity to wake up early, we have the opportunity to spread His love during the day and we have the opportunity to learn leadership skills from the most perfect leader that ever walked this planet!

Fast forward a few hours and I will be thankful that these were the words I read during my quiet time that morning....because let's just say that I was very thankful for these words of encouragement. Lord knew that I would need them when people were not the most encouraging and thoughtful throughout my day yesterday.

Basically: We're not here to call people out, to dislike them or to try to prove ourselves better than they are. We are here to love on others, pray for others and praise them when they succeed in life. All that we are here for is to realize and follow God's plan for us and work to fulfill His plans for us--the only approval we need is from Him.

Amidst all of these thoughts and thinking about how valuable having leadership mentors is to me, I kept thinking about the advice I was given from one of the strongest mentors that I am blessed to have learned from.

He said: "Praise in public and criticize in private." 

And that my friends, speaks for itself.

Have a great weekend! Don't forget that you're all leaders and that people look up to you in many ways. Shine the light in everything you do!
-M