I’ve been considering this week what I stand for in the world.

Who am I as a leader?

What is the impact I want to have?

These are challenging questions. Challenging because it is questioning my fundamental purpose in life, my fundamental role as a leader. Challenging because in asking these questions, I realise that who I am as a leader is not always who other people want me to be.

Martin Luther King, Edward Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Bob Geldof, Bono. These people are inspirational leaders. They were visionary. They challenged the status quo. They upset people along the way and they carried on because they knew that what they were fighting for was important… to them and the world.

And they inspire me. Oh they really do. They inspire me to know that I can be fallible, that I can have faults, make mistakes and that I can trust enough in myself and what I am doing to carry on.

I am currently leading four new projects (I call them leader quests):

1. A physical challenge quest to improve my own health and fitness – you can read more about this at my Coniston Challenge blog
2. An outdoor network to get people in business in the fresh air to improve their health and wellbeing and increase their productivity
3. A community quest to build a vibrant community spirit in my local village
4. A World Wise Leadership quest which involves collaborating with 2 other leaders to take the wisdom of the world and share it across cultures, through a video documentary, a book and workshops.

More on all of these in future posts. The key thing is that I’ve been considering who I am as a leader in those quests and the impact I want to have. I’ve realised that as a leader, I challenge the status quo; I challenge limiting beliefs – my own and others; I stretch beyond my comfort zone for the sake of making a difference in the world and I challenge others to do the same.

At my best, I’m a visionary. I’m bold. I wake myself and others up to being extraordinary. I want us to achieve our highest potential. I really want people to see that there are other ways of being in the world, other ways of seeing things and that when we step out of our comfort zone, we really can achieve extraordinary things – things that everyone believes are impossible. I am a leader with a huge heart, I love unconditionally. I am totally committed, connected and laser sharp. I’m a free spirit and playful. I’m serious too.

My impact is that I raise people’s consciousness to a higher level. I wake people up. I inspire them to be authentic and motivate them to reach out for more. I enable them to connect with their own true nature and to connect with others too.

Through my coaching and leadership work, I empower people to set themelves free of constraints and show up authentically, letting go of fears and limiting beliefs. I inspire people to step up to being a leader in their lives because it’s important and because the world needs us to be ourselves, to bring all of ourselves. The world needs us to show up.

And there is a price to be paid in all of this because I don’t always have the impact that I want to have. Sometimes people get scared and reject me or run away because sometimes being challenged and raising our consciousness is frightening too.

Someone recently spoke to me of an artist who explained how he brought all of himself to his painting and the way the brush moved on the canvas was so precise and exactly where he wanted it and the way he wanted it.

He realised that he needed to bring all of himself into his work in order to produce his best paintings. He also realised that not everyone would love his paintings and that’s the price he paid for being colourful.

That’s the impact we can have when we are at our best. We are bright and colourful. Some will love our painting and others will not. And yet if we keep our true selves hidden, afraid to bring all of ourselves into the world, we end up with a blank canvas that is not really expressing us and that nobody wants to see.

What colour are you as a leader?

What impact do you want to have?

Putting it into practice

1. Consider who are you as a leader.
2. Consider the impact you want to have.
3. What is the price that you have to pay?

I urge you to consider these questions. They are challenging. It’s up to us to paint our own canvas in the way that is authentic for each of us, knowing that not everyone will like the colours that we paint.

Be colourful. Paint your canvas. Be uniquely you, the way that only you can be.

With love,
Jude. x

Related posts:

1. Stop being a busy clown and start being a leader
2. Is the energy you put out creating the impact you want?