Women’s History Month: Lessons for Women in Leadership
Women’s History Month – March 2021
Lessons Learned and Encouraging Reminders for Women in Leadership
A Guest Blog from the Inspiring Women Leaders at CTI
highlights the rich and critical contributions of women to various events in history and to society each and every day. In healthcare and nationally, we continue to make strides towards gender equality, and now more than ever, we are fortunate to have women leaders playing important roles in transforming lives and healthcare organizations, epitomizing what it means to establish work and family life balance, and encouraging us all to keep challenging ourselves and those around us to achieve more!
I recently hosted a roundtable discussion with several of the great women leaders on the CTI team. I am always amazed how these leaders, coaches, trainers, mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives, aunts and friends have the capacity to balance many competing demands including our coaching and training work in healthcare, making the world a better place, changing how and why things are done, and greatly impacting the lives of everyone around them. The effects of their dedication, hard work and the results of all that speak for themselves! We are so grateful to who they are!
Our CTI team members are great role models to all of us and the next generations, so I asked them to reflect on their diverse work backgrounds and life experiences and share their lessons and guiding principles in life and work. We ultimately created essential Women Leadership lessons with the acronym C.A.R.E.S A.B.O.U.T YOU (aka Things to Do and Don’t), formulated from their personal experiences, and that can serve as great reminders to all of us.
C.A.R.E.S – The DO LIST
(C) Care for Yourself
– Make sure to take time to love and care for yourself. This may come in the form of going for a quiet walk, listening to your favorite podcast or even preparing your favorite meal. We can’t give something we don’t have. We all need opportunities to recharge and feel taken care of in order to keep giving, learning and growing as leaders.
(A) Ask for Help – Remind yourself that it is ok to ask for help. Society has told us or expects us to do it all, and that with hard work and determination the possibilities are endless. What we are not told is that we don’t have to do it alone. It is ok to ask colleagues, family members, friends and fellow professionals to do their part and/or assist us when we are feeling overwhelmed and overstretched.
(R) Re-Prioritize Constantly– Focus your time on what matters to you the most. This may come in the form of making lists, journaling, or a simple mindset shift that it’s ok to pour your time into the things you love and that brings you joy. It is ok to say no without feeling any guilt.
(E) Empathy for self and others. Extending empathy and grace towards self and other women can make transformative lasting impressions. What many don’t realize is that empathy can ultimately soften your own heart at the same time.
(S) Embrace the Superhero in you. Embrace the Superhero and superpower living inside you. We all have superpowers, otherwise the world would be a mess!! Those are the superpowers of kindness, love and efficiency.
A.B.O.U.T -The NOT To Do List
A. (Don’t) Attempt Perfection in Everything –
Perfection, the biggest curse , is very limiting; it cuts us off from what we’re capable of doing, giving, receiving, and becoming. To honor what really matters, we don’t need to be perfect, just be who we are in our wholeness.
B. (Don’t) Feel Bad Establishing Boundaries – Do not apologize or feel bad for saying “no” to people and additional requests. We all have the same 168 hours in a week and need to be comfortable with prioritizing and executing on the things we presently have on our plates. When asked to take on something new or add a new activity that we do not have the time for, we need to be comfortable saying, “As much as I appreciate the invitation or ask, I unfortunately don’t have the bandwidth to take that on at this time. Let me see if someone else can handle and please let me know if future opportunities arise and I may be able to join/attend/help at that later time.”
O. (Don’t) Constantly Compare Your Life to Others’ – Don’t get caught up in comparing yourself and your successes to those of people around you. Social media and advertisements can leave us feeling less valuable and successful. You don’t need to be perfect to live the kind of life you came here to live. You just need to be honest with yourself about what matters to you and then build the courage to create your life from that passionate base.
U. (Don’t) Get Upended in the Drama – It is easy to get sucked in the drama of everyone else around you and feeling we need to fix everything and everyone. Arm yourself with antidotes for various dramas coming from the perfectionist, the controller, the cynic, the complainer, the fixer, the pleaser, and the eternal optimist.
T. Don’t Be Too Tough on Yourself– Allow yourself the grace to be forgiven. We all make mistakes and have days during which we wish we could push a restart button. Remember that as you extend grace to those in your family and on your work team, you can also accept that grace, forgiveness extended to you and eventually start anew.
YOU: Everything starts and ends with YOU. You are good enough. Great enough. And you are making a difference in this world. Thank you!
Food for Thought from Inspiring Women
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For more information on women in leadership, coaching, resilience and well-being services for you or your team, please contact us at ctileadership@ctileadership.com.
