Leadership and Vocation

A couple of weeks ago I attended a webinar that my work provides called "Women in Leadership". These are great opportunities for all genders to come in and learn how to lead, how to involve women in the workplace. The speaker was Dr. Susan R. Madsen whom is a professor of Organizational Leadership at Utah Valley University.

Some things I learned:

"Leadership belongs to those who take it" Sheryl Sandberg. This is one of the first things I wrote down because this is so true. Everyone and anyone can be a leader... it is just a matter of being a good leader. When you think of being a leader you think of the manager in their office, or a significant person in a company; however, there is MORE to it! A leader can be a mother, a leader of a committe or a board, someone with a calling in a church or their community, a leader is someone who takes the reigns and helps others to their final destination.

Benefits to being a women in leadership? Well per Dr. Susan R. Madsen:

1. We improve financial performance

2. We strengthen organizational climate

3. We leverage talent

4. We increase CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and reputation

5. We enhance innovation and collective intelligence!

It is all about making it a VOCATION: the place where your deep gladness meets the worlds needs!

We need to find our vocation and truly magnify our skills. I was watching the CW show Supergirl on Netflix and Cat Grant gave Kara Danvers (Supergirl) an office and tells her to tell her what job she wants, to find her vocation and get back to her. Obviously we aren't going to have this happen to us because in real life you have to apply for jobs, but it got me thinking... what is my vocation?

Here is an example - from Supergirl of course. Her cousin - Superman - comes in to town to visit. She follows him around while he does some reporting as Clark Kent and sleuthing as Superman. As she is doing this, she discovers her strengths are finding out the truth and she is interested in writing and helping others. She goes back to Cat and says that she wants to a reporter... so therefore she found her vocation.

In my Master's Degree studies, learning about vocation was a huge part of every class that I ever did. My vocation in life is to lead people to becoming their best selves. I don't want to be a manager, but I do want to help people. Whether this is life coaching, school counselor, administration, human resources, or anything like that - then it is what I want to do.

This is why I created this blog and my podcast. I know there are people like me who have had similar experiences that I have had! So if you want to have a support system, that is something I want to create here.

Until Next Time.