I've felt a strong desire to sit and write lately. I've spent a lot of time reflecting over the past few months - my sense is that my thinking is starting to coalesce around some ideas that now want to be expressed. Or, I just need to get the stuff bouncing around in my head out so I can make room for more. Either way, here I am at the keyboard banging away.

Someone asked me last night what leadership meant to me. I spend a lot of time thinking, reading and talking about leadership yet when I am asked that question, I inevitably stumble for words. What I realize now as I sit here and write is that what leadership looks like depends on the context, setting or situation. The enduring aspect of leadership, the part that is consistent across all areas, is the "being" of leadership.

I am being "leader-like":

• if I am living in integrity with myself in all my affairs


• if I live authentically and empower others to do the same


• if I am serving others while at the same time taking care of my own needs


• if I embrace my humanness - both the light and dark aspects - and allow others to do the same


• if I makes mistakes, learn from them, and celebrate them as part of me becoming the best human being I can be

I could go on but will stop there for now.

A dear friend sent me the quote below last week. I heard it years ago, it is one of my favorites. In fact, it changed my life. I am excited to share it with you:

Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson from A Return to Love

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."