Life Lessons : Applicable In And Out of The Workplace — René Lumley-Hall
Earlier this year, I was invited to join a small group of leaders on an executive task force. During my time on this unique project, I’ve had an opportunity to reflect on five key principles that I’ve learned and leaned on as a leader throughout my career:
- Be Flexible — How you handle ambiguous circumstances says a lot about your comfort with creativity as well as your ability and willingness to see opportunities to step up and lead in times of uncertainty.
- Run your own Race — Trying to follow the precise path or taking the exact approach that someone else did might work for you in the short run, but it’s just not sustainable because you’ll always be looking over your shoulder waiting to see what someone else does before taking action. Leverage what makes you uniquely you, add a bit of your special sauce so that those around you can appreciate what it is that you bring to the table. You might surprise yourself at the results!
- Be Kind — Encourage others around you, share artifacts, resources and templates that might be helpful to them. You never know who might be struggling to absorb, synthesize and organize the massive amounts of new information being thrown their way. As always, say THANK YOU and mean it.
- Have fun — Don’t take everything so seriously. Find the funny when things get tough to ease the tension. Laughing doesn’t make you any less professional or less of an expert in your field, but it does show that you are able to put things into perspective. As an added bonus, laughter also has some incredible physiological benefits.
- Be Humble — Be willing to share the spotlight. Acknowledge the contributions of the entire cast or ensemble of people surrounding and supporting you. In this task force, I’ve been lucky to collaborate with and come across some pretty impressive professionals and solid human beings. Remember, everything doesn’t need to be a competition or race to the top; We can ALL win!
