Reflection 1: "The best leader I've worked with always..."

…In the trench with me.  When I worked in clinical mental health my supervisor (Brenda) was never afraid to get her hands dirty, she guided and led by example.  She was not above any task, even those not in her job description if it was for the betterment of our clients.  If you’ve worked in mental health, you know how incredibly hard it can be day in and day out, but we always lifted each other up and held ourselves accountable.

She cared enough about the work she was doing to speak up and challenge the things that weren’t working, no matter the cost, which I always found incredibly brave.  She had a printout on her bulletin board of the quote, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.  She really embodied that spirit.

As an employee I felt seen and inspired to be the best version of myself.  Her mentorship meant the world to me and even though we no longer work together it still does and has carried over to every position I’ve had since.

I LOVE this answer and example! In fact, in Chapter 3, I write about a TGI Friday’s GM (I call her Lisa) who showed up for her team in the same way. When I took my first “big boy” job at Verizon, I remember I was given this MASSIVE program mgr job over a large transformation project and I was paralyzed. My manager, Ashley, cleared her calendar one day, rolled her chair to my cubicle and said, “ok, let’s do this! Tell me what do to.” Even to this day, I’d do anything for that woman!

Looked to how to grow their employees and support them in their growth. My best leaders have always provided me with the tools I need to upskill and the resources I needed to perform at my role. They look at failure as an opportunity for growth, and enable their people to perform without fear of failing. Once you redefine failure as giving  up, the team feels freedom to experiement to find the best way to do something, rather than the safe route because “it’s always been done that way”.