Leadership Model

I was reading an interesting article in the McKinsey Quarterly about "How Talented Women Thrive." I found the following 5-point leadership model very inspiring:

Meaning, or finding your strengths and putting them to work in the service of an inspiring purpose;
Managing energy, or knowing where your energy comes from, where it goes, and what you can do to manage it;
Positive framing, or adopting a more constructive way to view your world, expand your horizons, and gain the resilience to move ahead even when bad things happen;
Connecting, or identifying who can help you grow, building stronger relationships, and increasing your sense of belonging; and
Engaging, or finding your voice, becoming self-reliant and confident by accepting opportunities and the inherent risks they bring, and collaborating with others.

This model can obviously be used across genders, but resonates more with women as it was developed from a research study of successful women from around the world. I hoped you found it as interesting as I did.

Finally, I really identified with this quote...maybe because we share the same initials! :) Shona Brown, Google’s senior vice president of business operations, described how she handles opportunities and the risks that accompany them. “I’ll use a skiing analogy because I like to jump off cliffs,” she says. “But I generally jump off cliffs from which I’m relatively confident I’m going to land—or if I don’t, it’s not dangerous.” Brown said she enjoys risk. “I like to be at that point where you’re about to jump. Your stomach is kind of going ‘woo’! It’s not so simple that you’re sure you’ll succeed. But you’re not in a life-threatening situation.”