You start your formal education by learning the letters and numbers. Both of these items serve as the foundation for everything you learn throughout your life.
Many leaders are lifelong learners who go on to learn with every new experience and event.
I am sharing the professional ABCs that I learned as a gay man during my corporate career. I am still learning about letters and numbers as an entrepreneur and expect it won’t end anytime soon.
A stands for the word Acknowledge. As a LGBTQ leader, you must acknowledge the things that make you who you are and how you show up with other people.
B represents Bold. LGBTQ leaders are called upon to make bold decisions on a regular basis, you have to know how to appropriately act bold with other people.
C gives attention to the word Committed. LGBTQ leaders are expected to be committed and follow through on getting things done, no matter what.
Acknowledging who you are and your strengths and growth opportunities takes a tremendous amount of self-reflection and self-awareness. Do you know everything there is to know about yourself or do you have blind spots?
As an LGBTQ leader, are you out? Recognizing the decision is yours, there is no judgment in how you have decided to show up professionally. The point is to acknowledge your decision and accept what comes with it.
Are you deliberate in developing your unique leadership style or do you wing it? Again this is not intended to shame, it is about bringing attention to it so you can decide what works best for you as a leader seeking to achieve your career development goals.
Your leadership reputation is built on the actions that you take while executing your tasks. Other people get to know your values and principles by your actions. Acknowledging your values and principles makes it easier for you to act in alignment with them.
Bold LGBTQ leaders are direct and confident, they might even come off as intimidating to some people. They are risk-takers who have decided to move forward into new adventures that might terrify other leaders.
As an LGBTQ leader, you might find that you have to be more courageous than your colleagues. There certainly are a number of landmines that are imminent for LGBTQ leaders that are not necessarily present for other leaders.
Bold leaders must be decisive and appear to have unwavering support for their own decisions. LGBTQ leaders might need to be more bold and decisive because of the organization’s culture or the corporate culture.
Committed LGBTQ leaders value striving to do whatever it takes to get the job done successfully. They are generally seen as going above and beyond to get the work done.
LGBTQ leaders know the importance of being 100% committed to their role and organization. There might be some challenges within their organization that require nothing less than a perfect performance record.
LGBTQ leaders are well served to be committed to getting things done. When this one thing is learned, it can differentiate and distinguish you from any other leader in your company.
While this article is addressed specifically to LGBTQ leaders, the ABCs are universal and are very well suited to leaders in general.
The intent of this article is to Acknowledge the need for a Bold set of statements that are focused on the leadership principles that are Committed to by the LGBTQ community.
What are your professional ABCs and how do they support you in Developing Your Unique Leadership Style?
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