My Leadership Skills At An Early Age - 2824 Words

Introduction Leadership has always come quite naturally to me. My leadership skills stood out at an early age as evidenced by: (a) early childhood relationships whereby I would always organize the activities; (b) a quick promotion after two months to a leadership role in my first after school job; (c) securing funding to open my own business in my early twenties; and (d) obtaining senior level leadership roles in every organization I have worked for. I had assumed that this innate ability this would continue when I became a parent; that I would quite naturally have the knowledge and skills to effectively raise my child just as I have successfully motivated work teams towards success. I was shocked however, when I found this was not†¦show more content†¦The reality that I was not a natural born mother and also that I didn’t particularly enjoy every moment of it was not only a surprise, but was deeply disturbing to me. Societal pressures around the meaning of motherh ood that came from my parents, my spouse, the media, and of course other mothers in my peer group contributed to feelings of shame and confusion. As conveyed by Ireland (1993) there is an assumption that when a woman has a child, being a Mother is who she is and this it is a fundamental part of her identity. The problem was I didn’t feel like a â€Å"Mother†, being a mother was something I did, not something I was, which was contrary to the beliefs I had been raised with and those of most the society in which we live. This dichotomy led me to realize that there were aspects to my personality that I was previously unaware of, forced me to revisit assumptions and redefine my perception, values and perceptions of myself and of motherhood. Gaining Inner Awareness In Chapter four Daft (2013) outlines the importance of self-awareness and of spending time to reflect upon and recognize previously unacknowledged personal characteristics that could negatively affect leadership abilities. In those wee hours while the rest of the world slept I was able to do some very