When showing up is just too hard...

You may have seen this on my social media yesterday.

It's not a new concept but rather a drum I like to bang loudly on semi-regularly and for good reason.

When you think about people in your life (near and far) that you look up to as leaders, what traits do you see over and over again?

For me, I see them showing up but even more than that, I see them showing up CONSISTENTLY.

They don’t let emotion or circumstance dictate how they lead.

There are many ways in which we show up - for our team, our peers, our community but today I want to talk about our community.

I would argue that this is the most difficult one for us as leaders to execute well.

Showing up for our team is easy - many of us have an open door policy or we take time to invest in their personal and professional development.

Showing up for our peers also isn’t difficult - in fact, sometimes there is a pressure to do so. Maybe it’s an internal desire to ‘look the part’ but other times, we may simply have to answer to them or contribute to a collaborative project.

But our community? I mean, in terms of our energy expenditure, our community are the first to experience first-hand the rollercoaster of our energy stores.

Exhausted, busy, on site? We don’t create opportunities for visibility.

Need more clients, customers or simply have a week where we have more room in our schedule? We manage to put out a post on social media.

But we’re leaders.

We are a head to toe example for and to the people who need us - team, peers and community.

The biggest reason, as mentioned, that most of us don’t show up consistently is TIME.

So I have some suggestions–

Forward plan - If you have a running plan of the topics you want to address and the direction you want to head, a team member can take care of the logistics and you have to simply ‘show up’ and deliver.

Batch your content - in a studio, in front of your own camera, with a photographer, in front of a word doc.

Outsource - what can you reasonably do yourself and what can you reasonably give to someone else? 

Stop doing everything yourself.

We didn’t build businesses or choose to work with amazing brands  to take on every role and task in order to burn out.

We did however build businesses and choose to work with brands to lead others with a message we believe in.

Let’s get that message out!

How are you going to show up as we move closer to the final month of Q1?

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay positive.
Rebecca x