Today is Women’s Equality Day and in a few hours I’m off to speak to a Federal Department here in DC to celebrate the occasion. The topic: “Leadership is a choice, not a position.” I think leadership ties in beautifully with women’s equality, indeed with all equality. After all, the women’s equality movement began in 1848, when five women sitting around drinking tea in Seneca Falls decided to put a notice in the local newspaper announcing “a convention to discuss the rights of women” to be held six days later. Six days later they drafted a declaration stating that “we find these truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Of the 100 people who signed that declaration, only one, nineteen year old Charlotte Woodward, lived long enough to gain the right to vote 72 years later in 1920.
Now I’m not here to give you a history lesson on women’s rights. Rather I want to challenge you to examine how you define leadership, and more particularly, how you see yourself as a leader. After all, how you see yourself as a leader determines how others see you. For me, authentic leadership is about making a stand for what we believe in, for speaking up and for daring to create change (for ourselves and others) regardless of our formal position, status or authority. Leadership involves putting ourselves at risk in some way — but then again, to be outstanding in life, we must first be prepared to stand out in some way. [Read more…]