I was asked the other day, “What do you think makes a great leader?”  

I believe it starts with personal leadership and having a high level of commitment to personal development and emotional intelligence.

For me, what has helped me in my life and my career is “doing the work.”  The inner work. Working through my fears, limiting beliefs, thoughts. Rewriting a narrative that empowers me.  Working on my confidence and my mindset. I think about it like this, we work out our bodies, we work on our business and yet I wonder why so many people don’t put the time to work on themselves. I believe we need to engineer our minds to be strong and clear.

I think this “work” makes all the difference. Over the past 5 years, I committed to this work to be a better person and to breakthrough anything holding me back. I have studied leadership, read tons of books, attended many courses and seminars and surround myself with positive people and visionary leaders. One of my breakthroughs has been taking ownership and not placing blame and cleaning up relationships that were not working.  I have learned that I stand as a source for everything in my life and do not minimize the impact I am here to create and cause.

My firm belief is if you have the desire to become a great leader you need to start with self-awareness and managing your own emotions first. Effective leadership includes managing others emotions as well. Being an impactful and effective communicator for many is a learned skill.  Among many things, leadership is managing your mind, being aware of how you show up, it is empathy, deep listening and problem-solving. It is not about being right.

An untrained mind reacts, gets angry, lacks empathy, is always is a critic, always blaming others, takes no responsibility.  The breakdown I see in leadership is an inability to manage their mind and the inability to manage their emotions. In business, as in life, there will always be tough emotional situations.

There will be many challenges and plenty of times to navigate through. It is important to clean up what is not working. The power of cleaning up and clearing is so important in relationships.  In the absence of it, resentment and anger build. What many fail to recognize is how destructive leadership can greatly affect the world. There is a ripple effect. When leaders use control and their power with a closed mind, there is no room for creativity and growth, amongst other things.  When people in leadership roles are ruled by their egos they create an environment of disease and toxicity. There is distrust, disengagement, people lose their voice, they walk on eggshells and there is a huge price for the company and the culture.

How do we shift this?  My theory is if people commit to working on bettering themselves, their relationships get better and their businesses get better.  The change is 100% responsibility 100% of the time for everything happening and owning it.

I love to learn from other women and female leaders about their experience leading businesses and startups. The most powerful leaders I know lead from their heart. They are curious, they are learners, they stay hungry for the best solutions. They are nonjudgmental, daring and have a growth mindset.  They lead with generosity and are committed to inspire, build and empower others.

Speaking of powerful female leadership, our next FemTech event is on May 14th.  Here, you will have an opportunity to meet three incredible female leaders who I admire a lot. They will share their journey of building successful B2B businesses and how they continue to grow as leaders in life and business!

At the event you will meet these amazing women:

Eva Fors, Managing Director at Google Cloud Northern Europe

Anna Omstedt, Co-Founder & CEO at MedUniverse/ Founder of Pokerface Network

Linda Waxin, Founder & CEO of MatchingID/ Founder of Ownershift

Join us for an inspiring discussion and come learn about leadership and building B2B companies!

Register on this link http://sup46.com/event/femtech-13-woman-up-and-get-to-business/

I would love to know what you think makes a great leader!

Also, what would you like to learn from these 3 powerhouse women at The FemTech event on the 14th of May!