Last year, Scott Eblin wrote Overworked and Overwhelmed: The Mindfulness Alternative. Of course, who wouldn’t resonate with that title?! It targets business people and, specifically, business leaders. He states: “One of my favorite definitions of leadership is that it’s a two part job—the first is to define reality; the second is to offer hope.” And what gets in the way of clearly understanding and dealing with reality are distractions and limiting patterns of belief and behavior that lead us to overwork and land us in a state of feeling overwhelmed: grouchiness, insomnia, poor decisions, lack of follow through, you name it.
I just picked up a fascinating book by Brene Brown titled, “Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead”. This book makes the case that we need to embrace our “ability to believe that we are enough.” Easier said than done. How does one do that in our current culture of competition, anxiety, perfectionism and comparison?
What does it take to show you are an extraordinary leader? Sometimes it takes understanding what it means to be “qualified versus qualifiable”. A qualified executive does what others do: follows best practices and looks to do what it takes to meet job and role requirements. A “qualifiable” executive knows that he/she must do more if he/she wants to stand out in the crowd, set themselves apart and keep learning and growing as a leader.