Page 25 - Free Yourself From

8 It’s Not a Glass Ceiling, It’s a Sticky Floor

more comfortable approaching you and more willing to place their
trust in you, share their views with you, and support your ideas. When
you know who you are, you feel and project inner confidence, which
enables you to build credibility and identify with others. You are the
leader who projects a sense of stability during crisis, change, debate,
or conflict. You project a centeredness that others pick up and, in
most cases, create this magical focus and alignment for others.
On a personal level, the impact of not knowing yourself is that you
might take the wrong job, or make other decisions you’ll regret down
the road. You might make ill-considered choices that leave you hav-
ing to repair an important relationship, or that undermine other peo-
ple’s trust in you. Knowing how you want to appear to others and
then being that person, versus being someone else, is critical to every
leader’s credibility, influence, satisfaction, and overall fulfillment.
In the early part of my career, I listened, watched, and got to
know people who rose to high levels of leadership and success. I
observed that, aside from being competent in their field, they had
something else in common. They actually took time out to examine
themselves. This allowed them to access their strengths and inten-
tions when important opportunities and challenges presented them-
selves. They also applied these insights to the daily onslaught of
difficult decisions every executive faces. Finally, they knew their
weaknesses, and that helped them to understand and manage the
assumptions and behavior patterns that could get them into trouble
when they were under stress or pressure.
Lydia Thomas, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mitretek, a not-for-
profit research center in Falls Church, Virginia, observes, “As a
leader, you need to be your own person—you can’t pretend.” She
points out, quite correctly, that no one can act all the time. “People
should know what they are getting when they get you and you should
be happy about what you are providing to others.”