3 Tips to Leading with Intention
Welcome, friends, to my very first SOAR blog post! For those who don’t know me, I’m Ana Grisham, a 21-year-old wife to my dreamy hubby, Stanton, and dog mom to two crazy dogs. I’ve been married for a whopping 9 months and coming up on our two-year anniversary together. I move fast, I know what I want, and I don’t press pause until the goal or dream is checked off the “mental list.” At 14, I had my first job, my senior year of high school, I started college, and at 20 years old, I was married! Nothing has been able to stop me.
I’ve always had a natural knack for leading people. Sometimes, that looked like being in a position of authority. Other times, it looked like being the “leader” in my friend group or even being the oldest cousin in the family. This felt like holding control, being in charge, having all the power, and everyone wanted to listen to me. Boy, did that really stroke my ego for many years. It took 8 months of marriage to teach me that I was COMPLETELY wrong. Thank God I got nocked off my high horse.
For the longest time, I thought my big, strong personality was simply apart of my internal wiring, not something that had the potential to intentionally uplift people. I allowed my natural authority to be used to make myself feel essential to the lives of the people I was interacting with. In other words, I thought these people needed me. What I didn’t know was the IMPACT my voice carried. A majority of my life was spent allowing my dominance to steam-roll over people I cared for. Lacking the sensitivity to stop and look back, making sure they were keeping up. I hadn’t yet learned that my strength was coming off as disrespectful. Ouch… One of my biggest strengths was being seen as selfish, disrespectful, and untamed.
Does this sound familiar? Are you where I was, feeling unaware of the POWER your voice carries or unintentionally harming the success of others due to an unharnessed dominance? Trust me, I get it. This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever been forced to come-to-terms with. As a wife, a friend, an employee, I had to quickly learn the power I hold and how I can use it to benefit those who have been looking up to me. If you resonate with my inner steam-roller, don’t worry. I’m here to offer some direction. As I share these new insights with you, please know I have not figured it out perfectly. There are days where I fall back into my steam-rolling tendencies, but without further-a-do, here are 3 Tips to Leading with Intention:
Learn the balance between Leadership and Unharnessed Dominance.
Stay sensitive to the needs of those looking up to you.
Watch closely at the tone in which you use during interactions.
As I learn how to implement these tips into my relationships, I hope that you will join me on the journey in understanding how to Lead with Intention. Have the best weekend!
