Who Am I: Leadership

My Personal Leadership Philosophy     

        In my opinion, a successful leader is someone who knows how to support and uplift those around them, someone who knows how to make tough decisions and when it's right to take risks. 

When studying what a leader is, you'll quickly learn there are many styles of leadership,

Early School:

• Autocratic: "I'm the Boss applesauce"
• Democratic: "What does everyone think?"
• Laissez-Faire: "Meh, They'll be fine..."

Later School:

• Situational: "It all depends"
  
• Contingency: "You can trust me, I'm prepared"
• Comprehensive: "Great minds think alike"
  

New School:

• Transactional: "You've worked hard for this bonus, you deserve it"
• Transformational: "When you all succeed, I succeed."
• Servant: "What do you need from me?"

        Every one of these styles is valid given a certain circumstance, which is why being a situational leader is very important. Leaders need to know what needs to be done when, for who, and why. Sometimes you have to be the big boss, sometimes you need to ask what is needed from your group, teammates, employees, or your clients. We also, need to know when to let people be and do things the way that is right for them. Which makes being able to be versatile given any situation a very important piece of being a successful leader.

        For myself building toward leadership in the field of Fitness and Health Promotion, it's important to me to consider what is needed of those I am mean to be "leading". It's important to be authentic, empathetic, respectful and knowledgeable. Adapting, growing, and learning what works best for individuals and myself. Being dedicated to excellence in the field of Personal Training and Health in general. I want those who look up to me to thrive and know that I care about them as individuals, and consider their individual struggles. Not that I am only focused on my own success. In this way, I am very much the "transformational", type.

        Successful leadership to me is having those who I support, know that they can trust me to have their best interest at heart, even if I have to make heard decisions. That I am see as someone who is always growing, earning, and changing for myself and others. That they see that my business is my passion, and they are very much a part of that.

What is a good leader then?

• A good leader is someone who can work through problems with those they support.
  
• Someone, who can be trusted and relied upon to make good choices, in difficult situations. 
• Someone who can admit when they need help, or to learn something new.
• Someone, who is constantly improving. 
• A person who is dedicated and passionate. 
• A good leader is someone who is authentic.
• Someone who has a good set of ethics and morals.
• A considerate and compassionate person. 
• A trustworthy person.
• Someone who makes people feel safe.
  

 

Who is a leader that inspires me?

            Honestly, I spend a lot of time on social media learning from a variety of people and that has had it's ups and downs as it does. I have found that people like FoodScienceBabe, Ben Carpenter, Adam Wright, and the team behind the Fitness Stuff (for Normal People) podcast really inspire me. These people deal in facts, emphasize making choices that are right for you based on individual needs, and help people to feel less scared in the world of fitness and health. In general they use their platforms to help people become better informed, take minimal additional profit from their work, and work hard to move their field of study towards a more positive and compassionate path.

   Which, is what inspires me everyday to make fitness and health more reasonable, compassionate and achievable. Whether you have a disability, don't like "working out", or whatever your reason is that is stopping you from reaching your health/fitness goals. It's not about looking a certain way or being miserable. It's about finding what works for each individual person, so that they can enjoy getting to their goal.

      

      Over the next couple of years, I will be focusing on learning, growing and building connection as a leader. Which means taking my current course material seriously, and learning all the things that are essential to this career. So that I can become a trustworthy leader in the fitness and health sector.

     Two strengths that will help me work on my growth over the next couple of years will be my passion and thirst for knowledge. I have been very passionate about the health and wellness field for a long time. This is just another piece of health and wellness to add to my knowledge in this area. I have spent many years learning about a variety of health topics, and it brings me a lot of joy to help others. Which leads into my thirst for knowledge, I have always been a serial learner, I want to know everything about, as much as I possibly can and I am always open to new information, ideas and areas to add to what I already know, or teach me in areas I lack knowledge. Which will help me to become someone who is trustworthy and knowledgeable in he future.

     Though, I can sometimes struggle with focus and direction. It can be difficult for me to stay on a path that I have chosen, if something becomes too difficult or boring. Making it hard to stay on track and complete some of the less exciting pieces of growing. Keeping myself on a path, directing my actions, and planning for the future can often times just look like day dreaming. With very little structure.

     So I am going to have to focus on building plans, and creating specific goals to keep myself on task for the future. I need to set a time to use my imagination in a structured way to create direction and focus when I am struggling to maintain my ability to do that, over the next couple years and beyond. Using my passion to help me work on the skills that I struggle with. So that I can grow into a focused and driven person with a plan of action. Which, can help my community to see me as someone who once again can be trusted and respected to help them.

 

   Which can be started right know with a couple SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) Goals to get me on my way:

1. Like everyone else I struggle to keep at my own fitness goals so, lets get specific. Over the next 6mths I will go to the gym 3-4 times a week and maintain at least 10k steps a day. This will be measurable using my fitness tracker. Its also achievable, I generally reach or exceed 10k steps a day and I have access to a local gym and time to myself everyday where I can go and focus on this. It's a long time frame, so is it realistic... well fitness journeys are generally long, but I'm not saying I will go everyday, which leaves space for not being able to make it to the gym a few times a week. Is it timely? Yes, the deadline is the beginning of the next semester of classes. This goal works directly on building my focus.

 

 

2. Direction can be hard for me, planning and delivering. So let's get specific, I will create a schedule/plan for the next three months by March 15th for the 4mths following the end of this semester. This will include content creation, certifications, and research time. To measure the success of this, I should have planned for 2 pieces of internet content, once a week for 4mths. I should also have dates in my calendar of reminders for when to schedule and follow up on certificates. Also, have twice a week research session scheduled to me able to provide knowledge to the content that I will be creating. It's achievable as I have given myself a month to take short periods of time to work on this. Realistic, yes creating a schedule is not very difficult it's the sticking to it that is. Which, I have accommodated for by limiting things to twice a week. Is it timely, yes. I won't be leaving the planning to the last minute before the semester is out leaving myself to struggle when the time draws near. But with enough time to adjust if the schedule needs changing.

       

     I am already a professionally educated esthetician, adding fitness and health it is my hope that I can become the type of leader in these fields to help people to achieve their fitness, health, and beauty goals. In a way that is healthy, safe, and compassionate. That doesn't take into considerations the standards of the world, but each individual who comes to me. A safe space for women, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse people as they age.

 

    I want to be perceived as someone who helped my community to be accepting, loving, and safe.

 

 

     I want my legacy to be that I helped people to see that beauty comes in so many different varieties. That the world is not cookie cutter, and that you can reach your goals in a variety of different ways, without changing the essence of who your are. That everyone is special and deserving in their own unique way. And there isn't any one specific way we should all live.

 

      It's important to continue on my path to being a successful situational leader, not everyone needs or wants the same things out of life. In the same way that no one has the same fitness, health, or beauty goals. We are all growing and changing with our own unique tastes, abilities, and wants. My current path is to continue growing, learning and using my passion and thirst of knowledge to build on what I can offer the people I will support in the future s a leader. Which means making commitments to work on areas that I struggle with, using my strengths creatively to support my weaknesses, and being someone who people can trust and rely on. Which will help me to create a safe space in our fitness community, for those in need. 

 

 

Your dreams are in reach! Forging your own path, or taking the path less trod is just as valid as taking the path with the most use. Just remember dreams, start to become reality when you start taking even the smallest steps towards them.