Being a leader is a very difficult job—and a frustrating one at that. You can get inundated with the busyness of it all: the emails, the firefighting, the vision setting, the people management, the internal and sometimes external politicking, the finances. Most of the time, it can feel as if you have little time to breathe. I don’t mean breathing to assess the next thing but simply slowing down and *being*. Who might that be?  

The position you find yourself in might be everything you’ve been driving toward your whole career, or it could be a combination of your skills and luck. Either way, you’re here. You’ve “made it” (at least, that’s what other people probably think). In this well-earned and well-deserved position, are you the leader you thought you would be? How did you envision your leadership philosophy or style, and are you living up to it? If you never envisioned those two things, how is the default philosophy and style serving you now?  

These may seem like scary questions, but they are important ones. If your beliefs don’t match your behavior, the resulting cognitive dissonance could leave you feeling confused, dissatisfied, prematurely burned out, or unhappy, to name a few outcomes. Although we like to pretend we’re master actors, we are, first and foremost, human. Our feelings and views of ourselves will ultimately leach out to our colleagues, employees, family, and friends.  

Since we find ourselves at the start of the year, where personal assessments seem to be the norm, why not make a professional assessment?  

- Are you handling crises the way you thought you would?  

- Are you physically taking care of yourself as you thought you would?  

- Are you mentoring and assisting younger women as you thought you would?  

- Are you managing your employees as you thought you would?  

- Are you supporting systems change as you thought you would?  

- Are you working the hours you thought you would?  

- Do you have the family time you thought you would?  

The list goes on.  

Hopefully, your answers align with the leader you thought you would be. If not, that’s okay—because now, you can consciously begin the journey to become her.