Written by: Mariela De La Mora, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
When people think of the word ‘leadership’, they often think of having authority over others such as a boss at work. And while great bosses are often good leaders, being a boss is not the same as being a leader.
In fact, you don't even need authority to be a leader. Did I just explode your brain?
Leadership is a form of social influence that focuses on the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. It has nothing to do with titles, seniority, or “building authority” - you can show up as a leader from where you are now.
Five ways to become a better leader:
1. Look for opportunities to rally other people around a goal. They don’t need to be your team members. In fact, it’s an added challenge if they’re not because that requires you to set a vision so compelling that people want to get behind you to achieve it.
2. Embrace opportunities to fail forward. I once co-founded a startup, and our motto was “plan to fail as quickly as possible to gather data.” Great leaders don’t worry about getting things perfect, because that leaves little room for growth. The greatest learning opportunities often come from failing.
3. Build your emotional intelligence. A great place to start is by working with a certified EQ coach to take the EQ-i 2.0 Leadership Assessment, the world’s only recognized measure of EQ. It will help you hone in on the specific competencies you need to build in order to become a better leader, which translates into every area of your life.
4. Strengthen your mindset. They say success is 90% mindset, and that goes for leadership too. For instance, my women of color clients often struggle with setting boundaries, assertiveness, and self-confidence, all of which are tied to childhood trauma and conditioning. Healing your mindset at the root enables you to fully step into your leadership.
5. Find a mentor. Mentorship helps you grow and get to where you want to go in a fraction of the time. All successful people use mentors not only for achieving goals but to become the person they want to be. Mentorship is particularly important for women and BIPOC. Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations found that mentoring programs in the workplace boosted minority representation at the management level by 9% to 24%, and dramatically improved promotion and retention rates for people of color and women (15% to 35% as compared to non-mentored employees).
It’s important to note: you cannot begin to effectively lead others before you know how to lead yourself.
Leadership is not a gift, it’s a skill you build over time, like a muscle. And you can develop your leadership skills regardless of whether or not you’re in charge of teams of people. In fact, the best leaders create other leaders.
By investing in developing your leadership skills and developing yourself as a person, you will become a leader that people will fanatically follow.
Mariela De La Mora, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Mariela is a Life Coach and certified EQ Leadership Coach who helps women of color become powerhouse leaders of purpose-driven brands. Her mission is to help women of color break glass ceilings by healing the generational trauma and cultural conditioning holding them back from becoming the leader they can be. She was named one of the top 10 leadership coaches by Yahoo Finance and has coached 6 and 7-figure CEOs and even leaders in the United Nations. She previously spent 15 years in marketing while leading teams across the globe. As a 1st generation Mexican American, she was often the only woman of color in senior leadership and had to break past systemic and mindset barriers to do it. She now helps women bridge that gap through trauma-informed life coaching and emotional intelligence development, so they can fully step into their power and lead with intention.
