I have always been pretty outgoing, an “I” on the DiSC, a cheerleader of all things. Networking has come easy to me. I actually seek out opportunities for human connection. You want to have coffee – name the place! I am there ready to make a new friend.
There is a wonderful culture of comradery at Gibson and as we launched our rebrand in 2020, the tagline Own Your Edge arose. It’s not just lip service either. Gibson provides the team an assortment of tools that dig into your own personal leadership style, mentoring, and development. Finding and owning your edge had now become something bigger to me—I was on a mission to dig in even deeper. Allowing the phrase, we worked so hard to establish, to guide my personal and professional decisions. So, the journey began.
I hadn’t spent much time focusing on my unique gifts and talents as an asset. Then, something special happened. Gibson afforded me the opportunity to join a group called The Badass Masterclass. A year-long coaching program, where the queen of badasses herself, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, very eloquently, with no BS, taught us to dig deeper, peel the onion back, and look at your true unique self. Take time to focus on your attributes as gift and to leverage our personal strengths.
I jumped into the program with opens eyes and ears, eager to learn. What became very clear—those attributes that make me uniquely who I am, have always been there, it was my character, my core. Looking at it through a different lens opened a world of personal reflection. I allowed myself time and space to explore how this newfound confidence, perspective, and ownness, could carry over into my professional career.
Space. What a wonderful concept. Allow yourself space to slow down and reflect. Rebecca explains in her coaching, and in her new book (Write Your Own Story- coming out in February), that humans are personal, social, and emotional. Businesses need to control, measure, and optimize. Understanding the difference is what sets apart the great leaders. This was an extremely valuable concept for me as I tend to see others in business getting caught in the transactional, day to day grind. And I have always been the one to navigate towards building relationships and treating all my interactions as personal. After all, we thrive off connection, not off transaction. Once I was able to acknowledge that character trait as an asset, the confidence soared.
Pair the two together—it has been a gamechanger.
- Embrace your unique gifts and talents
- Own Your Edge
So, some may call it impulsive and overly enthusiastic—I’m going to choose to call it encouraging and optimistic—that is my edge and that is innately my gift. As we embark on a new year, I strive to work on fully living through that lens and not get discouraged by the fear of living up to the narrative created by others.
What’s your edge?
