Hello, and welcome to our final series of my Keeping It Real with Dr. Anita Behind the Mic brief broadcasts. It’s been a reflective hiatus during the months of April and May. Now that I am rested and ready for the next evolution of this podcast, I’ve decided to focus on helping leaders be intentional about “leading by unpacking” through the process of guided self-discovery!
Hopefully your mind is already wondering what “leading by unpacking” means. For me, it meant the evolution of a new leadership development concept revealed through a series of “aha” moments based on the experience of finally working with a professional home organizer to unpack my physical closet after more than 20 years of living in my home. During that experience, I was guided through facing my previous self and selves, my present self and selves and considering who I wanted my future self and selves to be! Not always easy, but a thoroughly needed and beneficial process to reevaluate a lot of ideas and images I had of myself and how I showed up in the world. Again, not easy to do, but in the long run, very worthwhile!
There were several comparisons I drew between the process of unpacking my closet to eliminate items that prevented me from presenting my best self, with the process of unpacking from our minds ways of thinking about, and being with people that prevent us from showing up as our best selves.
Then, I drew conclusions about how we can lead others on the corporate journey of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging by unpacking outdated ways of showing up with people that simply are no longer befitting of the person we strive to be today. I hope you find this new concept intriguing enough to read the other blogs in this series as I go a little deeper about the guided self-discovery process of “leading by unpacking”.