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Author: Victoria Cohen
Staffing Solutions Enterprises’ Executive HR Women’s Network recently had the privilege of hosting Beth Sweeney at our Executive HR Women’s Network meeting, where she delivered an inspiring presentation titled “Lead from Where You Are: Enhancing Your Mission & Vision for Impact.” Here’s a recap for those who couldn’t attend, and a guide for implementing these strategies in your own leadership journey.
Beth started the session by guiding us through the process of identifying our top five values. This step is crucial for grounding our leadership approach in what truly matters to us, ensuring that our actions align with our core principles.
A leadership mission defines what you’re there to do and how you do it. Beth broke it down into key elements:
Behaviors: Actions and habits that reflect our values.
Values and Beliefs: Fundamental principles that guide our decision-making.
Character Traits: Personal qualities that shape our interactions and leadership style.
Beth posed essential questions to help define your mission:
What keeps you coming to work each day?
How do you want to support your team?
What do you want your brand or reputation to be?
A leadership vision is about where you aspire to be once you’ve achieved your mission. Beth encouraged us to think about:
Our purpose and aspirations.
What inspires us and what we love about our work.
The legacy we want to build over time.
She asked reflective questions to guide this process:
What do you love about the work you do?
What do you want to give to the world?
What leadership legacy do you want to build?
We spent time reflecting on our career and community leadership, identifying high-point experiences where we stretched ourselves and made a significant impact. Beth recommended analyzing these experiences by looking at:
Each decade of work.
Each employer and role.
Community or nonprofit involvement
She emphasized understanding what made these moments high points and the feelings associated with them, searching for trends and insights.
Lastly, Beth introduced the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese term meaning “a reason for being” or “the life worth living.” She guided us on how to find our Ikigai by reflecting on the intersection of what we love, what we are good at, what the world needs, and what we can be paid for.