Leadership: are you a Sheep or a Lioness?

I am a lioness who was raised as a sheep. Like many, when growing up, I received the message (from society and surroundings) to be polite, humble, to stay quiet.  That it was better to be seen and not heard and that what I had to say wasn’t appropriate or something others would be interested in.

I never really fit in, although I desperately wanted to.

I often kept my mouth shut and just followed along, trying to fit in and not rock the boat.

Through a lot of practice I think I got pretty good at not saying anything, to the point I believed I didn’t have anything worth saying or worth listening to.

I was being raised as a sheep, but it never quite felt right.  

Something started to change when I unveiled my purpose and started a business, I realized it was important for me to have a voice.  Since I had suppressed mine for so long it was (and still is) a challenge to really discern between my truth and my doubts.

Over the last few years the idea of leadership has come up a lot.  I’ve never identified as a leader.  More of a quiet, introverted girl.

Until this week.

I was having a session with a spiritual mentor, Teertha, when he told me a story.

“Have you heard of the story about the sheep and the lion?” he asked.  “Uh, nope, no idea” was my response.

He goes on to tell me something like this…

“There was this lion who lost its parents and a shepherd and his herd of sheep took him in and raised him as one of their own.  One day a wolf comes along and all the sheep start to run, the lion right alongside.  The lion’s sheep friend turns to him and asks “why are you running?”

“Because there’s a wolf.”

“But you’re a lion, you don’t need to run, just stop and roar.”

The lion doesn’t understand, so his sheep friend takes him to a nearby pond and tells the lion to look into the water.  “See you’re a lion.”

At this moment a wave of understanding, relief and a mix of other emotions washed over me.  As if who I really was had just been revealed to me.

All the sudden I understood why I never felt like I fit in, especially when I wasn’t speaking up and trying so hard to be someone who, at the core, wasn’t really me (even though the being the lioness still feels more foreign).

Now I feel like I have the inner knowing I needed to really fully embrace a new level of leadership.  A type of leadership that feels natural to me.  I don’t have to go out and be loud, super outgoing or be anything else that I’m not in order to be a leader (which I used to think were necessary in order to be a leader when I was growing up).

I just have to be me,  the me that Teertha and so many others had already seen – but I hadn’t.  

The same goes for you, gorgeous.

So I ask you today – are you a sheep or a lion (or lioness)?  Or, perhaps, like me you are a lion (or a wolf/eagle/guinea pig or some other obscure animal) who has thought you were a sheep your whole life?

Whatever you are,  know that you are perfect (or perfectly imperfect) just as you are – I simply share this story to help you see who you truly are, in case it has been hidden for a while, and so you know there are many different styles of leadership.  There can be your own unique way of leading, and you may not even know you’re doing it.

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