Ruth Norman Mason

I’ve been trying to work out what I feel about leadership as a concept and why I struggle to put my work into a leadership box. When I think about leadership I think about an individual, driven by ego or desire for status, who makes the contribution of a team about them and their success. I find that model really off putting. When I think about how I want to lead and live my life it’s a collaborative effort and my influence is softer.

I feel that everyone is their own book, everyone authors their own story, this month though I’ve had the privilege to finish with a long term counselling client. We were reflecting on our work and they said something like “it’s like you said…” there was something so beautiful about being internalised and remembered in this way. It helped me see that my influence is, for me, about annotating and making notes in the margins of people’s lives. Helping others to de-code where they have got stuck, and listening to their world, understanding and translating and underlining the important themes, metaphors and characters. In doing this with other people then I learn important things about my own character and about what stands out as important to me.

So I feel that I can lead, not by seeking to dominate and set the story. I want to lead by sharing my knowledge and experience, and supporting people to unlock their own story.

In one hundred years from now I want to be felt and remembered in the way I’ve dedicated books and knowledge to people, I have no desire to leave a library behind me, and I feel that this just as legitimate and authentic way to lead.