Have you ever had the feeling people do not appreciate you and what you do?
Boo-hoo, stop crying about it! At least that is what I tell myself. I have had moments that I feel people would rather criticize what I do rather than appreciate what I do or see the good I have done. In leadership, we always experience these feelings. I call them feelings because in my opinion that is all they are. I allow the perception of people’s feelings cloud my mind too often. I would say I create a story that is not necessarily true run through my mind like a movie in repeat mode. Whether you refer to this as a low self-worth or a low self-esteem, it is a problem for many. The question this week, is how do we change this perpetual movie in our minds? How do we stop the repeating cycle of our negative self-worth?
I always worry that my readers will perceive me a big cry baby or complainer of how bad my life is. I hope that is not the case. I wanted to shed light on what I think is or could be an issue among leaders in our current times. If we have a poor view of our self-worth, we risk becoming overruled by our fear. We make decisions and act in our roles of leadership. There is no time to worry about our feelings. We must accept the decisions we make and be clear as to why the decisions are made. When we get knocked down in life, we must be able to pick ourselves up and be happy about our efforts and keep on achieving our goals. There is no magic bullet, our program that will assist you in feeling good about yourself. You are the only expert in that department.
Everyone has worth and something to offer the world or your organization. That includes you! It is up to you to find your worth and acknowledge your strengths. Limit how often you acknowledge people’s criticism of you. We cannot ignore every critique, because we need some criticism in our lives, or we will keep making errors we could correct. The point is, look at what you have accomplished and worked on and see your value to the organization or situation. We must look for and see all the good we do. If you fail to see your value, what makes you think others will see it first?
Imagine if we took the time to track moments, we feel good about ourselves and when someone acknowledges when you did something great. Would we see more moments when we felt good or more instances of people acknowledging what you have done? Would we see even less moments for both? If we truly think about it, we might be surprised to find out we are not seeing or hearing any acknowledgements. Which proves we must build ourselves up by acknowledging our own self-worth. We can start this process by reviewing our strengths and gifts. Building upon our strengths allows us to feel good about ourselves and gives us confidence moving forward. This builds momentum and before we realize it, we see our true value.
What part of your life makes you feel unconfident?
Do you pay more attention to other people criticizing you?
How are you preserving your actions and decisions?
What strengths or gift do you bring to your organization?
You may not feel you bring value to the world and your organization. You may feel you are of great value because you do not struggle with a poor sense of self. Accept the fact that there will be criticism but focus also on the great things you bring to the table. See your value and your self-worth will grow and improve daily. Thanks for taking the time to check out this week’s post. Have a great week and start seeing the value you bring to this world.
Steven C. Bucks-Leading Conversations
