Hi Monica. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! You say that leadership is "an everyday, creative, constructive practice where you become increasingly aware of how you influence others with your actions, the ideas you share, the vision you lay out." This made me think of a story shared by David Edwards in another forum that illustrates this well:

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

So, following your line of thought, you can choose to embrace leadership as a practice, you still have to make a choice: what kind of leader will you be. I hope we all will choose to be positive leaders that want to have a positive influence in those around us.

Dr. Ada