I attended a legal tech conference last week as part of my day job, and I listened to a presentation on professional leadership where something the speaker said really struck me as applicable to survivors.
She said the best leaders can lead themselves first. Meaning, they can see themselves as the sum of their life experiences, understand how those experiences color their outlook, and separate fact from fiction in that outlook, thereby making sound leadership decisions.
As she described the process of being aware of yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, it really sounded a great deal like doing a bit of therapy. It also made me very aware of the fact that because I had gone through therapy, and years of learning about how my childhood affects my view of the world, I was way ahead of the game in this regard. Most people don’t take the time to truly learn about themselves. Survivors who are truly trying to overcome and become more than victims have no choice but to go through this process.
Does that mean that survivors make better leaders? Not necessarily, but the healing process we go through brings a lot of power and skills that many people don’t bother to develop in their everyday lives. Isn’t it nice to know that all of that struggle and work will have even more benefits than you planned on?