Module 4: Leadership Foundations

According to Roselinde Torres there are 3 questions that can help you determine

your effectiveness as a leader in the 21st century (TED, 2014). The first question asks

where are you looking to anticipate change, whether in your business model or in your

life? After that, she asks what the diversity measure of your network is, basically do you

surround yourself with people that differ from you in one or more ways? And finally, are

you courageous enough to abandon the past?

Just “getting started” is usually the hardest part of any task for me, so it should

come as no surprise that the first question is the one I find the most difficult to answer.

How do I anticipate change? I like consistency, so not only do I struggle to anticipate

change, I often resist it. But it is not something I can ignore, so I do see some change in

the future for both my business model as well as my life. My current business model is

primarily wedding photography, but how am I going to book weddings when I’m old &

gray? The model has to shift to another type of photography or service I can offer that I

can do well into my old age, like maybe teaching workshops about wedding

photography. My life won’t change much after I’m married later this month, but I know it

will never be the same once we have our first kid.

The diversity of my network has increased greatly over the last 10 years or so,

especially the last 5, but it is by no means as diverse as I’d like it to be. My partner & I

are homebodies for the most part, so the lockdowns have helped us to solidify existing

friendships but not necessarily create new ones. As life starts to get back to normal,

meeting people with different life experiences than mine is definitely high on my list.
 As someone that says they do not like change, I actually do tend to be able to

abandon the past when needed. I care more about being efficient & doing things

properly than just being right. Recently, I completely changed how I edit photos after

doing it the same way for nearly 7 years… then a couple months later, I completely

changed it again. But in those instances, I learned a lot more about what was

happening to the photo when I did this or that, so I can now more accurately fine tune

the look I want.

 References:

TED. (2014, February 19). What it takes to be a great leader | Roselinde Torres. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUYSDEYdmzw&t=559s