Believe Like A Boss
Learn how to smash your goals and expand the possibility of your life through mindset management, spiritual (energetic) alignment and intentional action. Join each week as Life Coach Nandi (rhymes with Gandhi) teaches you how to create what she calls "a life of thrive" with ease and authenticity. | NandiCamille.com
Believe Like A Boss
Leadership Lessons | Part 1: Self-Awareness
Leadership doesn't always come with a title. From fourth-grade class representative to nonprofit executive director, the journey of leadership is paved with self-discovery and intention. What truly makes someone an exceptional leader? For me, it starts with profound self-awareness.
The foundation of leadership excellence begins with three essential questions. First, do you genuinely like or love what you do? Leaders who authentically enjoy their work create magnetic environments where teams thrive. Think about your favorite teachers growing up—they either loved their subject or convincingly acted like they did. This enthusiasm transfers directly to those you lead, creating engagement impossible to manufacture otherwise.
Next, why are you drawn to leadership positions? While the initial answer might be control or compensation, digging deeper reveals our true motivations. For Nandi, early leadership experiences satisfied a desire to make meaningful decisions that positively impacted others—a stark contrast to her childhood where choices were limited. Understanding your authentic leadership motivation creates alignment between your actions and intentions.
Perhaps most revealing is examining leaders who've influenced your path. Which bosses made you think, "I never want to lead like that"? Which mentors inspired you to grow? These experiences shape our leadership DNA, often motivating us to create the positive environments we wished we'd had. My own commitment to empowering my team stems directly from working under leaders who didn't listen and misused their authority.
The results speak volumes—in my role as executive director, team retention remains strong, with departures happening only for positive life transitions rather than dissatisfaction. This achievement demonstrates how self-aware leadership creates environments where people feel valued, heard, and supported in their growth.
Ready to develop your leadership self-awareness? Connect with me for one-on-one coaching at nandicamille.com or schedule your free discovery call at nandicamille.as.me to uncover the leader you're truly meant to be.
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Hi, friends, and welcome to Believe Like a Boss. I'm your host Life Coach, Nandi Camille. Join me as I teach you how to smash your goals and expand the possibility of your life through mindset management, spiritual alignment and authentic action. I'll teach you how to create what I like to call a life of thrive, with ease and authenticity. It's time to play with what's possible. Are you ready? Let's go?
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of Believe Like a Boss. I am your host life coach, nani Camille. All right, my friends, hopefully you guys can hear me pretty well. I'm actually noticing that where I am feels a little echoey to me. Hopefully, on y'all's side, it just sounds really good. It sounds like a really strong microphone, but last week we talked about non-negotiables.
Speaker 2:So what is it that moving forward? We've been in this 2025 year for going on three months now. We've just had the time change. We are getting into March. I just got some news from one of my team members the other day who will be moving out of state. I live in Denver, colorado. She's going to be moving to Florida, so I'm losing one of my team members, which obviously is so exciting for her, but changes things up for me and, as we're looking at the calendar, her last day is going to be March 21st. And it just blew my mind because I was like, wow, march is going to be over so soon and for me right now it's kind of the countdown until my birthday. My birthday is in May, my birthday is May 3rd, and so like oh my goodness, when I started thinking about March is almost over, I'm like, oh my gosh. Then April, then May I'm getting really excited about my birthday.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything specifically planned, it's just something that I really look forward to every year. I love celebrating another trip around the sun. I love doing something special. It's usually just myself and my husband, tyler. This year, my sister, though she's like, um, hello, I'd like to do something too. So maybe we'll sneak something like that in. But as we're coming into this year, last week we were talking about what are your non-negotiables, and as I was really sitting and meditating with it and when I say what I'm sitting and meditating with it, I mean no-transcript sat down, if I'm going to be very honest with you and written them down, because I've really just been walking around and meditating- on them, and one of the big things is that peace, the word peace, just keeps coming up for me for 2025.
Speaker 2:I did not choose a word of the year this year, so maybe it is choosing itself, but the word peace keeps coming up for me, and one of the attributes for me that goes hand in hand with peace is movement. When I'm moving my body and that might be hiking, that might be dancing, that might be riding my bike, that might be yoga but when I'm actively moving my body, I feel more at peace in general. That is what is true for me, and so, as I was meditating on what are my non-negotiables, movement is a non-negotiable. As I'm reflecting on January and February, I've recognized that I didn't move my body as much as I wanted to, and in not moving my body as much as I wanted to, there's been heightened anxiety in my body, heightened fear in my body, and what I've noticed is that when I'm moving my body more, I feel more grounded, I feel more peaceful. Also, there's so much science behind movement and how it is directly related to lowering your stress levels, so lowering my stress levels means more peace for me, hence why that has become a new non-negotiable. So that is kind of following through from last week what we were talking about.
Speaker 2:This week we're going to talk about leadership, but I wanted to make sure that, if you didn't pause to take a moment to at least think about because I always offer to write things down, but even myself I don't always write things down, but I do want you to think about it Spend time. What are you spending your time thinking about? Are you spending your time thinking about your fears and your worries and what's going to go wrong? Or are you spending your time thinking about where you're going, what you want and what your new non-negotiables are, and what actions are going to be required, what thoughts are going to be required in order to make those changes?
Speaker 2:That's just my offering at the top of this podcast but, as I said, segwaying today we're talking about leadership, leadership lessons. That's what's been on my heart. So in the past six months I've officially hit six months I have now been in overseeing a new nonprofit. So if you've been with me for some time, my background is in education, and when I started leadership coaching or life coaching, it was as a result of getting my degree in education. So I went to school at Florida Atlantic University, got my degree in education, but all four years while I was there, I worked on the ropes challenge course at Florida Atlantic University. What that meant is I was a belay master.
Speaker 2:I worked on the ropes like wall, rock, wall, but I also worked on the challenge course, meaning that we had ESPN, jamba, juice, student groups, mostly student groups, but also halfway homes. Those were the biggest groups that I had Student groups, halfway homes, halfway homes being young adults that were battling with mental health, substance abuse. They were no longer in their home. They were living in another home as a result of action they had taken so that they could learn how to take care of themselves, learn how to communicate, and so that was the biggest group of humans that I was seeing regularly on a weekly basis. So that's what I did for all four years while getting my degree in education. Now fast forward 10 years.
Speaker 2:It's crazy 10 years since graduating college. I graduated in August of 2015. So almost 10 years, or nine years going on 10. But since graduating, I've continued this pathway of both coaching and education. And let's back up even more than that.
Speaker 2:When I was thinking about this podcast episode, I was thinking about leadership. I was like what was the very first leadership position I ever had? And the very first leadership position I ever had was in the fourth grade. It was like class representative, fourth grade. I mean, how old are you in the fourth grade? Eight, nine years old? Like why, at that age, was I so drawn to a leadership position?
Speaker 2:And when I thought about the answers that came up, the first answer that came up was control. I wanted control. But that also made a lot of sense when I thought about my inner child. I grew up in a household where I had no control, absolutely none. I could not choose anything in my life. My parents had total control over everything. Now let me back up and say did I choose to do dance classes and extracurriculars? I did choose those things, but overall I had a pretty controlling household and so when I was out in the world, any opportunity that I had to have control I would take. But then, as I thought about that a little bit more, I was like I don't want to be heard as a controlling person. And as I impacted a little bit more, I recognized that what was more true for myself was that I wanted to be a decision maker. That was what was more true for me. I wanted to make decisions. When I think about being in a leadership position, I think more often than not people think about being the boss and being in charge and while that's true right, you're a decision maker, that's very true, you're the boss, but it's also your decisions impact people. And I feel like that that together the control, decision making, but then the impact that my decisions had a positive impact on other people. I believe that that's what drew me to being in leadership in the first place. So today I want to unpack what I believe helps to make you a really strong leader.
Speaker 2:Like I just said, I've been in this new position where I'm an executive director for a non-profit where my job was to come in and help to soothe the morale, help to continue to clean up the operations and to bring this nonprofit to the next level, understanding what that means for this community. It's also a cooperative and a school. So, again, my background's in education. It's a small school, but it's a cooperative in that all of the parents also work together. The parents have, like family jobs, and so it's a really neat community that I'm learning a lot about.
Speaker 2:Being in this position has been, I think, so eye-opening. Every leadership position I've had has been so eye-opening, but this one, I think, more than any other one, because I'm bringing in all of my skills from fourth grade all the way to now. I'm about to be 32 in May and I've had to use all of my skills in this position, and this position has taught me more about who I am as a leader and what it means to be a leader. So, as I'm reflecting on it, one of the questions, or rather one of the things I want to point out to you is that A strong leader is self-aware. As always on this podcast, take what sticks to you, leave the rest. If you don't agree, if it doesn't resonate, don't worry about it. But what I've found is that strong leaders are self-aware, and so I have some questions for you today to help you maybe strengthen your self-awareness as a leader and unpack where you are and what it means to you to be a leader.
Speaker 2:This is going to be broken down. I want to break this down into a few podcast episodes. Today, I want to focus on self-awareness, some of the pillars that I believe that are important to being a strong leader, an impactful leader, a positive leader, the very first one being self-awareness. So when we're talking about self-awareness being self-awareness, so when we're talking about self-awareness, again, I want you to think about the leadership position that you are in, and it doesn't mean that you have to have a title, right. It doesn't mean that you have to be an executive director or chief executive officer or chief financial officer, or even in the C-suite, right. You don't have to be in a C-suite to be a leader. If you're a mom, you're a leader. If you're a teacher, you're a leader, right? Any place, even if you run a front desk at a hotel, you are leading that front desk.
Speaker 2:So I would say that leadership applies to everybody, in every position, but you have to understand how it applies to you. So check in. Where are you in leadership positions? Where are you a decision maker, in that your decisions impact other people? Let's say, nine times out of 10, our decisions impact other people. But where in your life would you say, oh yeah, in this space I would call myself a leader. I'm a mom, and the decisions that I make about my child's bedtime, what stories we read, what we eat, where we go, is impacting who they become, right? I am a teacher, and the decisions I'm making about the books we read, the projects we do, are impacting who they become as citizens in the world, right? So take a second what are your leadership positions? If you were to name them, what would they be?
Speaker 2:One of the very first questions I have for you as far as self-awareness and checking in on who you are as a leader is do you like or love what you do? Do you like or love what you do? And it's not like do you like it or do you love it? It's like do you enjoy what you do? I guess that's a better way to ask it Do you enjoy what you do?
Speaker 2:As I was reflecting on what strong leaders I've had and what it means for me to be a strong leader, it's not always that you absolutely love what you do, right? Maybe you're in a position right now, in a work position, that you're not enthralled with the work that you're doing, but you do oversee maybe three people. What I've found in the past, and what has been true for me, is that the people that love the work that they do even if you can find a reason to love the work that you do right, find a reason to love it you end up being a more impactful leader than the person that doesn't care. Right? We know the leaders that don't care. We can feel it when somebody that is overseeing a project or overseeing something doesn't care and it doesn't feel good. I even think about the teachers that I've had in my past. Right, our favorite teachers growing up are the ones that love what they do, or at least act like they love what they do. Whether they love history or they love language arts or they love whatever topic it is that they're talking about, they either really love it or they make us think that they do right. The strongest leaders, the best leaders that I've come across, truly love what it is that they're doing. And again, if you're in a position right now where it's like this is just a job and I don't really love what I'm doing, what about it drew you to that job in the first place besides the paycheck. I know it was a paycheck, but there was probably something, one or two other things that drew you to this position. What about it drew you to it? I'm helping people do dot, dot, dot right. Can you find a reason to like or love what you're doing? And if you can't, can you be brave enough to look for something else that you would enjoy more? Because, again, the most impactful, the most positive leaders I have found have been people that love what they do, and I find that I'm the most impactful as a leader when I love what I do.
Speaker 2:Second question you have three here today. Your second question is why are you drawn to leadership? Why do you want to be a decision maker Now? At first, I was going to put this as the first question and, of course, answer these questions in whatever order you find that you are drawn to answer them in, but I specifically put them in this order because I just want to check in Do you like what you do? Because if you don't like what you do, let's not even dig into the leadership questions. Let's find what you love to do first, or let's find what, within the work you're doing, you love to do before we go any further. What, within the work you're doing, you love to do before we go any further.
Speaker 2:But then the second question is why are you drawn to leadership? Why do you want to become a decision maker? Just see what comes up for you. Just notice the natural answer that comes up for you. Because again, I asked myself this question and what I noticed was the first answer was control. But then the following question or following answer was I really wanted to be a decision maker. I really didn't feel like I could make a lot of decisions for myself as a child, and so any chance that I had to make decisions and impact other people positively, I was so excited about. That's what drew me to leadership. What is drawing you to leadership? And again, the first answer might be a bigger paycheck. Leaders make more money. That's great, but you're not going to be a strong leader if you only enjoy your position because you make more money than everybody else. That will bleed through in every area, every decision that you make. Why are you drawn to leadership? Why do you want to become a decision maker?
Speaker 2:The third question I have for you is what did you like and dislike about leaders you've had in the past? I was working with a client recently and she has stepped into a new leadership position. She's overseeing a bigger project than she's ever seen before, which is very exciting and a little bit daunting. She's like, oh my gosh, I'm overseeing more people than I've ever overseen before. She's out here in Denver, colorado. The team that she's overseeing is in Florida, so she's doing it remotely. So we're having conversations about what it means to be a strong leader, what it means for her to be the leader she wants to be, and one of the things that I had her do was I want you to think about some of the leaders you've had in your past.
Speaker 2:I probably brought this prompt to the podcast before, but think about some of the leaders you've had in the past. What are some of the leaders, teachers, people that have been in charge of you that you were like, oh my gosh, why are you in this position? I didn't enjoy working for them. I didn't enjoy being around them. Why Was it the way they talked to you? Was it the way they carried themselves? Was it very evident that they didn't care?
Speaker 2:And then, on the flip side, what are the leaders, teachers, people that have been in charge of you that you've really enjoyed, and this goes down to our parents too. Our parents are leaders as well, so what about their parenting style? Did you really enjoy? I liked when they let me do this. I didn't like when they didn't let me do that With your teachers. What did you like and dislike With some of your first jobs, with your job right now?
Speaker 2:Who are some of the leaders in your space and who would you name as strong leaders and who would you name as weak leaders? Not to be mean, but what would you say as weakness? Right, they don't follow up on their deadlines, they don't communicate clearly. This, as you're reflecting to yourself, is an example of what I don't want to be as a leader. Right, it helps to inform our self-awareness. How do I want to show up as a leader, differently or the same as some of the leaders that I've interacted with?
Speaker 2:I love this exercise because, in part being in that my background's in education, I would have, I think, been happy to have been a pre-K teacher and continued building my life coaching business, but in the roles that I was in along the way, I had not the strongest leaders. I had leaders that made other people feel bad, made me feel bad. I had leaders that I felt were punitive and misused their power punitive and misused their power and for me, that only encouraged me to get into leadership positions, because I wanted to empower those who are working for me. I wanted to be a different leader. I was tired of getting into places and schools and companies where the person in charge didn't listen to the people on their team. The person in charge was were selfish, in my opinion, and only thought about themselves and how their decisions impacted them, and not the community, and so I took notes on these things and that inspired me to get into leadership position after leadership position to where now, 10 years after graduating with my degree in education, I'm now an executive director running a school. We're looking to buy a new property and I'm so proud of that work. But the point is not look at me. I went from being a teacher to being an executive director. The point is I learned things along the way that informed the decisions that have made me who I am. The helm and service being a professional development day and I just ate it up and I was so excited.
Speaker 2:Reflecting on the past six months, I've had lots of people parents come up to me and ask okay, well, what's changed since you've been at the helm? You know, has there been a lot of turnover? And I can probably say absolutely not. The only people that have left the team have become because this friend moved to another state. This friend is now pursuing their degree in psychology and I'm really excited about that, and the friend that let me know the other day that they're leaving their last day is on the 21st. They're moving to Florida. They're starting a new chapter. So none of these moves have been as a result of my poor leadership. They've been because these beautiful humans have made decisions for their lives of this is what's next in my life and this is my next chapter. I'm not leaving because of a poor place of work. I'm leaving because I have the opportunity to move to Florida and start a new life, whatever it is. But it was just a really great moment for me to reflect that.
Speaker 2:You know, when you step into a new leadership position and you get a new leader, from their perspective, I'm stepping into their shoes. There's a new person coming in. There's a new CEO coming in. There's a new person that's running the ship now. It's scary. You don't know how this new person is going to come in, how this person is going to lead, how this person is or isn't going to change things. And often when you have a new person coming in to take over a company, a corporation, a nonprofit, a community, there tends to be a lot of turnover internally because those who have been there for a really long time don't like the new change that's coming in. And for me, it was a moment yesterday where I was really proud that I've retained this team and been able to enact change while still hearing their voice, and for me that's important as a leader.
Speaker 2:My offering for you is what's important to you as a leader?
Speaker 2:What does it mean to be in a leadership position? What does it mean to be a strong leader? I hope that the questions that I've asked you today help to guide you to better fine tune what it means to you to show up as your best leader, to feel empowered, to feel confident in the decisions that you're making.
Speaker 2:We're going to unpack so much more when it comes to leadership, but first and foremost, I want you to be aware of who you are and how you show up as a leader in the world. And do you like who you are and how you show up as a leader in the world. As always, my friends, take what sticks to you, leave the rest. I'll see you next week. Hey friend, if you like this podcast, I would love it if you give us a five-star rating. Share it with your friends. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, if this podcast resonates with you and you're ready for some one-on-one support support for you and your journey go ahead to nandikamilcom to learn more, or head over to nandikamilasme to sign up for your free discovery call.