On 10th December 1990, I arrived from an orphanage in India to my new Australian family. To mark the 30th anniversary of my adoption, I’ve written a series of three articles, each one covering a different concept of adoption. Authentic leadership is understanding where you’ve come from and where you’re going. I invite you on to this journey with me and hope it gives you food for thought on the paths you trod to get here, and the trails you’ll blaze as you move into tomorrow.
And so - after Gratitude comes something else. After Gratitude comes.... The responsibility. The sense of responsibility for having the chance to live a life that wasn’t originally yours. The responsibility to live that life as best you can. And perhaps in a lot of cases, it’s the people who have never had something, or have lost something, that realise how precious and how short life is. And that living one life is fantastic. But impacting other lives, having that ripple effect in society, is even more powerful.
Because it’s so easy to forget the simple reality that you are sitting here, right now today… you very easily couldn’t have been. And so my question to you is:
What are you here to do?
What’s your purpose?
What’s your reason for being here?
Because through a series of unexpected coincidences, you not only made it into this universe. You not only made it into this life that you are leading, into this body that you ride through this reality. But also that you are sitting here today, reading this. It’s not chance. If you don’t want it to be.
So, think about: What was the point? What will be the point? Because there are a lot of other children 30 years ago who sat in orphanages who weren’t adopted. Not everyone makes it out. So they never even had the opportunity to make an impact.
It becomes an obligation to want to make the world a better place and (as corny as it sounds) “pay it forward”. To make sure that everybody is able to experience the joy of living a life that we are all so lucky to live. Nothing that you are, nothing that you have, might have been here. You might not have been here. But you are. And you might as well make it worthwhile.
If anything - just be happy. Because when you are happy and you glow and you shine, you share your shine onto others and you give them the permission to shine, to be happy.
And this is what authentic leadership is all about - showing up as you, and giving other people the permission and space to show up as them. It’s helping people reach their unique potential, not through command and control, but through coaching and growth. And whether you lead thousands, or hundreds, or tens, it’s realising that helping just one person shine, can have a ripple effect that flows to others down the line.
Almost every client I've worked with has a deep desire to help others, to make an impact.
We all define impact in our own way and to me - impact is simply giving other people the awareness and the strength to make the choices they want to make in life. Because guess what? We only get one. And as this article series ends, on the 30th anniversary of my adoption tomorrow, I just want to thank all of you for sharing it with me.
I'm Lata Hamilton - Change Leadership and Confidence expert, Founder & CEO of Passion Pioneers, and the creator of the Leading Successful Change program.
If you'd love my help to change careers to find one with more impact and purpose, grab my free Underpaid & Overlooked Coaching Action Guide to learn how to change careers with confidence and carve your own path for change - download it here.