Self-Worth as a Foundation for Effective Leadership Dr. Darren Pierre
— EPISODE 20 —
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Dr. Darren Pierre believes that everything begins with self-worth.
Getting to the root of your unconditional worthiness opens doors for effective leadership, setting boundaries in relationships, and even having healthy finances.
For many people, including Darren, building a strong foundation of self-worth begins with their parents. Oftentimes, we must unlearn the teachings, or the spiritual blueprint, of our parents that may have harmed our formation of our self-worth.
As leaders, parents have a responsibility to ground themselves in worthiness so that their child can observe that power and do the same.
In his book, The Invitation to Love, Darren explains that the way people show up for us oftentimes has very little to do with us. He also details his inspiration by the acronym P.A.I.N, which is simply Paying Attention Inward Now. When we go within and we recognize our unconditional worthiness, we can recognize when the pain or resistance we’re feeling is caused by other people’s ineffectiveness at showing up for us. It really becomes a pivotal moment to humanize them, understand their actions, and find forgiveness for your own sake.
So often, we invalidate our own harmful or painful experiences. Acknowledging and validating your experience is part of the healing process. It’s also important to contextualize that person’s harmful behavior in order to empathize with them, forgive everyone involved, and create boundaries that serve you moving forward.
“Peace is a process.”
– Dr. Darren Pierre
Self-leadership is about the way in which we lead ourselves through life.
The way you view yourself and treat yourself impacts every aspect of your life, from your professional life to your family life and especially your Do you want to be an effective leader who can guide yourself through life’s obstacles? It starts with cultivating a mindset of unconditional self-worth.
Now more than ever before, we as a society are having more conversations about authenticity in leadership, spirituality in leadership, and emotional intelligence in leadership.
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership consists of 3 components:
Consciousness of Self – How am I self-aware of who I am and how I show up in spaces?
Consciousness of Others – How am I aware of other people’s circumstances and backgrounds?
Consciousness to Context – What is the context of these conversations?
Cultivating emotionally intelligent leadership helps you foster deeper connection in your relationships and engage in loving, constructive communication with yourself and with others.
When you don’t feel worthy, your vision is very focused on yourself and it’s hard to be emotionally intelligent… but when you know you’re worthy, you are freed up to be aware of and open to so many other things.
In our discussion, Darren notes a key concept here. Worthiness is connected to security. If we are grounded in our worthiness, we’ll feel more secure in ourselves and our environment.
In terms of leadership, “insecure people can make ineffective managers and if you want to know if you’re ineffective as a manager or as a supervisor, which is a positional space of leadership, then look at the security of your foundation.”
Dr. Darren recommends 2 emotional intelligence strategies to implement in your self-worth journey:
Journal every day and ground yourself in the power of the words you affirm to be true.
Do a paradigm shift of how you consider apologies (both from others and to others).
Grounding yourself in unconditional self-worth is not selfish. It helps you lead other people and to model what it looks like to be emotionally intelligent, acknowledge vulnerabilities, and to empower your team.
About Dr. Darren Pierre:
Dr. Darren Pierre is a lecturer in the Office of Global Engineering Leadership at the University of Maryland-College Park. Dr. Pierre’s teaching is focused on college student development, student affairs profession, and leadership within higher education. He has years of experience as a university administrator, a leader within the field of higher education, and a contributor to many entity groups affiliated with higher education. Dr. Pierre has authored journal articles, and in 2015, authored the book, The Invitation to Love: Recognizing the Gift Despite Pain, Fear, and Resistance. He has spoken nationally on the ideals of leadership, integrity, and authenticity.
To connect further with Dr. Pierre:
Visit his website: www.darrenpierre.com
Buy his book, The Invitation to Love: www.theinvitationtolove.com/purchase
Follow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/TheInvitationtoLove
Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/darren517
Connect with him on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/darrenpierre
Email him: Darren@theinvitationtolove.com
If you’re interested in getting started on your journey to embracing your unconditional self-worth…
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