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I don’t agree with your post at all >:(

…Because you are leading! Sure, you aren’t doing the strategic planning and all of that jazz. But you’re understanding, note-taking, checking up on your team for updates, “the co-pilot” as you put it. There were so many, so many (so many) times I saw great ideas in Middlebury fail because there was no co-pilot to set the plane on course. The things you are doing aren’t glamorous, and people may overlook the many important contributions you have made along the way. But make no mistake, you are a leader! You are seizing initiative, seeking to promote understanding, holding team members accountable. If that isn’t a leader, I don’t know what that is.

I don’t want to say things like “I understand what you’re feeling”, because I simply can’t fathom the craziness associated with being at the reins of some big corporate project. But I can say that what you are talking about resonates a lot with me. There’s a lot I want to say, but it’s very late here and my brain hurty. So, here’s what I’ll say.

I shadowed a cardiologist several weeks ago. She works at a nearby hospital, and the cardiology department is absolutely massive (we have a lot of older folks around the area). There are so many different subtypes of doctors within the department: electrophysiologists, interventional cardiologists, CHF specialists, surgeons, etc. And the cardiologist I shadowed? “Merely” a general cardiologist. Every premed fantasizes about being a heart surgeon. But I was, and still am, in so much awe of what the general cardiologist was doing. Because she was walking throughout the hospital to make sure that the patients were doing fine. She was the one coordinating all of the Physician Assistants. And heck, if there was some poor soul stuck in the ER, she was there too to see what she could do. 10,400 steps. That’s how many steps she took that day (apple watch). Just to see all of the patients, to make sure everyone was okay, to keep the department running on time. She wasn’t doing things in the cath lab (the fancy place for patients with heart attacks). But so what? She was the most important physician that day.

The project you talked about likely demanded 2 Project Managers for a reason, and I don’t think it was to have two Sophias. But a Sophia and Linh. Pb&J. Lightning and thunder. Feel free to shun the spotlight, but don’t ever think that what you are doing isn’t leadership.

Lao Tzu: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves”

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This post is another amazing piece of yours! I've been thinking about this thing a lot, like "If everyone is a leader, then who will be the leader?". It should not have two alpha males/females in a team. Sometimes, it's important to be a leader without a title <3

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