I wanted to pay homage to the phenomenal Dr. Maya Angelou with the video below (created by the Oprah network). It features great photos of Maya Angelou throughout her life, as she reads her poem Phenomenal Woman. That poem has always inspired me in that it identifies the beauty of women in a way that is powerful and almost defiant (and it IS defiant of traditional ideas of femininity in many ways).
I was fortunate to see Maya Angelou speak several years ago, and one thing that really stuck with me was her profound integrity. She said that she wouldn't be complicit in conversations or situations where there was racism, sexism, classism, (insert any "ism" here) being expressed. She would speak her mind and/or simply leave the room. We have all been in situations where we have avoided conflict at the cost of our integrity. As someone who likes to "keep the peace" and has a fair amount of insecurity, I feel that one of the biggest challenges of life has learning to speak my mind.
I've been thinking about integrity a lot lately in light of my emotional intelligence for leaders course, and I've decided to make speaking with integrity the focus of this professional development opportunity. This ability seems essential for leadership, after all. Thus, my new mantra is this quote from Gandhi, which resonates for me with what made Maya Angelou such a bright light in the world:
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
- Mahatma Gandhi
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