On the first day of spring, the light always feels a little different.

I remember walking into a new season of my own leadership and realizing how much of my story had been written by other people’s expectations. Titles, job descriptions, “high potential” labels—none of them quite fit, but I tried to squeeze myself into them anyway. It worked on paper. It did not work for my soul.

Audre Lorde’s words found me in a moment like that:

“If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”

That line hit me like a change in weather. The line named what I had been feeling but couldn’t articulate: I had been leading inside someone else’s fantasy, not my own definition. Spring is about emergence, but you can’t truly emerge inside a story that was never written with you in mind.

In leadership, this misalignment is subtle but costly:
- You soften your voice or shrink to match the room instead of the reality.
- You over-function to satisfy an unspoken fantasy of the “perfect” leader.
- You chase outcomes while slowly abandoning your own values.

This first day of spring, I’m inviting leaders to treat self-definition as a renewal practice. To pause and ask:
- Who am I as a leader—on my own terms?
- What fantasies of others have I been carrying that it’s time to put down?
- What would it look like to lead in a way that actually feels like me?

This is where my work lives. I am the execution partner leaders call when complexity is high, accountability is real, and results must be delivered—but the results mean more when they are aligned with who you truly are as a leader.

If today marks a new season for you, let it begin with this: define yourself, for yourself, before the world decides for you.

Food for Thought:

What part of your leadership story are you ready to rewrite this spring?