Your Leadership Story: Part 7 of 8
A Reflection Series
Welcome to Your Leadership Story, an 8-part leadership reflection series designed to help you grow as an authentic, self-aware leader. This series is for leaders who want to pause and reflect on their leadership journey, reconnect with what shaped them, and lead with more clarity, purpose, and intention.
Patching the Pieces Together
How the pieces of your story come together
We’ve explored where we come from,
the strengths that have been there all along,
moments we’ve adapted to fit in,
challenges that shaped our perspective,
ways we’ve stretched beyond self-doubt,
and labels we’ve decided to let go.
When you step back and look at
your leadership story as a whole,
how do all the beautiful, hard,
and in-between experiences come together?
When I think about my leadership story,
I think about my grandmother’s quilt.
She cut patches from old clothes —
fabrics spanning generations,
each with its own colors, textures, and patterns.
She hand-stitched these pieces together,
turning them into a warm, cozy quilt
that draped couches and shoulders
for years in our home.
Some pieces were beautiful to me.
Others I didn’t like at all.
On their own,
the patches felt random.
But stitched together,
they served a greater purpose
than any single piece of fabric could
on its own.
My leadership story, like that quilt,
is made of many pieces.
Each one holds its own place
in the bigger picture.
Unlike my grandmother’s quilt,
my leadership story isn’t finished.
There are pieces I understand now
that I couldn’t before.
And others whose meaning
has yet to be revealed —
isn’t that how life works,
finding new connections
and deeper purpose
in places we once overlooked?
🌱 Take a moment to reflect.
When you see your leadership story as a whole,
what patterns or connections stand out?
How do you see the pieces fitting together
to shape the leader you are today —
and the one you’re becoming?