The Little Diva

Once I was told by a former colleague that an ex-boss of mine didn’t like me for the fact that I always ACTED LIKE A DIVA.

I paused for a second after hearing this from my colleague as I found it a bit disappointing for a leader to have to say things like that. Somehow I wish I had the chance to say this to my ex-boss in person: “Excuse you, I never ACTED LIKE A DIVA because I AM A DIVA, whether you like it or not’.

It doesn’t happen to me very often but this time in particular, I had this female manager who didn’t like me at all, and even worse, she considered me as a real threat for the fact that I had been an overachiever amongst other team members and I knew I have the ability to make people listen. By people, I meant everybody, from an employee, my peers to CEO level. It does not mean that I was liked by everybody in the company but I know I’ve earned certain level of respect of the people who are both junior and senior to me. I know for the fact that I’ve got the potentials to be considered as a threat to her. After 3.5 years with the company, I wouldn’t think I would have left the job so early but I left it anyway, not long after she got on board, for a better opportunity for me to be the type of leader that I wanted to be. Besides, I was still so young back then, I knew that I will still have time to learn, to make mistakes and to grow myself to a much bigger person than who I was yesterday.

I woke up this morning and saw this article: “Without a job tittle, who are you?” I think by now, 3 years after I quit that job, it would be much easier for me to answer this question: I am a leader in the hospitality and tourism industry in my country, to the extend that not only have I achieved some significant milestones to climb the corporate ladder, I’ve also become the founder of several non profit organizations that have been up and running to create positive impacts on people’s lives.

What kind of leader I am? I am the kind of leader that doesn’t care about your money, power, tittle or fame unless you can influence me. I am the kind of leader who would spend more time working with my immediate team members, people that I know and trust based on experience and tuition to develop them and to help them to reach their goals. Then there were times that I was told to be so naïve, maybe I am, however, I also know that during this global pandemic, while many of my ex-bosses (not all of them) are struggling to find jobs, I am too, also struggling to overcome this very difficult time of the world history, but I have never stopped for a day to create new projects, new jobs and opportunities for people who need my assistance.

What kind of leader I am? I am just a little diva in my own small little world, I have just about enough of my talents, skills and tools to say and do what I believe is right for me and for the people that I cherish.

By now, if you ask me what kind of leader I am, I am the kind of leaders that develop leaders. I would love to see not just one but many divas in my team, I will work hard to develop them so that they will do the same to develop divas of younger and younger generations.