Recently I filled out one of those ordinary forms you barely think about. Then I hit a single line that stopped me.
Occupation: ___________
I wrote "leadership trainer." And then I sat there, looking at it.
It wasn't wrong, but it felt empty. Sitting on the page, it looked like a scoop of bland Jello. (Don't get me wrong. I like Jello. Please don't judge.)
The real problem was that "leadership trainer" barely touches what I actually do. I facilitate community workshops to keep people with mental illness out of the justice system. I deliver keynotes using stories to destroy stigma and refocus a room on possibility. I help organizations build workplaces where lived experience is treated as a strategic asset.
Then I realized the box wasn't just too small for me. It's too small for almost everyone.
Think about a title like "Policy Analyst." It makes you picture someone at a computer, reading reports, measuring impacts. But the person I'm picturing is thoroughly committed to creating new policy that decreases homelessness, improves conditions, and expands provider capacity in small communities. How do you reduce that to "policy analyst"?
The title on your resume describes the seat you sit in. It says almost nothing about what you are actually trying to build in the world. There is a truer word for it, and it fits nearly all of us: leader.
This is why I keep coming back to one question with the people I work with. Most don't actually want "leadership development." They want the thing on the other side of it. So I ask: what is the goal you are trying to create in the world that can only be achieved with a team of capable and confident leaders?
The goal is what leadership development helps you reach. Leadership development is the way you get there.
I think of someone I worked with who, for years, carried a bold vision that would truly change lives. But it had never moved. It lived as an idea they believed in but could not seem to advance.
Then, in the middle of our leadership development program, something shifted. They started to see themselves as a leader, and they decided to show up that way. They began walking into rooms with decision makers, the people who control resources, and they shared their vision out loud. Before long, those same decision makers decided to fund it.
Leadership development gave them the fuel to move. It offered a new frame for effective leadership and a different sense of who they were. They are not an anomaly. I see this all the time.
Once you see it this way, the measure of success changes too. The point isn't how well your people give feedback or nudge a KPI. What matters is the impact on mission critical outcomes. If your strategy is to keep direct care professionals in the field long enough to grow into supervisors and directors, then that retention is how you measure your leadership program. The workshop was just one step toward it.
Same principle, every time. Leadership development is the fuel. The change itself is the destination.
So I still feel strange calling myself a leadership trainer. The phrase is too narrow, and so is yours. What I really get to do is stand in awe of people, pour into them, and watch them go do the incredible.
As a social worker, that is all I ever really wanted to do.