The Lead a Gr8 Life blog series continues with a post from Ana-Cristina Gonzalez.

Gr8 Women Leaders helped me find a space where it was safe to ask for help, safe to ask questions, safe to be vulnerable when I had so many questions and didn’t know where to begin looking for answers.  We sought advice from each other and led each other to more resources where we could learn even more.  This was a group that liked to learn, that wanted to gain more knowledge, so that we could be better leaders in our job and in the community.

Gr8 Women Leaders helped me to realize that if I don’t care for myself, I am no good to anybody around me.  They taught me how to carve out time for those people and things that I loved most.  They helped me see that by doing these things, I would be able to handle everything better…my job, my co-workers, challenges, my personal life, etc.  I thought the world stopped when I wasn’t around and these ladies taught me that the world goes on and it’s an even better world when we’re well rested and truly present for the world.

Gr8 Women Leaders provided a safe space to speak freely about the challenges that I faced as a leader in my workplace.  I met a group of women who did not care about work politics, were not concerned about winning a popularity contest, and who were genuinely concerned about becoming better and wanted me to be better, too.  How great is that?  Unfortunately, among women, this isn’t always very common.  Gr8 Women Leaders is changing that.