Leading as a Unicorn: Building Confidence by Owning Your Gifts

A few years ago, I stepped into a role that felt impossibly big.

I joined the federal government as a faculty member with the Federal Executive Institute in the Center for Leadership Development. In this role I was tasked with developing leadership capacity of senior executives across federal agencies like NASA, USDA, FDA, NSA, and others. I was young compared to the rest of our team. I was new to government. I looked different than everyone else in the room.

And very quickly, I realized I stood out. Not just a little.

Unicorn-level stood out.