Leaders surrender to bold grace.

Our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give. ~Victor Hugo

Photo by Hanneke Laaning on Unsplash

I’m learning many leadership lessons, as we all are, throughout this pandemic experience. One of those lessons for me is the importance of being a good receiver of bold grace.

I started the year with the intent to sell my home and move. My home went on the market and I had an offer within 48 hours. This is not at all what I had expected to happen and I needed to find a new home quickly. Through a series of events, I was introduced to someone who was about to put their home on the market and I was able to purchase it without realtors.

Then came the pandemic. Selling, buying, and moving all became both an uncertain and different sort of experience.

Here’s my lesson.

I tend to be a fairly independent person. It’s not that I don’t want others to help me, I just really hate feeling like I’m bothering others. But as events unfolded in the midst of a pandemic, I needed to let other people help me. I needed to let other people be the ones practicing bold grace and I needed to be a good receiver.

The list of those giving me bold grace seemed to grow every day. From the neighbors in my old home who graciously helped me repair water damage from their unit into mine at the eleventh hour, to the neighbors at my new home who greeted me with flowers. Then there was my real estate attorney and his entire staff who adapted to changes in process and reassured me that all was going to move forward.

And the movers who arrived early(!) and worked carefully and diligently throughout the day of the move. Even the cable/internet service person who really wasn’t supposed to spend that much time in a home, due to the pandemic, but said he’d help me anyway. Thank goodness. Can’t imagine sheltering in place without working technology. I can’t leave out the previous owner of my new home. She was incredibly helpful and gracious, making repairs in the home while no one was living there which would have been more challenging after I had moved given the need for social distancing.

Surrender to bold grace.

At some point along the way in the last couple of weeks I finally decided I needed to surrender to receiving bold grace from others.

I think one of the greatest acts a leader can do, is to be a good receiver of bold grace. When I think of Victor Hugo’s quote: “our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give” it highlights the importance of enabling others’ hearts to be enriched by allowing them to give.

Leaders: Be bold and surrender to the grace extended to you throughout this pandemic.