Imposter syndrome is persistent self-doubt combined with professional fraudulence. I've found it's one of those terms that a lot of people, especially women, can easily label themselves with, but then don't know how to move past it. What's really at the core of imposter syndrome is you don't trust yourself. Continue reading for several exercises to build your confidence and move past imposter syndrome.

Instead of being about the power you have, I like to see authority as having an impact on the people around you or the situations you're in. Whether you're managing the people, leading the project, or not, you can still show up with confidence and act with authority. Continue reading for specific techniques including your body language, how you lead meetings, and adding your unique value.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, while handling interpersonal relationships. This can be one of the most difficult yet most needed skill of a leader. This is what allows leaders to handle difficult situations most effectively by being a guiding light to others during times of uncertainty. In order to build your own emotional intelligence, you need to focus on the four key skills within emotional intelligence.

As a people leader, you have a lot of layers of responsibilities for each of your employees. Unfortunately, we don't always take the time to fully understand the differences between each role and we don't think proactively about them. So today, I want to challenge you to think about how you approach each of these areas, which you're best at, and which needs more attention and intention.

Trust isn't built overnight. Here are 6 specific, practical ways leaders build real trust with their teams - and why most well-meaning efforts fall short.

Empowerment is about becoming stronger and more confident in yourself and your work. As a manager, it's really a two-way street with you and your employee to get them empowered. In other words, you're responsible for it just as much as they are. It's something that will build over time and that you need to continually invest in the relationship for it to continue to bloom.

Just like a company's mission statement, having your own personal leader mission statement is a helpful tool to think more strategically about your 'why' with a specific statement you can refer back to. A leader mission statement is a declaration of your purpose, or the 'why' behind your leadership. You can use it as guidance for your decisions, inspiration for your work, and a bridge to connect with your team.

Being authentic as a leader is what will help you stand out, leverage your natural strengths to be your best, and connect with your teams more easily. It's helpful to have role models and mentors to look up to, especially in leadership, however, we're all so unique that what works for one person isn't going to work for everyone. So, we can get the best results for ourselves and our teams when we look inward at our own strengths and qualities and develop a vision and plan for how to be our most authentic self as a leader.