Female Leadership and Personal Development according to Adrienne:
I am Adrienne Fernandes. I’m a teacher trainer currently working at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Curacao. I am way more than only my chosen career path, however to keep this short and relevant, I will stick to telling you about my leadership and personal development journey.
My childhood memories
This all started with my parents wanting to empower me in order for me to grow up as an empowered woman. Both wanted me to be independent and confident and they have worked hard to make sure that I have the necessary tools to do so. I consider myself a very lucky girl having this set of parents around. Aside from introducing me into multiple skills-building activities such as music education, sports, etc., I was introduced to the Girl Guides Association. This was my first brush with leadership. To be precise: female leadership. As I grew from being a Brownie into being a Guide and then to being a Ranger, I was experiencing being a female leader.
This first female leadership experience gave way to growing up and choosing a career in teaching. I moved to the Netherlands as a confident 20-year-old to attend college at Hogeschool van Amsterdam. That’s where Gilly (my nickname for her) and I crossed paths and a close friendship developed as we went along.
One of our adventures in New York City, United States of America (2014)
My teaching career
After completing the English teacher training in Amsterdam, I worked at several secondary schools in the Netherlands while also obtaining a Masters in Arts at the University of Amsterdam. However, ‘De Amsterdamsche School’ in Amsterdam was different. The owners of this private school saw my leadership skills and gave me the opportunity to be part of the management team. This was a tremendous push and has geared me up into believing that I can be a leader within the education sector. This had a huge impact on me as I was going through a personal rough patch that had dwindled my confidence. Being trusted with leadership has opened my eyes and made me see that I can do more. Teaching is my passion but at the same time, I can also do more that helps others. Eventually, this has boosted my confidence and catapulted me into leaving a rather depressing feeling that was haunting me at the time. Next to developing leadership skills, I felt great helping out my colleagues. There were instances some of them would ask me for advice and help and it felt very natural for me to step into a teacher coach/trainer role.
After having this pivotal experience, I moved back to Curacao where I met a former classmate who told me about her career as a life coach. Glenny van de Hansz, took me under her beautiful radiant wings as my life coach and inspired me to seek further personal development. I felt comfortable having a coach helping me adjust to life and to help me develop myself spiritually. So it was logical to want to learn more about management and coaching. Just as I was completing my first management and life coaching courses, Glenny passed away leaving me with enough tools to keep working on myself and help others.
Inspired by all these experiences, I saw the opportunity to further develop my leadership abilities by joining the John Maxwell Team. This opportunity has been beneficial to further personal and career development. At this point, I made a switch in my career from teaching secondary school to being fulltime academic staff at the University of Curacao. The snowball effect that comes while working diligently on personal development at this level is enormous. Being a John Maxwell Team member opened my eyes to go on this awesome adventure of discovering and learning more about myself. Being on the John Maxwell Team is being part of this amazing international community of leaders. I attended my first International Maxwell Certification (ICM) in Orlando, Florida in August 2019. It’s incredible to experience this event and to connect with other team members. I left the event brimming with life and fully equipped.
The birth of my business
Being on the John Maxwell Team has fortified my coaching and leadership skills. Not only for my job at the University but also for my own coaching and arts business ‘Ta Luna Di’. ‘Ta Luna Di’ is an expression of my true self. The true self that I am discovering on my personal development journey. As I grow and help others while I grow, ‘Ta Luna Di’ will grow and develop as well. ‘Ta Luna Di’ (means ‘Luna said so’ in the Papiamentu language) combines art expression with coaching and personal development. This is how I learn and I want to help others with this framework. ‘Ta Luna Di’ incorporates John Maxwell’s teachings and HIMA. HIMA is a form of spiritual coaching. This is one of the reasons ‘Ta Luna Di’ is a true expression of me as it combines the tangible with the intangible. If you are interested in a coaching session with me, please feel free to contact me via my Instagram account: @ta_luna_di.
So if you are still wondering, I will tell you more about how personal development and leadership training made a difference in my life.
First of all, the path of personal development and leadership helped me further developing awareness on my own behavior and how it affects others. I was also made aware of how I can influence and inspire others. This high level of self-awareness makes a difference in every aspect of my life. Leading myself first is incredibly important. As John Maxwell writes in his book Developing the Leader within You 2.0: “Everything rises and falls on leadership”.
However, at first, it is quite a challenge to balance this awareness. Being a leader means taking responsibility and be accountable for your own behavior and how it influencing others. When I first started to see myself in the mirror of life, I realized that I had a lot of work to do. For an over-thinker like me, it quickly meant second guessing my ability to lead and coach others.
After going through the phase of self-doubt and overthinking, I started noticing how taking responsibility and being accountable to myself are key components to my personal growth. Without even trying to, I noticed this positivity in my life rubbing off on others. When asked, I started coaching others and eventually, with my confidence on the rise, I made the leap into starting my coaching business. At the same time, my career continued to be on the rise. This growth made me realize that I can be the leader and coach I want to be. I also learned that at some point one has to actually ACT and DO instead of only dreaming and wishing. Otherwise, all the beautiful ideas will only be a wish shoved on a messy desk.
Another powerful effect that working on personal development has brought to me is self-discipline and self-love. For me self-love is really not about going to spas and putting on masks, etc. Those are cute and nice to help smooth the sharp edges of discovering the good, the bad and the ugly about yourself. Personal development has made me experience the worst in me and realizing that in order to move in life I have to face my shadow self, work with all of it and move on. Every experience is a lesson and will
catapult me into the next level. With self-discipline comes self-control. Self-control is being willing to actually get a grip on your life and take control of the areas that will bring success or failure. This is critical because in order for me to lead my business and my team at the university, I need to get a grip on me first before I try to get a handle on leading others.
This is just a snippet on how personal development and leadership training has helped me grow in my personal life and in my career. There are more opportunities that working on myself has and will bring to me very soon. Maybe I have to make this an annual thing, when I go back and tell you how the story has unfolded. It sure doesn’t stop here. Personal development will make differences you can’t even imagine. As I often find myself saying: Lead yourself from the heart and help others lead themselves as well. We have enough followers; we need to equip others to become leaders.
Warmest greetings,
Drs. A. D. Fernandes M.A.
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