Not long after I returned from working with asylum seekers on Nauru I moved into a new role that saw me in an associate leadership role.

Technically, we were to partner in leadership. In practice, I was treated as second class, excluded from leadership decisions, and very much made to feel unwelcome.

As I talked with a friend about this time, she commented about how much one of the other leaders was jealous of me, how he was threatened by me, how he bullied me. I was so glad to have this person's behaviour named so clearly. It enabled me to put a lid on that time in my working life.

It also gave me a clear example of true power.

The person who was jealous of me, who bullied me, had positional power. However, it was my intrinsic organic inner power that threatened him.

Many of us know what is like to be bullied. And I'm here to tell you that it is your power that threatens the insecure.

Your insistence on authenticity.

Your ability to sit comfortably with who you are.

Being excluded and bullied is hard to deal with. Knowing that it's your power that threatens a bully does not take away from the real pain they can cause you.

Don't allow bullies to convince you that you're the problem.

Don't let their insecurity dim your light.



Stand in your power.