{"id":11401,"date":"2017-05-24T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T09:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/05\/24\/a-message-to-inspire-women-to-lead-own-your-awesome\/"},"modified":"2017-05-24T09:03:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T09:03:00","slug":"a-message-to-inspire-women-to-lead-own-your-awesome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/a-message-to-inspire-women-to-lead-own-your-awesome\/","title":{"rendered":"A Message To Inspire Women To Lead: Own Your Awesome"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Julie Foudy<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Soccer midfielder Julie Foudy (right) cheers her teammate, Tiffany Roberts, during the WUSA All-Star Game on June 19, 2003 in Cary, N.C.<\/p>\n

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Al Bello\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Al Bello\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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People often ask me: What’s the best lesson you learned after almost two decades on the U.S. women’s soccer team?<\/p>\n

I’m fairly certain they want the secret formula to winning. Instead, I tell them, the best lesson I learned is actually a secret about life.<\/p>\n

And that lesson came to me while watching my incredible teammates do their thing, on and off the field. Sure, I loved that they were amazing athletes, and we were winning World Cups and Olympics together. But I was most impressed that they were even more amazing human beings who led in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n

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Now that was a complete shock to me \u2014 the diversity of leadership styles \u2014 because I had always thought leadership was positional. I’d always thought leadership was a CEO or president or person in a position of power. And honestly, to me that meant a man \u2014 because that’s what I was reading about in history books growing up.<\/p>\n

But my U.S. teammates showed me that leadership is personal, not positional. They showed me that asserting your own leadership style is most important \u2014 being authentically you.<\/p>\n