A Leadership Lesson for Swifties
The following story first appeared in my newsletter. Subscribe for free using the box at the bottom of this page.
“It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it's me.”
Am I the only one who can relate to this song?
Have you also gone through a period where you are fully aware of how you might be getting in your own way, but for whatever reason unable to do anything about it?
I find a lot of leaders come to coaching that way: aware of their own limiting patterns and frustrated they’ve let them go on so long.
Whether it’s:
- Not speaking up in meetings
- Not listening in meetings
- Avoiding conflict
- Being too aggressive in conflict
- Not saying no
- Not setting boundaries
- Not shutting down from work
- Not being present with kids and family
They see the pattern.
They know they are doing it.
And that awareness is not enough.
Sadly, they often turn to shaming or blaming themselves.
Seeing themselves as flawed or incapable of change when the truth is, there is just one little ingredient that they are missing.
Here's the thing.
Any human that falls in this boat has only developed ONE TYPE of SELF AWARENESS:
- Their conceptual self awareness is high – they have the ability to THINK about themselves but
- Their embodied self awareness is low – they lack the ability to EXPERIENCE themselves
And it’s embodied self-awareness - the ability to experience yourself in real-time, in that meeting where your mind is screaming “say something” and your body is saying “no” that gives you the personal power and freedom to make other choices.
The incongruence between what the head thinks and what the body wants is getting you stuck.
And there is absolutely a way out.
When you learn how to create congruence between body and brain you can choose different behaviours.
With ease and consistency
Is there some work to do here?
I prefer to call it a practice.
Is it learnable? Absolutely
I am obsessed with this topic because I believe each one of us deserves to live our best life on this planet in this lifetime.
If you feel the same and you could use some help getting out of your own way, book a call here. ⚡⚡⚡
Know a human struggling with this change, forward this newsletter ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Join me every Friday, for a fresh edition of this newsletter. I'll drop some new ideas, including practical stuff you can actually use because, trust me, change doesn't come from just knowing things. It's all about putting this into practice.
I help visionary leaders and teams be at their best more often so they can do their best work.
As a leadership coach, and former yoga and mindfulness teacher, I help leaders access the intelligence of the body in generating that transformation.
My free newsletter helps you accelerate your leadership growth so you can drive business change and achieve better results.