Assess, Access, Align, Action

Let’s talk about step 3 - Align - today.

Align is about the way intentional, embodied alignment to your why and higher goals resets the nervous system to calm. Your why and impact is BIGGER than your j-o-b. (And remember that work is still a j-o-b even if it overlaps with your passion.)

Last week I had the honor of speaking to this year’s leaders of The Junior League of Denver as part of their Leadership Kickoff celebration.

Women’s leadership is critical to our futures, locally and globally. Women leaders have been silenced and missing from historical accounts and - both the actual and proverbial - tables. The ongoing pandemic crises - of poverty, health, food, racism, and climate - have all shown that if we want to restore health and balance as much as possible, the only way forward is with leadership rooted in compassion, connection, community, communication, creativity, and collaboration.

This is where value- and purpose-aligned leadership comes in - to lead, empower, and change. We each have a responsibility to step into BIGGER service but not in a savior, over-functioning kind of way.

Contrary to what U.S. society and Hollywood have taught us, people aren’t born leaders nor do they have to possess these charismatic characteristics. On the contrary, as I read in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, the research on the charismatic model of leadership finds that those leaders often make inaccurate and costly judgments because they’re focused on taking up space and air with their ideas rather than listening, observing, analyzing, and then deciding. That model of great (white male) leadership also tends to be independent and solo-driven instead of communal, cooperative, and collaborative.

With this context,

What does being a leader mean to you?

On a scale of 1-10 how strongly do you see yourself as a leader at this moment?

We learned during the Covid pandemic and are seeing in this heightened climate crisis that self-responsibility paired with community awareness and needs is the only path forward to healing and lessening the impact of these crises. We have to have a way of leading that is interconnected with each other and grounded in Earth–or humanity and all the beings we love will continue to face their demise. I’m not fear-mongering. This trajectory ahead of us scientists have been warning us about for the last decade.

As such, each of us has our own journey with strengths, gifts, and that important piece of the puzzle that you are here to offer. But first, we have to answer that call, and that call to lead begins within ourselves so that we can grow our communities and families.

But how do we know what our important piece of the puzzle is if we have lost how to align ourselves in an embodied way? In my Junior League speech, I used the metaphor of a Tree.

The roots are the foundation of your leadership.

The trunk holds your values.

The branches are how you choose to connect and grow out from your foundation and values. The branches are aligned with your purpose in the work that the world needs from you. It’s how you choose to grow into empowerment rather than breaking and rotting in a drama triangle.

How are you branching out in full embodied alignment?

How are you honoring and incorporating the branches of your past experiences (even those that seem like ones you don’t want or that feel painful)?

What are the branches you are wanting to grow this next cycle?