Are you listening to me? Is the age-old question of any heated discussion at work or home. The root of that question is “did you understand what I need based on what I said?” Experts agree that listening is essential to the leadership process yet staff rarely receive training on this important skill. Seeing the detrimental impact on teams that fail to listen to each other, inspired me to write a blog on the power of listening to the song beneath our words. Learning this skill can revolutionize your personal and professional communication.

Trust and love thinking expands our capacity to exercise conscious leadership. The challenges in today’s world call forth a new way of exercising leadership that prepare us to act courageously in the face of our deepest fears and competing loyalties.

Is fear creeping into your ability to exercise effective leadership? Last week, I discussed the consequences of fear-based thinking at the individual and collective level. This week, I share its threat to effectively exercising leadership. Humans are born with two fears: falling & loud noises. We learn other fears from our environments.

Everyday we get to choose whether we use our power to do good or to cause pain. It’s up to you. The cumulative impact of personal choices made by every global citizen shapes our world.

Power comes from within and waits on us to unleash it. We exercise inner power through self-awareness, intentionality, and a pure desire to uplift others and self. Tapping into our inner power requires making purposeful choices to direct our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to access higher vibrations of energy over lower ones.

A new beginning is a decision to unchain yourself from self-limiting beliefs and tendencies, so as to then use your gifts in the manner that you’ve avoided due to fear and doubt. It is the process of shattering that glass ceiling (I have to wait until___ to do ____. )

Whether you want to admit it or not, there are lives dependent on you exercising your gifts in this world. We are all interconnected. We’re all we’ve got. It’s your time. It’s my time. It’s our time.

Over the last three weeks , we uncovered your Immunity-to-Change. This week we get to the heart of what drives the resistance to change---your mindset, aka the Big Assumption. 

We turn our focus towards identifying the hidden fears and connecting them to the behaviors discussed last week. Though you may not like to talk about your fears, you must break the taboo if you want to overcome your resistance to change.

Last week, we described Immunity-to-Change, the culprit behind resisting the change we seek. This week we delve into how to recognize the behaviors that sabotage our goals.

Fear and doubt form the foundation for self-sabotage. If you are stuck in a 2019 goal, there is a deeper reason. The culprit,  Immunity-to-Change, is the unconscious process of building internal and external resistance to the change that we seek. 

Today, I provide tools to distinguish your intuition from unhealed trauma. Think of your intuition as your inner spirit’s compass, whose sole purpose is to bring you peace, joy, clarity, and love, even in the face of difficult decisions.

Distrusting our voice comes from distrust in our intuition. Intuition is that inner knowing--that superpower the Creator gifted to us.  

This month, we focus on empowering women of color to trust our voices and intuitions. First, we must explore the filter behind our voice. Our inner voice directs our mind, body, and spirit in one of two ways: love and trust or fear and doubt.

We close with a discussion on the heart of imposter syndrome--distrusting yourself.  Imposter syndrome sets its claws on women of color with pesky ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that tear down our self-trust and intuition.

Last week’s blog discussed 10 ways imposter syndrome  shows up in women of color.  Today, we peel back the first layer by “getting on the balcony.” Borrowed from adaptive leadership, ‘the balcony” allows you to pause, analyze your context, and identify patterns.

Imposter syndrome generates FEAR and constant hiding. Racism and sexism further complicate it for women of color. We are here to help you overcome it. Check out our blog to learn more about how to identify the symptoms.