Who’s really leading you? No, not your boss, not your coach, not your mentor, not your partner, or anyone else outside of you. But inside. Who leads you from within?
The answer, of course, is you. Whether you have chosen to fully step into self-leadership, or you’re stuck in a passive role of letting everything around you steer your path, you are really the one making the decisions in your life.
Your leader within is a powerful force, and connecting with your inner leader empowers you to create joy, meaning and success in all areas of life, including leadership of others.
In fact, the best leaders – those who draw out the best in people around them, and drive big level of success – understand that strong leadership starts within. They know that the first step is always to seek inner calm and clarity, so that they can meet others as their best selves.
So… how do you develop inner leadership? How do you embrace that part of yourself that knows, intuitively, what’s right for you? Like most transformations, it starts within.
Here are Four Ways to Embrace Your Inner Leader
Leaders who always seem to respond in an effective way – not with solutions, but in a way that opens up possibilities, puts others at ease, and inspires progress – always have well developed inner leaders. Either they’ve done the work to fully embrace their leader within, or they were fortunate to have never lost that connection. As a result, they’re able to respond with calm and clarity in almost every situation.
What’s most important to know is that this is a learnable skill and can be developed through conscious habit building. Here are 4 ways to do that:
1. Make a conscious choice in your impact.
Everything you do impacts the people around you. You aren’t responsible for how they show up or respond, but you are responsible for how you show up and respond. That’s your impact. When you show up from your highest self, you are making a conscious choice in your impact. When you lead from your lower self – i.e. disconnected from your inner self – you are far less conscious of your impact on others and on yourself. This leads to feelings of resentment and judgement… also of others and yourself.
Your inner leader is the part of you that believes in your values and purpose, and is dedicated to bringing them to life. It want you to succeed and are ready to hold you with unconditional love and acceptance, leading you with wisdom, compassion, courage, clarity, and certainty. These qualities are naturally within you, but it’s up to you to bring them to the surface. Choose, consciously, to let your highest self lead the way.
2. Become aware of your Saboteur
We all have an inner leader… and an inner Saboteur. This is the voice inside you that want to keep you locked in old patterns. Inner saboteur is afraid of anything outside the status quo, and when we’ve been disconnected from our inner leader for so long, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish which voice is which.
But your Saboteur don’t have to control you and can be tamed. At any moment, you have the choice of who you want to give the microphone to and how you want to respond. Once you are conscious of both your Saboteur and leader within, you will naturally want to take the microphone from your Saboteur and turn it over to your leader. commit to get control of your Saboteurs so you can let your inner wisdom come through with clarity.
3. Get comfortable speaking your truth.
As leaders, we have to be aware of the words we say, and often get mired in the muck of office politics. But, regardless of the current culture in your organization, there is always space for truth, and your inner leader can help with that.
Speaking your truth in professional settings is no easy feat, but it is so worth it. It makes you a stronger, more approachable leader, capable of holding safe space for others, and empowering them to bring their truth forward as well. The key is to tune into your leader within before any conversation where you need to speak your truth, especially if you feel doing so will be challenging. This ensures you are leading from your highest self and from a heart of peace.
When you do the work to speak your truth, you start giving the reins to your best, most empowering self, and developing your confidence in your inner leader. The more truth comes forward, the stronger your inner leader connection becomes.
4. Get curious about others through powerful questions.
When our Saboteur is running the show, the questions we ask people most are focused on getting information. We ask about deadlines, roadblocks, updates and so on. We want to keep everyone on their toes and ensure the work gets done.
Your inner leader is the part of you that believes in your values and purpose, and is dedicated to bringing them to life. They want you to succeed and are ready to hold you with unconditional love and acceptance, leading you with wisdom, compassion, courage, clarity, and certainty. These qualities are naturally within you, but it’s up to you to bring them to the surface. Choose, consciously, to let your highest self lead the way.
Awakening your leader within takes intention and inner exploration. your leader within is known as your Captain, because it is the part of you that steers your ship with confidence and clarity, not necessarily because they look like a ship captain.
So… Are You Ready to Meet Your Captain?
I assure you, your Captain is eager to reconnect with you.
There is a powerful leader within you, waiting to connect and help you create the life and impact you truly want.