This week, on day three of a leadership training I was facilitating, one of the participants shared something totally unexpected: she’d lost six pounds since we started 2 weeks ago.
Now, I’m not about to start marketing leadership development as a weight loss program. But it does speak to something profound about the work we do together: that EVERYTHING starts with self-awareness.
Beyond the Workplace
And while I hear countless stories about how that impacts how people lead: their ability to influence their teams, navigate difficult conversations or interact more courageously, what moves me most are the stories about their personal lives.
Big improvements with family relationships, like the father who got all 3 of his very different children to clean their room and felt more connected to them. A different relationship with themselves. And this time, a physical change like weight loss.
The Common Thread
When you start having a deeper conversation with yourself, you begin to lead yourself differently, in all sorts of ways. You actually figure out what you really need, versus following your habitual (and perhaps unhelpful) behavior.
How you relate to yourself is the key to everything.
What my 6lb lighter participant found is that if she slowed down enough to listen to her inner signal, the one that at the first sign of discomfort at work would trigger a reach for the candy tray, she could be with what was really happening, and take action in alignment with her inner leader.
The message is clear: by changing the relationship with yourself, you can change your relationship to everything else.
Is it hard? It’s certainly courageous.
Often the last place we want to look when we’re facing challenges is at ourselves. We want to make it about what others are or aren’t doing. My invitation? Start with you.
That’s actually the good news.
Because that’s the place you have the most control. So where can you slow down and bring your awareness?
What relationship in your life needs to shift?
Maybe it’s how you show up as a leader. Maybe it’s how you relate to your family, you or your own inner critic.
Whatever it is, I invite you to start with the most important relationship of all—the one you have with yourself.
If this resonates with you and you’re ready to do this work, I’d love to support you. My leadership programs are designed to build exactly this kind of self-awareness—the kind that transforms not just your work, but your entire life.
Send me a message to learn more about upcoming programs, or simply to share: what’s one area of your life where a shift in self-awareness could make all the difference?
