Embodied Leadership 101

In order to elevate your leadership - to embody leadership - you have to be aware of the energy you’re communicating to others.

Your success arises from how you impact, motivate, and uplift those around you, whether it’s your team, clients, shareholders, or community.

In bringing people together towards a meaningful vision, it requires thoughtful introspection.

But here’s the thing.

Most of us think we’re on point with how we’re affecting others. And we’re off.

There’s a disconnect between our mind and our emotions. Most of the time, we’re oblivious to our emotions and energy.

I was listening to a podcast a few days ago by a female entrepreneur. I’m a big fan of hers. But this day, when she was trying to be motivational, the energy she was communicating was pure anxiety.

She was talking quickly, not stopping to breathe, and I noticed my body tense up in response to her talking.

This entrepreneur might not have been anxious but that was the energy she was communicating to others.  

Remember, people respond to how you make them feel. And so you have to get crystal clear with yourself about how you’re really feeling, below the surface... underneath that smile.

Once you have that clarity, there are somatic (body-based) practices to help shift how you’re feeling. But before that, the goal is to get clear with how you’re feeling.

You do this by connecting your mind – your conscious awareness – with the emotions that are in your body – which are outside your conscious awareness.

The more your mind is aware of how you’re actually feeling, the more accurate you’ll be in sensing the energy you’re giving off and how your impact on others.  

To get clear with yourself, I love this practice from David Rome in his book, “Your Body Knows the Answer: Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change & Liberate Creativity.”

Embodied Leadership Practice: Turning Inward for Self-Awareness

Find a comfortable position, either seated or laying down. Set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes. Close your eyes.

“Begin by simply asking yourself, “How am I?” Say whatever comes to mind: fine, OK, tired, happy, sad, excited…

Now ask yourself, “But how am I really?” This time ignore any words that arise quickly.

Instead, holding in mind the question “How am I really?” allow there to be a gap, and simply sense inside your body with an attitude of friendly attending.

You are not answering the question from your head … but looking for a response to that question in your body. You are sensing for … something. You may already be noticing a particular felt sense or you may not be, but in either case there is an unclear sense of ‘something.’”

You might notice sensations and you might not, but either way, welcome whatever arises. This practice is akin to embodied mindfulness.

The more you embrace this type of contemplative practice every day, the more sensations and emotions will come to the surface.

David Rome reminds us, “Especially at the beginning, felt senses tend to be shy; like the fawn in the woods, they are not used to being seen and need time to feel safe showing themselves.”

Emotions that you’ve unconsciously pushed away take time to present themselves. It’s worth being patient though because this practice allows you to become attuned to your inner landscape and energy.

This awareness is the foundation of embodied leadership. From here, you can introduce additional somatic practices to elevate your leadership presence, impact, and vision.

If you’d like 1:1 support with embodied leadership, schedule a free 30 minute consultation to explore personalized somatic coaching.

Embodied leadership recognizes that in order to improve your leadership, you have to start with yourself. Become more self-aware and emotionally intelligent are important aspects of this process, which somatics seeks to address. Sound Somatics offers online somatic coaching and embodied leadership trainings in Seattle and across the US to support those interested in embodied leadership.