For those of you who are past clients or who know me or follow me know that I am passionate about helping leaders – women and men to own their power. To explore their strengths! To get centered and grounded in order to not be knocked off course by the “grabs” of life! To find their best self and best work. To be flexible and powerful leaders! In the process of my work, I have done a lot of observation and research on women and their relationship to personal power.
Power is a scary concept for women when it come to using it for their personal benefit. It seems to be associated with being a bitch or overly aggressive. Certainly not lady-like! Hence women tend to work around what they want to achieve. According to a new article in Fortune by Pattie Sellers and Nina Easton, veteran male CEO’s say that women tend to meander to the top instead of directly going for it like males. This is exhausting because naturally powerful women have to deny themselves in order to meander. Unfortunately, denying oneself or as I say sitting on oneself is a prescription for frustration, anger, depression and burn out.
So, what can women do to get over the power phobia? Well, number one is listen to the wisdom of the body instead of the doubt in the head. When we are grounded in the body, we are authentic and the appropriate language, feeling and balance come forth. It is amazing how that happens. We can experience an appropriate level of power which isn’t scary.
Then, we can express our feelings in a safe environment, protest pushing against a wall, find our true voice as it resonates from toe to head and get familiar with the feeling of standing our ground.
Lastly, we can practice being unapologetic about our power. Rebecca Traister author of the book Good and Mad used the term, unapologetic to describe Nancy Pelosi and I love the word.
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