A few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have written this blog. Actually, that’s not true. Twenty-five years ago, I definitely wouldn’t have written it.
Early in my corporate career, I picked up a copy of Meditation for Dummies. At the time, my interest in meditation had very little to do with leadership. I was exploring it as a tool for my personal life and, if I’m being completely transparent, hoping to manifest some of the things I dreamed about—the husband, the beautiful home, the perfect family, the life I imagined for myself.
I achieved much of that, by the way!
What I didn’t realize when I picked up that book was that meditation would eventually become one of the most valuable tools in my leadership toolbox. Not because it magically created the life or career I wanted, but because over time, it helped me quiet the noise, become more self-aware, trust myself, and feel more connected to what I know to be true.
Today, as an executive coach, I see just how much leaders need that kind of space.
So many of the leaders I work with are smart, capable, successful high achievers who are managing a lot. Their minds are still running long after the workday ends. They’re thinking about the meeting that didn’t go well, tomorrow’s presentation, the difficult conversation they need to have, the organizational change coming around the corner, and the 47 other things on their list. They have trouble turning it off at night, transitioning from work to home, and creating boundaries between all the different parts of their lives.
I often describe it as living on the hamster wheel.
For years, I’ve talked about helping leaders get off that wheel so they can become more intentional about their choices and how they show up. But lately, I’ve been thinking there may be an opportunity to go a little further.
What if leadership isn’t only about becoming more intentional? What if it’s also about becoming more aligned?
And this is where things might get a little “woo woo.”
Many of us learned how to compartmentalize as we moved through our careers. I certainly did. Work went in one box. Family went in another. Stress, fears, dreams, relationships—they all had their own boxes too. We became incredibly skilled at packaging things up, putting them on the appropriate shelf, and opening whichever box the situation required.
In my corporate leadership years, that served me well. I followed the rules, worked hard, delivered results, and did what needed to be done. I always had a thread of care, concern, and heart running through my leadership, but I was still separating parts of myself rather than considering how all those pieces fit together.
Over time, that began to change. I became more intentional about how I showed up and more attuned to the people around me. In the workplace, we called some of that emotional intelligence and empathy. Later, I described it in my book as “leading with heart” and being intentional in how you show up.
Today, I think I would describe it a little differently.
I would call it aligned leadership.
Aligned leadership is what happens when your values, intuition, actions, energy, and intentions begin working together rather than competing for your attention. You aren’t leaving parts of yourself at the door when you walk into work because, really, none of us do. We are one whole human being showing up every day to interact, connect, influence, impact, and lead other whole human beings.
When you begin leading from that place, something shifts.
I have a coaching client who is incredibly open to growth. He rarely comes into our conversations with a perfectly packaged coaching topic. Instead, he brings whatever is occupying his mental real estate at that moment—a relationship, an anticipated conflict, a challenge, or something he can’t quite stop thinking about.
Our conversations are fluid. We explore what’s happening, look at it from different perspectives, and consider how he wants to show up. And then, inevitably, the thing we’ve been talking about seems to appear in his work.
Sometimes within days. Recently, it happened within an hour of our coaching conversation.
We joke about these moments, and he calls them coincidences. He would also really like us to spend more coaching time talking about his college football team so he can speak another national championship into existence. 😂
But I’ve come to believe there are very few coincidences. Maybe there are more coordinated incidents.
When something occupies our thoughts, attention, and energy, we become more aware of the opportunities, patterns, people, and circumstances connected to it. We notice things we might have missed before. We’re more prepared when the situation arrives, and because we’ve created space to consider our intentions, we can respond differently when it does.
Is that “woo woo”? Maybe.
But it’s also incredibly practical leadership.
Leadership is fundamentally about awareness, and that awareness has to start with ourselves. The most effective leaders don’t just understand business metrics, market conditions, and organizational challenges. They understand what’s happening inside themselves, too. They recognize when they’re operating from fear instead of confidence, reacting instead of responding, or forcing an outcome instead of creating enough space for clarity to emerge.
Meditation has helped me create that space, but meditation isn’t the only answer. I have clients who use apps like Headspace, while others insist they “aren’t good at meditating” because they can’t turn their brains off. My response is always that the goal isn’t necessarily to turn your brain off.
Find what works for you.
Maybe it’s exercise, a long walk, time in nature, prayer, journaling, or even a walking meditation. Maybe it’s simply ten quiet minutes before everyone else wakes up. The practice matters less than your willingness to create enough space to hear yourself again.
Because beneath all the business buzzwords we use—resilience, agility, adaptability, change leadership—there is something much more human: connection.
Connection to yourself. Connection to your purpose. Connection to the people you lead.
My own journey to understand this has been decades in the making. From watching Oprah as a teenager in the '80s, to Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Abraham Hicks, Gabby Bernstein, and so many others along the way, I’ve absorbed ideas and inspiration that have ultimately helped me arrive at my own sense of what I know to be true.
And today, that feels grounding. Calm. Confident. Connected. There is less forcing and more knowing.
Maybe that sounds “woo woo” to some people. I’m okay with that.
Because I’m beginning to think the leaders we need for the future aren’t those who get better at compartmentalizing, pushing harder, or running faster on the hamster wheel. We need leaders who are deeply connected to themselves so they can more authentically connect with others. Leaders who create space to listen, notice, trust, and choose. Leaders who bring their whole selves to the responsibility of leading other human beings.
Perhaps that is the next evolution of intentional leadership.
A little less forcing. A little more alignment. And yes, maybe even a little more “woo woo.”
If you’re ready to get off the hamster wheel and explore what greater intention and alignment could look like in your own leadership, let’s connect. Sometimes the most powerful shift starts by simply creating enough space to hear what’s already there.
It couldn’t be done. Until it was.
A client recently shared a story that’s stuck with me. He had approached a vendor with a challenge: an ambitious deliverable in an aggressive timeframe. The vendor replied with certainty, “It can’t be done.”
Their response wasn’t malicious. It came from experience, from the data they had, and from what had been possible in the past. But that’s the problem, isn’t it?
So many of us lead from what was—not what could be.
This leader, however, knew better. Just three years earlier, he had done something transformational for his company: he stood up a new data lake in six months, a record-setting achievement. It had never been done before in that organization—and yet, they did it.
Now, three years later, with even more complexity and constraints, he faced a similar challenge. The timeline? 60 days.
The verdict? “Impossible,” they said.
But here’s what he told me after his team pulled it off:
“We were ready. My team has been preparing for this moment. It wasn’t an option to not figure it out. The fact that we did it in 60 days? Stellar—but expected.”
That line hit me.
Stellar. But expected.
Because great leaders today are not waiting for all the information, the perfect plan, or ideal conditions. They’re readying themselves and their teams for what’s next—even when what’s next doesn’t yet exist. They're creating new possibilities by stepping forward with trust, not certainty.
We are now in a leadership era where the impossible is becoming the norm. Things are being done today that have never been done before—and at a breakneck pace.
In this world, leading from the rearview mirror won’t cut it. As Korn Ferry put it in a recent article, Beware the Black Swans, unpredictability has become our norm—and flexibility, adaptability, and intentionality are more important than ever.
Gone are the days when linear planning could carry you from idea to outcome. In today's reality, you often have to jump... and build the parachute on the way down.
The leaders who thrive in this space aren't necessarily the ones with the most knowledge or the best playbooks. They're the ones who lead with trust—in themselves, in their teams, and in their ability to figure it out along the way.
This brings us to something deeper. When the pace is fast and the stakes are high, you don’t have the luxury of overthinking, overplanning, or overdoing.
You have to shift from doing to being.
Instead?
The leader in this story didn’t need more time. He needed more clarity—on who to involve, what success looked like, and where certainty could be found, even in the unknown.
And from there, he moved.
Because confidence doesn't come from having all the answers—it comes from knowing you'll find them. Again and again.
If you're navigating complexity, leading transformation, or simply feeling the stretch of doing what’s never been done before, here are three shifts to help you BE the kind of leader today’s world demands:
If it feels like you’re being asked to do something that’s never been done before, you’re not alone.
That’s not a flaw in today’s leadership landscape—it’s the new normal.
The question isn’t: Can it be done?
It’s: Are you willing to trust yourself enough to go first?
You don’t need to have all the answers. But you do need to show up. Be present. Lead with clarity and conviction.
Because leadership today is less about having a map and more about becoming the compass.
If this message resonates with you, I invite you to take the next step. Let’s explore what it means to show up with more presence, more purpose, and more confidence—even in the unknown.
👉 Book a conversation with me to talk about how you or your team can lead with heart through whatever comes next.
In my work with teams, I often emphasize the importance of trust—especially vulnerability-based trust—where members can admit mistakes, ask for help, and feel safe sharing their perceived weaknesses. But we don’t talk about another aspect of trust enough: trusting ourselves.
For leaders managing both personal and professional responsibilities, self-trust is the foundation of their leadership and personal growth. Trusting yourself isn’t just about competence or confidence. It’s deeper. It’s about silencing that inner critic, overcoming self-doubt, and believing you can navigate whatever challenges come your way. This is a lesson I’ve learned personally, having spent a portion of my corporate career doubting my capabilities, even when my results told a different story. I estimate I spent 5 of my 25 years in corporate America questioning whether I was good enough. I doubted myself more than I trusted myself—and that self-doubt robbed me of opportunities to reach my full potential.
I’ve learned that trusting yourself is an ongoing practice. Recently, this concept became clear while hiking in Colorado with my husband. Hiking is a newer hobby for me, and while I’m not tackling the “14ers” as my family does, I’ve let them push me to more challenging hikes. This past weekend, we embarked on a difficult trail—one that felt more like rock climbing at times than simply hiking.
As I climbed, I found myself wondering: What’s harder, going up or coming down? For me, going up feels more controlled and more predictable. It’s tough, but I can stop, breathe, reorient, and feel confident about where to place my next step. But on the way down, I realized that trust plays a much bigger role.
When hiking down a steep trail, especially where the footing is uncertain, you don’t have the luxury of pausing with each step. You have to trust yourself. You have to trust where you place your feet, that you can navigate the terrain, and that even if you stumble, you’ll catch yourself before tumbling down the mountain. It’s a moment-to-moment practice of believing in your ability to manage the challenge.
Here are three reasons why hiking down a steep trail requires trust in yourself—reasons that also apply to leadership:
Just like hiking down that steep trail, trusting yourself in leadership requires intention and practice. It’s not always easy, but the more you rely on self-trust, the more confident you’ll become in navigating challenges and embracing opportunities. So, how do we strengthen this vital trust in ourselves? Here are three ways to get started.
Building self-trust doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a skill that requires practice and patience. Here are three ways to deepen your trust in yourself:
Trust in yourself allows you to fully step into your potential as a leader. It gives you the courage to navigate difficult paths, the resilience to bounce back from mistakes, and the momentum to keep going when things get tough. Like hiking down that steep trail, your leadership journey will have moments when the footing feels uncertain. But with self-trust, you can keep moving forward—step by step, building confidence and flow along the way.
If you’re ready to explore how trusting yourself can help you reach your full potential, let’s talk. Sometimes, all it takes is the right support to unlock what’s already within you!
