What is Inner Leadership?
Inner leadership is the commitment to developing an open and resilient mindset. It is about expanding self-awareness and the ability to navigate life with emotional well-being and decision making skills that are in alignment with your authentic self. Inner leadership is about understanding one's values, and beliefs and ensuring that you are in alignment with how you want to serve in your business and life. We are all leaders; in life and/or business so developing strong inner leadership serves you and those whose lives you touch. Developing inner leadership skills is vital for entrepreneurs who need to navigate the challenges of business with more confidence and calm.
It is already within you…
It is not about power or authority; rather, it is about self-awareness, resiliency, and the self-agency to lead authentically. It is the part of you that believes in your values and purpose, and is dedicated to bringing this vision to life. It is the part of you that knows you can succeed and is ready to hold you with unconditional love and acceptance. Inner leadership is supported by the stories you tell yourself, about who you are and what you can accomplish.
5 Components of Inner Leadership
There are many components that support your inner leader's development; from increasing our self-awareness, having strong wellness practices, and surrounding ourselves with folks who are on a similar journey to support us in this process of discovery. These are not things we ever master. The work is never complete; we remain in constant practice. Developing strong inner leadership requires a commitment to practicing the following:
Personal Integrity
What do you do when no one is looking? Personal integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. When personal integrity is the first pillar of inner leadership you align your actions, decisions, and values with consideration for all but also with your authentic self. This involves maintaining transparency, honesty, and ethical behavior while leading from the heart to foster trusting relationships. This approach prioritizes the well-being of all individuals and the greater good over personal gain, nurturing a culture of empathy and genuine connection within an organization.
Emotional Intelligence and Being Self-Aware
There are many tools that are useful in the journey of becoming more aware of your strengths, areas for development and strategies to navigate challenging situations. This learning will help you become more aware of yourself and your emotional patterns. Enabling you to understand relationship dynamics and how you navigate them. Self-awareness and empathy are crucial for building meaningful relationships and resolving conflicts. There are endless resources that approach this topic from very diverse ways.
Here are a few to consider:
Lumina Learning; A psychometric portrait that will raise self-awareness and practical ways to change behavior.
The Enneagram Institute; A system of personality typing that describes patterns in how people interpret the world and manage their emotions.
Human Design; A map of your unique genetic design, providing conscious and unconscious aspects of yourself.
Resiliency
Resilience is not about toughening up or enduring more suffering—it’s about adaptability. It is a response from your authentic self – your heart. Another way of looking at resilience is that the opposite of resiliency is brittleness: When you are brittle you don’t bend you break. Resiliency is developed by being less attached to our fixed ideas on self and others. We are not rigid on how things will happen or how someone will respond. Opening our hearts is how we stabilize our adaptability.
Resiliency is Courage + Inclusiveness + Adaptability
Courage; the fortitude of the heart, it keeps showing up again and again and speaking its truth.
Inclusiveness; everyone and everything is in. All the good all the bad. All that is in alignment and all that isn’t.
Adaptability; having fewer preferences. Preferences are part of our past identity. The way is light and fluid with the man with no preferences – take whatever is coming your way.
An invitation to read “Navigating Challenges as a Small Business Owner”.
Self-Agency
Self-Agency is about taking control of your life by sifting through all the noise to find emotional and physical balance. Allowing you to think more clearly and advocating for yourself. Self-Agency is about practicing wellness habits and managing your inner circle to create a life that energizes and supports the life/business you envision. Consider things such as:
Control energy inputs; take time to pause, step away from the grind.
Be selective about those around you; surround yourself with folks to fill your cup and inspire to move your vision forward.
Move + Nourish + Rest; Stay active and fuel your mind and body with healthy choices. And remember to rest.
Manage the stories you tell yourself and the emotions that arise; treat yourself like you would treat your best friend, be kind and supportive.
Be deliberate, but take action; Moving to the life and business we desire requires a significant degree of trust and manifestation. But it also means that you have to take deliberate steps towards your vision.
Check your gut/intuition; trust your instincts and use those instincts to check in with yourself when in doubt. Trust your inner wisdom.
Hold the position of a continuous learner; this is a journey and there is always more to learn and discover.
Develop a stop doing list; as we make progress towards our vision there are changes/shifts that we may need to make. New behaviours, shifts in behaviours but there may also be things that we have to stop. There are times that we have to release things we were previously called to do, or feel obligated to do so that we can move forward. Stopping these things may be very difficult as there may be folks who resist us making this change. Always leave space for reflection.
Personal Eco-System
Your personal eco-system is a group of people or organizations that can support your journey in developing your inner leader. The group could included; counselors, energy healers, life / business coaches or mentors and individuals from your inner circle that you confide in. It is the group of people that help you move forward and inspire you to continue.
Who do you need in your eco-system?
Who is connected to your business vision?
Who is connected to your heart?
Who fills up your cup and inspires you?
How to develop Inner Leadership?
In practice, cultivating inner leadership means taking time for self-care, personal development, and continuous learning. It means building your inner leader eco-system that provides guidance, feedback and inspiration.
Your small business coach in Kingston and Halifax.
As a small business coach, I've witnessed the transformative power of inner leadership in clients. It's not a skill; it is something you become a student of that impacts your mindset, and elevates one's ability to navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape of entrepreneurship. By fostering integrity, emotional intelligence, resilience and self-agency, small business owners can become inspiring leaders in pursuit of serving people + planet + prosperity for all.
If you want to develop your inner leader and are looking for guidance please reach out to us. As a practitioner of Lumina Learning I can also provide access to the tool, and coaching and guidance in the understanding and application of the learning.
