Written by: Tricia Brouk, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Being able to support speakers in using their voices for impact is a privilege. I had the honor of sitting down with Jenny Lincoln to hear how she approaches leadership from the heart.
Jenny Lincoln as a full-time nomad with 30+ years of corporate experience, Jenny Lincoln brings a unique lens to the stage. Living outside societal norms with little to no attachments... She has the freedom and unique perspective to tackle big conversations. Jenny is the visionary behind human ~ the human navigation practice... Your super smart personalized GPS + portal to unlocking the potency, truth, and love of who you be! She works with leaders, influencers, and their communities to help them move past their self-imposed limitations to create greater impact and change!
When you think about leadership now compared to what you experienced back in the day, what has changed for you?
Leadership for me, personally, has changed dramatically! I feel the key to being a potent, successful, and fulfilled leader is more about who you be than what you do! It all starts with self leadership. I feel it’s important to remember… leadership is an intimate expression of you! It’s not a job or a role, it’s a deeply personal journey that is observed and mimicked by entire organizations, communities, even countries!
As a result, I feel it’s both an honor and a privilege to role model healthy, inclusive and growth-conducive leadership behavior, to support the freedom and expression of an individual's unique talents, in a way that feels in alignment with their truth!
When I started my leadership journey, it was as a chartered accountant within one of the big 4 firms. We were molded and shaped into what was expected of a manager, director or partner of the firm. Individuality wasn’t a currency back then! It was more about people, task and project management, to bring a job in on budget. This meant a strong focus on billable hours and time management, which often resulted in micromanagement!
In that way, I feel leadership hasn’t evolved significantly over the last 4 decades! In my opinion, leadership still has a bias towards resource management and technical proficiency. With a misguided focus on what and how people do things rather than the potency of who they be and what they bring to the table. This often creates rigid structures and cultures where perfectionism and analysis paralysis prevail. The result, a lack of independent thinking and initiative, which stifles intuitive flow, productivity, and ease!
To use a sporting analogy, I feel leadership is still hooked into ‘set plays’ vs fluid ‘play making’. We see this beautifully illustrated in season 3 of ted lasso when the leadership team of afc richmond finally throws out the rule book and turns to what is known as total football! A fluid form of the sport where players are trained to see and be multiple options so they can spontaneously react in the moment.
Yes, the transition can seem very messy and chaotic as the team builds new mastery about reading the energy and the play. They are being asked to trust themselves and their teammates to find the synergy and flow to win. This takes very special support and understanding by the leadership team to:
Encourage and provide a safe environment for experimentation, making mistakes and failed attempts, all vital forms of growth and evolution to greatness.
Allow people to be authentic in their awkwardness and human messiness, so they can discover their own unique genius and contribution.
Remove the pressure of perfectionism of performance for polished perfect moments, to supporting and helping individuals uncover their own process and methods that will carry them to excellence and victory.
Detach from their own egos and the belief that the team is a reflection of their own capability, allowing people the space to learn and grow in ways that suit their natural talents.
Step away from traditional short-term success measures and immediate results, to enable sustainable long-term growth.
As a nomad you learn to travel light, what does that mean to you?
Downsizing and packing up my home was one of the most liberating moments of my life! To be free from having to work to support the ownership of assets, helped me break away from the endless cycle of consumerism. Now I only own 44lbs (20kgs) of clothes, toiletries and electronics … that’s 22 pounds too much!! I need to cull again!
Seriously, the shedding of all my physical possessions has been fundamental to how I have transformed as a person and a leader.
Traveling light has meant I no longer define myself by what I have. Being nomadic and totally free-spirited means, I am no longer defined by what I do! Removing those two core aspects of how we normally define and identify ourselves, the doing and the having, has given me the space to discover the true essence of me … who I be! This has been my greatest discovery and consistency … coming home to the truth of me! I now relish this every moment of every day!
I’m not saying you have to give up everything in your life to discover the truth of who you be … you can take the key elements of what I discovered, what I call nomadness, and apply them in your own life in a way that feels aligned and true for you!
The other significant aspect of traveling light is mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. When you first start out on your nomadic journey, you are totally distracted and enamored by the lifestyle. Pretty quickly, you realize there is no escaping you! You are the only constant in an ever-changing life in the courage zone! Every day, week, month… a different home, place, country, people and culture!
Then the penny drops… you are still carrying old values, beliefs, hurts and versions of yourself, that are no longer in alignment with who you have grown into today! When you allow yourself to be governed by old versions of you, it creates significant misalignment to your truth! The result, a ton of inner conflict, stress, struggle, and strain.
I realized I was only carrying one physical bag but I had a whole entourage of emotional baggage that I was holding onto! If I was to truly travel light and hold joy, love and delight in my heart … I had to drop all my emotional baggage too!
What has being nomadic taught you about authenticity and leadership?
Wow… so many wonderful insights and lessons, here’s a few of my favorites in what I call my nomadness toolkit:
Free to be me – have you ever noticed when you travel overseas you often do things you would never do at home? You feel anonymous, unseen and safe to experiment! Most likely because no one you know is watching you and hence you feel you won't be judged! These moments are so powerful for our own growth and evolution, and yet we often don’t observe or reflect on them. Take a moment now… ask yourself ‘what permission am I granting myself when I’m overseas?’. Then ask… ‘how can I embody this same ethos, on an everyday basis?’ these are the keys to loosening restrictive and conditional thinking that may be stunting your growth or success.
Courage is like a muscle… it needs a daily workout ~ flexing your courage muscles on a daily basis is a natural occurrence for nomads. We live each day from our courage zones because there is very little routine and certainty, everyday is filled with adventure and challenge! This creates an enormous evidence list of courageous moments, which automatically expands your confidence, capability, and your comfort zone. Plus it develops greater trust and knowing in your own actions and reactions. Have you ever thought about compiling your own courage evidence list? What would that look like for you? Perhaps it’s time to reflect on all your courageous moments… write them down, create critical mass, a body of evidence to demonstrate and anchor into your own courageous self!
Adventurer’s mindset – each day I get to live life with the heart, soul and mindset of an adventurer! It's fueled by curiosity and a desire for discovery. It's a willingness to venture into the unknown with an open heart and mind. To stretch into the unknown parts of you... Just like a good yoga or pilates pose! One of my favorite sound bytes is curiosity trumps judgment! Where can you use curiosity to free yourself from strong self-judgment?
Face your fears – people often call me fearless, I’m not! I have my fair share of fears … spiders, heights, deep water, doing memorized talks, to name a few! My approach, I refuse to let fear stop me from enjoying my loves … trekking, camping, paragliding, climbing volcanoes, scuba diving, getting on big stages. I’ve learnt to coexist and navigate through my fears. Three techniques have helped me immensely… the power of wow, intentional yawning and immersive hand holding!
Power of wow – wonderment is one of those sacred essences of personal alchemy, its magnetic properties can pull you through any fear or doubt! I broke my paralyzing fear of spiders by holding a tarantula. At the exact moment she walked onto my arm a shard of light fell upon us and her, previously freaky, hairy legs and body illuminated into a shimmering sea of magenta! I was mesmerized by her color, beauty and her tranquil energy. It was a wondrous and life-changing moment! The power of wow transported me from the irrational fears of my mind and plonked me into the loving and transformative powers of my heartspace. What could you do with this transformational power? Where and how would you use it in your life?
Intentional yawning – I had the good fortune of volunteering on a ranch in Canada, caring for a herd of 30 rescue horses. This is where I trained as an equine facilitator and coach for executive leadership development. It is here that I witnessed one of the simplest and most profound fear-releasing techniques that I now use every day of my life … intentional yawning! Horses naturally release, reset and reground by yawning and rolling on the ground. I started to mimic the yawning practice and realized its power to release fear, tension, anger, anxiety, any of the gnarly emotions that shut us down and lock us up. We carry so much tension in our jaw, face, neck, and shoulders, now we have an easy and effective way to release it. In the 30 minutes before I go on stage I yawn 20+ times to release my nervous energy. The first time I ran off the top of the Andes paragliding in Colombia, I yawned 50+ times in the 90 minutes before I launched. I ended up flying without any fear because I released it all! I would love for you to give intentional yawning a go. Next time you feel nervous tension or fear, sink into those feelings and yawn as big as you can. Your body will take over and create an almost jaw cracking yawn that stretches and releases every muscle in your face. Do it as many times as you can, it’s the most incredible release that will leave you calm, relaxed and ready to roar… literally!
Immersive hand holding – having someone to hold your hand is not just for children and romantics! We all need hand-holding at regular stages throughout our lives, especially when we are facing something new or challenging. When I held my tarantula, I literally held the guide’s hand, my body was shaking so much I could hardly stand! To overcome my fear of sharks and deep water I organized a more immersive hand holding experience … doing my advanced diving certificate in the Philippines. My dive master encouraged me to experiment with my buoyancy and balance underwater whilst she was by my side. I gave myself permission to try everything that made me feel uncomfortable so I could get her real-time feedback and support. It created a safe environment for me to flounder, float and find my own means of correction. It’s the same for me taking on big stages. My mentor, the lovely Tricia Brouk (award-winning director, producer, author, and founder of the Big Talk Academy), has a wonderful immersive yearlong container that is giving me all the support and hand-holding I need to fully embody being the sage from the stage. All 3 of these experiences are giving me the depth of support needed to fast-track my way through fear, doubt, self-sabotage, as well as old conditioning and limiting beliefs! Where could you benefit from a helping hand?
Synchronicity and flow – surprise and delight is a top value for me, I like to experience it daily! I find the universe doesn't disappoint… every day something synchronous happens. Whatever I need comes into my space! For example: stumbling across an English-speaking hitchhiker on an isolated dirt road in the French Pyrenees, when I realized the only road into my house-sit had been washed away in a recent storm and I need to find an old fire trail which he knows about and directs me to. Or landing in Cancun, Mexico, at the beginning of COVID-19 and receiving a Facebook notification from a group I've never participated in about an off-grid house sit in Akumal, 36 km from Tulum, where I was headed!
Every day, my life flows in a synchronous rhythm. I believe so much of it is because I get out of my own way and allow space for things to unfold. I no longer force things, plus I obey and follow my intuition religiously!
You are known as the sage from the stage. What would you say to emerging leaders?
I have 3 quick perspective switches I’d love to share:
Give yourself permission to be 100% you – I’ve always loved this quote from Judy Garland, ‘always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else’. This is the essence of authentic leadership… embracing unique and quirky you!
Through contrast comes clarity – mix it up, try new things, seek diversity and difference. Drop the concept of right and wrong, a mental concept! Swap it out for what feels aligned and misaligned, an intuitive concept. Contrast will give you the opportunity and clarity to hone your intuitive guidance, an essential skill in all exceptional leaders.
Responsibility can feel like a burden – this doesn’t have to be the case! Try this powerful reframe: the word responsibility is made up of two words… response-ability! It’s your ability to respond in the moment. This clever reframe shifts your focus from carrying a permanent dead weight to doing light reps as and when it is needed!
Tricia Brouk, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Tricia Brouk helps high-performing professionals transform into industry thought leaders through the power of authentic storytelling. With her experience as an award-winning director, producer, sought after speaker, and mentor to countless thought-leaders, Tricia has put thousands of speakers onto big stages globally. She produced TEDxLincolnSquare in New York City and is the founder of The Big Talk Academy. Tricia’s book, The Influential Voice: Saying What You Mean for Lasting Legacy, was a 1 New Release on Amazon in December 2020. Big Stages, the documentary featuring her work with speakers premiered at the Chelsea Film Festival in October of 2023 and her most recent love is the new publishing house she founded, The Big Talk Press.
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