Written by: Susanna Holowati, 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.
We live in a V.U.C.A. world: full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Leadership today means much more than authority and control. To thrive in this fast-paced reality leaders must exemplify a truly holistic approach: embodiment.
How can you be a more embodied leader and transform the business landscape you're part of?
There are many skills that individuals can cultivate to improve their leadership style: effective communication, emotional intelligence, smart decision-making, change management, etc. Most books, courses and trainings focus on the theory of these skills and rarely lead to sustainable behavioral change. Why? Because it’s not practiced. Intellectually knowing how to be a good leader and being a leader who sparks positive change, are two different realities. Where is the gap? Embodiment! Only if we learn how to embody what we aim for, will we walk the talk and be an inspiration to others.
It’s our means to:
be present - Instead of wandering into the past or future like our mind
cultivate emotional intelligence - sensing others, feeling empathy
effectively change our patterns of behavior that are not serving us and others. Positive affirmations are never enough to transform: words need a felt experience linked to them in order to help us change.
access a deeper intelligence - Through sensory information we can better analyze inner and outer circumstances and make wiser decisions.
Embodied leadership practices can help you integrate new skills from the inside out. The good news is: you can think less and achieve more by dropping into your body!
How to practice embodied leadership?
There are two crucial aspects: awareness and adaptation. Firstly: Being aware about how you are now, what your long-term patterns are and then gaining skills to change these consciously in order to lead your life and others more masterfully. Leading inner change to impact the outer world!
The next level is awareness about other people‘s states of being, noticing their patterns and ultimately the capacity to influence these consciously.
As an advanced embodied leader you can change the energy and mood of a room, just by your own presence and embodiment!
The base ground for these skills is: feeling! Tapping into your body’s wisdom to learn and change. Not easy in a culture where we have learnt to numb ourselves and rather analyze than sense. Let’s change this and start by getting more state and trait awareness, and practice state and trait shifting for ourselves!
Practices
1. State awareness: Practice regular check-ins
Notice your current body sensations, the felt emotional quality, your energy level and what thoughts come up. How are you breathing and how is your posture influencing your state? Stay with what is without judging.
Do this five times per day linked to other routines.
2. State shifting: Adapt your current way of being
Is your current state useful now? How do you want to be now? Set an intention and move accordingly: e.g. shaking something out, sighing to relax, walking more firmly to be more determined, etc.
Do this after every check-in, if adaptation is needed for your current situation.
Example: Coming out of a tough negotiation I check-in with myself: I feel tense and inner constriction. In 5 minutes I see my team for a project meeting and want to be motivational. I rub my face, sigh three times and shake my whole body for one minute to release tension and think of someone I love: I feel more relaxed, tender and positive for the meeting.
3. Trait awareness: Notice your behavioral tendencies
What does the way you walk and move reveal about your behavior and personality? What’s your DISC color and how do you notice it in action? What mindset, postures and physical activities did you practice throughout the months/years to become “like this”? How is your behavior changing from one context to another (e.g. at work, at home, etc.)
Example: I did many years of free improvisation and therefore practiced to see possibilities and diverge into many new ideas and directions. The limit: getting lost in too many options and confusion.
4. Trait shifting: Increase your range
How would you like to expand your behavioral repertoire to increase choice and cultivate deeper connections with individuals whose ways of functioning differ from your own? What micro practices and regular physical activities will support you to integrate this? How can you practice another way of walking, standing and moving that will develop this new trait? It is important to know what to practice and how to practice it.
Example: To complement my ability to envision creatively and diverge I want to practice more focus and filtering out options. I chose to do Feldenkrais® once a week consistently to gain that capacity. Another way is: walking daily routes with precision and relaxed focus on each step without getting distracted by every visual input I see.
5. Relational practice: Embodied empathy – listening with your whole body
When in dialogue, put yourself in an empty, open inner attitude. Listening to your interlocutor, be aware of your embodiment and the embodiment of the other person. Where do you feel tightness, openness, tension, release, etc., throughout the conversation? What do you understand from this about you or the other‘s state?
All of these practices and examples serve as inspiration and a starting point, but the possibilities to nurture these five skills are truly endless. I invite you to experiment and discover your own path through your body-mind system.
Lead the change
Imagine a world where leaders are embodied, bringing their vision and values forth with their whole being: becoming a holistically intelligent body of a team instead of “head of XYZ“…
No matter your actual position or function, you can become an embodied leader through practice. If you want to co-create a culture where people walk their talk, it’s about time: practice embodiment skills. Success and impact on your surroundings will follow naturally.
If you need guidance to enhance embodied leadership in your organization, join embodytopia and reach out to me.
Susanna Holowati, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Susanna is a passionate Embodied Change Facilitator, Trainer and Coach - founder of Embodytopia - who empowers purpose-driven leaders to act with more impact. Her mission: catalyse transformation. Her embodiment and leadership practices help change-makers worldwide to grow beyond brainy boxes. With heightened embodied intelligence and skills they can truly embody the change they want to bring to the world.
