Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

#32: Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability:  the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work.  Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.  

Show Notes

You need to be able to take a stand. Extend your voice. Be pointedly focused on what you offer and the vision that you have, in order to impact the people that you say you want to impact.”

– Dr. Chris Johnson

Confidence and the mind-body connection

Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability:  the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work.  Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.

Earlier, in episode #21, I reviewed the importance of recognizing and owning the value we bring to our work. This value will remain hidden if we’re not able to confidently give voice to it.  And the way we carry ourselves is inextricably linked to it all. Chris draws from her years of embodied leadership and martial arts practice to create a commanding presence while also staying calm and centered. She shares her insights on how to expand your presence and self-awareness to ultimately project your inner strength and achieve your goals.

The tangible impact:  missed opportunities

[1:30] “The challenge about speaking up shows up in multiple ways…The most common are not sharing good ideas or opinions during meetings, not being able to promote themselves and their team. In avoiding conflict, staying silent or small leads to being undervalued and overlooked, and ultimately, to a lack of fulfillment, and possibly frustration.”

[32:44] “I’d get pulled in to take on leadership roles, and yet never fully owned them. And that was because I didn’t know if I knew enough, I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I didn’t want anybody else to feel bad if I happen to do something really well. And all of that was a story that I told myself, and then it took residence in my body. I was very narrow, and small, my energy was very constrained.”

 

Centering in our body, our vision, and in action

[23:00] ] “We can either close in and hunker down…Or we can choose to learn a very simple skill and practice of centering. And by that, we mean centering in the body, relaxed…and then centering in something bigger than us, even if we don’t know what that is. And lastly, centering in an action that we can then take. And once we can learn that simple practice (because you have to practice it). Pretty soon that practice starts to reshape us…

“What matters is that we’re intentional. It’s based on what we care about, and that we’re consistently in deliberate practice.”

 

[29:00] “I like to say it’s tolerating the discomfort at the edges because it’s at the edges that literally, our neurobiology gets rewired. Hang out there in the discomfort for at least a little bit longer. Every time we do it, we’re growing new pathways that allow us to expand our capacity.”

Speaking about our accomplishments or sharing our thoughts in a meeting may bring physical sensations. We have to practice tolerating this discomfort though it feels unnatural. With time we grow accustomed to it.

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Power of Pause in the Mindful Leader magazine:

https://www.mindfulleader.org/blog/44061-the-power-of-a-pause

Episode 21: Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power:

https://rise-leaders.com/owning-your-value/

A Guide to Owning Your Value

Download Guide

To connect to Dr. Chris Johnson please follow:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrisljohnson/

https://q4-consulting.com/

Dr. Chris on Resilience:  https://q4-consulting.com/resilience/

 

To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:

https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/

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Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power

Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power

There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging.  But it can be uncomfortable.  Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance.  

Show Notes

When we’re able to own our value, we’re more likely to bring positive contributions to work,

to life, to our communities-  to whatever we care about.

The Power of Authenticity

There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging.  But it can be uncomfortable.  Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance. Communicating our value is necessary to get a seat at the table. We make the value we bring apparent when we confidently acknowledge and demonstrate it each day – and it also helps us bring our unique advantage to the workplace.

Explore the Eight Elements of Knowing Your Value

This week’s episode is an efficient 13 minutes as I outline 8 elements to help you own and speak your value. These are actions you can take to increase your feelings of power and authenticity in all aspects of life. I’ve created an in-depth, integrated guide for your reflection and to help you develop new habits.   Whether you’re mentoring someone or need strategies for realizing your own impact, you will achieve greater awareness of what you offer and how to communicate it.

Highlights from this episode

[2:30] “Know what you stand for…what you care about and what you’re committed to. These values guide your decisions, your actions and your priorities. Have clarity around your vision.”
[3:30] “Knowing what we stand for keeps us in our lane, focused on what we care about rather than pursuing what others are striving for.”
[6:53] “Track your contributions. These are quote receipts of your good work. I do this daily in my journal to remind myself that I spent my time well, and so I can articulate the deliverables that I’m working on with clients.”
[8:51] “To go along with speaking your value is to practice embodying your value. Embodying your value means that you feel it at your core, and others also feel it and see it in your presence.”
A Guide to Owning your Value:
Clifton Strengths Assessment:
Tilt 365:
Episode 19: Trudy Bourgeois about workforce excellence: https://rise-leaders.com/achieving-workforce-excellence-trudy-bourgeois/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive.  Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

 

 

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How to Ride Out a Storm

How to Ride Out a Storm

How to Ride Out a Storm

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The phrase, ‘ride it out’ can be interpreted in different ways. Here are two:

     Hunker down until it passes – just get through it.

Experience it; be ‘with’ it. Like riding a wave through to the end.

Almost daily we are given a chance to respond to life’s storms. These storms come in the form of disappointments large and small; changes in our career and personal lives; economic downturns and little annoyances like traffic jams.   On the day I was caught on my bike in a downpour ten miles from home, I was determined to ride it like a wave.

The rain caught me off guard, although it shouldn’t have. It also delighted me. Change and learning, even in small doses, can be thrilling. Experts say that we are most alive when we are fully awake to change – when we allow ourselves to truly feel the shifts, bumps and voids rather than shut them down.

As soon as the rain began to fall, awareness of my environment was heightened to the point of being almost surreal. Through the sheets of rain the day somehow seemed brighter, the grass greener, and the sounds crisper. I was also conscious of how much more precarious this ride had just become.

Is this an experience that feels familiar to you? That during a disturbance in the predictable patterns of work and life you become more awake and alive? More aware of what’s at stake? Breakdowns occur in every field of work: healthcare, transportation, technology, finance, etc. These interruptions create a sort of wedge, an opening that allows for new levels of consciousness to arise. If we tune ourselves to notice and take advantage of these events they provide a rich ground for learning.

I knew from my years of somatic* training that keeping my body centered on my bike, my breath low in my body, and my muscles relaxed would help me stay balanced, fluid and more able to respond as I rode through the silt that had become slippery mud. I had to remind myself many times to relax my jaws, shoulders and hands, and to keep a slow and steady breath.

In this case I was alone – not with or leading others. Had I been in an environment where coordinating with others was necessary, my presence would have been even more important. We humans are hardwired to read and resonate with each other’s non-verbal cues. It’s important for our survival. When a leader is tense, rigid and reactive, this mood is spread to the team and can lead to fear and uncertainty. This state also robs us of critical resources in the form of blood and oxygen to our vital organs, leaving us unable to think clearly and take calm and confident action. When we are relaxed and alert the opposite is true and we inspire trust and confidence in those we work with.

I continued my ride, staying connected to the energy and sense of aliveness I felt. I enjoyed the adventure. It seemed that many fellow cyclists I crossed paths with were having a similar experience and we exchanged knowing smiles with each other – a sort of bonding moment. Other cyclists were hunkered down, getting through it, seemingly without a larger connection to the adventure. Their heads were down, jaws were set and brows were furrowed. Perhaps this was nothing more than an annoyance to them. There was no room for kinship with these riders.

Reflections:

Recall a recent challenge or breakdown. How did you, or how are you meeting it? Just getting through, hoping it will be over soon? Or are you meeting the challenge with enthusiasm and riding the wave to the end? Perhaps there’s a little of both!

When you are feeling challenged, what is your typical somatic response? (tighten jaws, hold breath, contract shoulders, etc.) How can you bring more awareness to this reaction and move quickly to a more resourceful state?

Try this practice: Several times a day, take a moment to center yourself. Very briefly this means that you move your breath to your low belly and encourage the relaxation of muscles throughout your body, from top to bottom. Let your weight drop into your chair or into your feet, at the same time gently lifting through your spine. Relaxed yet alert. Remind yourself of what is most important in the moment and in the bigger scheme of life. You’ll be much more capable of centering yourself during a storm if you’ve practiced in calmer waters.

Definition of somatic: the living body as experienced from within; body/mind integration

I am a Certified Somatic Coach through Strozzi Institute.  Check out their blog for quick lessons on centering and to get a peek at what they’re about:

https://theembodiedlife.wordpress.com/