When you untangle the root of what distracts and derails you, you will also step into your natural capacity to lead. 

You have always been a leader—and this will be no exception. 

In fact, you are being asked to untangle the root of what’s distracting and derailing you because you are a leader.  

It is calling you into deeper leadership—and leadership of a different kind. 

Leadership that integrates the sacred and the strategic—and moves seamlessly between the energetic and the practical—to create a holistic model of work in your profession.  

And that emerges from the truth of your lived wisdom—and your trust in it.

It will not be wrought of your intelligence, education and professional experience alone—but will be rooted in your sense of belonging to the fabric of the Universe. 

(It sounds abstract, but it is very real—and very practical.)

You will become a living, breathing expression of your work. 

And you will lead others in and through the work of reintegrating the parts of themselves and their work they have cast aside, devalued or eschewed—by example or otherwise.

In a way that you cannot yet be—and you cannot yet do—before you untangle the root of what’s distracting and derailing you. 

Often the biggest fear I hear from professional women is that the deeper, transformational aspects of your work will not be valued and respected.

That it will mask your skill and experience in your work’s concrete and strategic aspects.

And that you will no longer be professionally respected. 

I have found—and my clients have found—that far from that, the integration of those deeper aspects is embraced by clients and colleagues with gratitude and relief. 

Like Anne 

My client, Anne, is leading how architects can successfully practice differently—intimately, personally, warmly.

She had felt professionally self-conscious (and self-critical) about designing intimate spaces—rather than the larger scale, public projects that are historically praised by her profession for skill, originality and prestige. 

But when she told herself the truth, she loved designing intimate spaces—spaces that were designed to be lived in. And she loved that her clients loved these spaces—that they relished them and that they were deeply grateful. 

When I asked her if she knew any other architects who made their clients feel seen, heard and held all the way through the design process, she said: 

“No, no one. It’s not part of our professional culture or awareness. It’s almost the opposite. A client hires an architect to do their thing—and then is expected to get out of the way. To have the honor of having a space designed.” 

(Her leadership was so clear, and it was so natural to her—and so discarded by the profession at large with its emphasis on large-scale projects, that she too questioned and undervalued it.) 

I reflected this back to her: “That is what your clients are paying you for—to feel seen, heard and held all the way through the process and to experience that reflected in their space. That is your value propositionand your market differentiator. If you love it, do it—and turn it client facing. It’s brilliant. It’s natural. It’s what your clients want, and it’s what your profession needs.” 

She leaned into this, and she leaned into her intuition and flow in her creative process and her trust in her mastery of her craft—and things shifted. 

She no longer felt the need to take clients who were not ideal fits—who did not want to utilize and trust her gift for designing intimate spaces that made them feel seen and heard and reflected back. 

She trusted the way she designed in sync with her flow of creativity (her work came adeptly and effortlessly in a swift, focused current, when it was ready)—and she stopped forcing it into a predetermined schedule of productivity and criticizing herself for procrastinating—which meant that she no longer overworked and she had fun again!

She made changes to her team. She stepped away—and they stepped in to take on additional responsibility and initiative. She stopped feeling like her team worked for her—and began to feel truly supported (and no longer like it was all on her). 

She (finally) had spaciousness, work that she loved—with clients she loved working with—and cash flow. 

And (she found out) she had professional respect for it.

One of her colleagues, who was approaching retirement, sought her out for a potential collaboration or partnership, because he valued and respected her ethic of intimacy and care in serving her clients—and how she structured and operated her practice to support that. He wanted what she’d achieved for his own practice—but more so, he wanted it for his clients. 

You might feel like your leadership is hidden—or that you’re not a leaderat all. 

You’re just done going around and around in that same maddening cycle—rather than moving forward with the work you really want to do.

You might discount how you lead—because it’s natural to you—and it’s not what has been traditionally emphasized or praised in your profession.

But you know that you want to contribute something through your body of work. 

That is enough. 

Lean into your desire to contribute.

And your devotion to it and your own wholeness—with fierce gentleness and compassion.

There’s a space for you to work together 1:1 to step into your natural capacity to lead doing the work you know you are here to do.