26 issues of ps and I hit a wall. What brilliance would I produce for you this month about leading or relating? With my coach’s guidance, I realized I have been working with assumptions that were not only slowing me down but stopping me in my tracks. Here they are:

• I always need to bring you wisdom from “out there”
• If someone else has published it, it is legitimate
• I don’t really have personal insight to share
• If I speak from an open-hearted place, I will lose all my subscribers

And I realized, (ok this was really my coach’s idea –“Thank you Susan!”) that this very dilemma maybe your dilemma too.

A lot of us are in the business of making this world better for others or advancing a particular cause or serving a particular need. So, we know that there are ‘experts’ in our field who we would be wise to learn from. Right? Yes, and sometimes that has meant that we devalue our own experience and what we know in our gut. How often do you make other people’s ideas and beliefs more important than your own?

This is not a new problem. How many of you remember your teacher praising you because you asked a question that someone older and wiser than you had already anticipated? Much more rare (for me, anyway) was the praise that came from asking a question no one had thought to ask (and which probably the teacher had no idea how to answer). How often do you sit in a meeting today and feel like you have to justify your suggestions with evidence from other more successful leaders? How often do you hesitate even volunteering your idea and let other supposedly wiser or more experienced people hold forth?

The world needs our voices! The authentic ones, the ones that come from being fully engaged-heart and soul. The ones that are informed by our own experiences and by what we intuitively know. And I am going to tell you what my coach helped me realize:

You have gifts and understanding to share. We all do! Even the person who pushes our buttons (oh that was last month’s newsletter!)

If you have been paying attention to my newsletters- (it’s ok, I have deleted subscriptions when I am too busy too!) you know that mostly what I do is tell you about how some awesome new book has incredible knowledge for us to apply to our organizations or relationships. And I am going to continue to do that, when that is what feels right. (On deck now: Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst & The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters)

AND,
I am also going to dig deeper to find the voice that feels more personal, more connected to my own wisdom. I will surprise you with the voices of some of my incredibly wise clients who have their own wisdom to share with you. Okay now, shhh! Let’s start listening to our own voices…