My Intention for 2023: Soft Power

It’s time to lead with love, like really lead with love. But what does that really mean? My coach colleague, Nancy Duncan and I used to talk about the many facets of this phrase. On the surface it seems pretty simple.

Then this past year my coach colleague, Sherie Hodds and I were talking and she recommended this book to me: Us by Terrence Real. 

For me, It filled in the deeper, how, of how to speak up and never let things slide because it’s all coming from love. It’s coming from the vision of the fact that we are so important and my/our intention is to make ‘us’ stronger by talking about whatever it is that one of us needs to talk about.

My us is: My relationship with my daughter, my partner, my family, my colleagues, my clients, my community, my friends, my fellow humans on this planet with. me….. and i’m finding 13 days in, its not easy!

It’s 180 degrees different than how it FEELS sometimes. Leading, speaking from Soft Power is about first finding the US in our hearts then speaking. So when anger, frustration arise, they are just are indicators (for me) that it’s time for me to lean into Soft Power and find the US before opening my mouth. Because as Terry Real says, ‘there’s no benefit that comes from harsh.’ And is there benefit from keeping anything in? Sometimes I think think there is. This year, i’m looking for the balance and clarity between speaking up and not.

It is not black and white, it is sometimes about my mood. My energy. My desire. My sense of connection. It is about my relationship with. myself first -what is my truth? What am I making more difficult, what am I sweeping under the rug?

What I know is ‘they’ can hear what I have to say if it’s delivered with love….with grace, with the intent to connect. 

It seems to me, that leadership is evolving but this, Soft Power is what is needed by both men and women when it comes to leading and leading well. People that know me say to me, ‘Lorin, you already do that well..’ Thank you and the truth is, I don’t. There is SO much more to say that I often dont bring up because its easier not to ruffle feathers. But in leadership, at home and at work, we must speak up for the sake of US.

So this year, 2023, my intention is Soft Power. Be it. Lead with it. At home and at work!

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