Just to give you a little background, I am crazy passionate about getting women into power. And not just getting women into power, but getting women with consciousness into power. So what does that mean?
It means being ourselves, as leaders, with the intention of making the world a better place. It means we need to re-embrace the feminine.
If the argument is simply about gender, we’re doomed to inherit the status quo and we’re not going to see any change. All we will see is a further depletion of our energy. Have any of you experienced that – workin’ like a dude? It doesn’t feel very invigorating and actually can make us sick – turn us into perfectionists and leave us wondering why we’re not good enough.
Masculine energy, in the right place and in the right proportion, is fabulous. But for me, it became a total layer of reaction, of desperation. It wasn’t coming from a deep place inside of me. It was a crutch. I thought I had to wear that mask to succeed, to survive.
After eleven years of therapy and coaching, of un-stripping this and identifying it, I started learning to work from my feminine. First off, I didn’t even know what it was, since it’s so undervalued in today’s business atmosphere. Here’s an example: I was talking to a young woman in finance who said that in her world it’s unacceptable to evaluate a business opportunity with anything other than data and spreadsheets. Well, guess what? I know women who are investing based on intuition and brand connection, and they are cashing in big time.
The good news is, I think the times are changing. As the world gets more complex, there’s more need for feminine values like intuition, relationship, and compassion. The intangibles, the things that we’ve forgotten to value in this society, are what will save us.
I love the fact that collaboration and partnership have become so big. We’ve gone from a competitive, alienating system to one that understands the value of connection. Just look at crowd-funding, crowd-sourcing and the sharing economy. But now we need to take it a step further and base business on relationship and intimacy – actually sharing a present moment with people, really listening, being deeply empathetic, trusting others’ intuitions. Whoa!
You can’t have intimacy without vulnerability – it’s not up for discussion. @emergingW
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Women are naturally more vulnerable, and have been made to feel ashamed for this. But it’s incredibly strong and powerful to be vulnerable, to be willing to risk being our true selves, even if we don’t always have all of the answers. In fact, Brene Brown names it as the number one marker of courage.
So when we begin to lead with our feminine and authentic selves, we’re creating magic through intuition, intimacy, compassion, empathy. And the magic is what I’m talking about! Do we have to make it so hard and work sixty, eighty hours a week? Or can we start relying more on our relationships, trust, and connection. I can’t believe how much I can get done when I do that. When I’m tapping into this network of unbelievably powerful human beings, it’s faster, more powerful, and more grounded. And most importantly, it has so much more capacity for impact.
We’re in just the very beginning part of this movement, and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. Do you feel the momentum, too? I really believe that we can change the world by getting more and more conscious women into positions of power. I’d love to hear where you’re seeing this paradigm shift play out.
Chantal Pierrat is the founder and CEO of Emerging Women. Sign up for the FREE livestream to join the thousands of people tuned-in to the national Emerging Women Live conference, Oct. 9-12th from NYC.
Image courtesy of Emerging Women.
