Now today, before we get into it, the lab is where leadership is a moment to moment choice to create a better world for those we care deeply about. And it's here that we can redefine leadership as action and influence that everyone can embrace regardless of title, position, authority, any of that. So I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're here to join me as we explore, experiment, and evolve your potential because the world needs what you have to offer. So today, we're gonna talk about the power of showing up as yourself. Now, I wanna start off we're gonna get into some, philosophical content. And, and I want to talk about that just a minute because as I, and I do this, a lot of what I do is built on existentialism. And today, we're gonna talk about, ontology and phenomenology. Now, the concepts I don't care if you if you've heard of them before.

I don't care if you go out and look them up. Doesn't matter. Like, it those things don't matter. What matters are what they stand for, which is what we're gonna talk about. But I do wanna talk a little bit about philosophy, and why we get into some of these kind of deeper concepts. And the reason for me, personally, is because I think that, as a leader, we always have to dig into kinda weighty topics in order to stretch our thinking. Because if we become so conditioned to talking about, just everyday problems, like all the stuff that goes on in our business, all the stuff goes on our house, all which, by the way, is all very important. I'm not taking anything away from it.

I'm just saying that sometimes, if we want to be able to challenge other people to stretch their thinking, we have to stretch our thinking. And sometimes that means we have to we have to dig into some things that maybe don't have an answer. Maybe they don't have a direct tie in. We have to find the tie in to what what we're trying to solve. We have to pull some of these things in and consider other things. And I and there's a couple things, you know, there's a couple ways to think about the word philosophy. Obviously, you know, philosophers are lovers of wisdom, and and, you know, in the in the typical sense. But if you look about philosophy, it could be things like a systematic study of ideas and issues, a reasoned pursuit of fundamental truths, a quest for comprehensive understanding of the world.

So those are ways to define it, but I'm really more concerned with the goal of philosophy. And I and I found this and I thought I would share with you because I think this speaks to the reason that I dig into topics like this and why I recommend that other people do too. If the goal of it is to question assumptions about our lives and really dig into the details of why we think, what we think, and how we choose to act. Now as as someone who spends a lot of their time with leaders talking about the impact we have on others, what what what would be more core to us as a leader than to consider to to dig into the details of why we think what we think, and also how we choose to act. Because to me, that's the the very core of of leading, is understanding those things about ourself. Why do I think what I think? Not, what do I think? Why do I think it? And I that's the challenge because oftentimes, we don't stop to take that extra step. We just we well, this is what I think. And we run.

Now, I'm gonna tell you, 80% of the time, no problem. Like, go full speed, 100%. Right? But there's that 20% of

the time where we should stop and go, why do I think that? And then,

I love this phrase. How do we choose to act? Now, if you've listened, you know that I'm all about choice. We're always at the moment of choice. How do we choose to act? Not not how do we have to act? Not how does someone make us act? What did I how did I choose to show up right there? So today and we're gonna talk about this. We're gonna talk about these things about showing the power showing up as as yourself. And and I think that's really important when we talk about these concepts, and I wanted to kinda stop and go back and think about why even bother? Why not just talk about the the easy stuff? Well, I don't think life is about the easy stuff. I guess it's the answer to that. It can be.

It can be a lot. Not you don't have to shy away from it.

But I think we gotta lean into the hard stuff. I

think that's what serves us better, and I think that's what builds up our resilience to take on what's coming. Because, as Rocky said to his son, life ain't all sunshine and rainbows. Right? So we gotta be ready for that. We have to set the example, and we have to be resilient for others, if we're gonna create a better world for those we care about. So, here we go. Leadership as the journey of being. Now, all of this, funny enough, when I came up with the e three framework a couple years ago, I hadn't I hadn't gone down this road with existentialism and phenomenology and ontology. But now as I as I connect the 2, there's a a real blend here.

There's a real connection that they feed off of each other. Because true leadership is about being, not doing. It's not about what you do. It's who you it's who you show up to. It's who you are. Right? And so we're gonna talk a little bit. We're gonna cover a little bit of the ontological, and also the phenomenal, phenomenological. That's a phenomenological.

And say that 3 times quick. And how it connects to explore. I'm gonna do it in the framework of explore, experiment, evolve. Now, I will share with you. I met with a group of leaders earlier this week, and we were talking about that framework. And the way I pose it to people is it actually gives you freedom. And why I say that's because we have such tension around goals, and about what we what we need to accomplish. And when we sit at a meeting and we talk about the things we're going to do, the tactics, the strategies, the plans, the goals, whatever terminology you wanna use, we don't we we have this underlying assumption that when we write it down on paper, there's a 100% certainty or a requirement that it's gonna work.

You know, we make plans for 2025, 2026, 2027, and we think about, oh, I wanna achieve this. I wanna see that. I wanna do that. And and we don't give ourselves the grace to think about this in context of an experiment. We'll explore experiment evolve. Right? That's central to it. And experiments are different because we don't assume a 100% certainty that it's going to work, which by the way, is what provides us the freedom to learn. And so when we when we start using the right terminology, different terminology, when we start saying instead of saying, these are my plans for next year, if we said these are the experiments I'm gonna try next year, it would completely shift our focus.

It would completely shift our mindset. It would completely open us up to whatever happens as being an opportunity to learn, not as failure. Whereas, if we have these plans and goals and we don't achieve them, that quickly becomes failure. And that turns us into something we don't wanna be. That doesn't offer us the opportunity to put others in position. Like, if we're gonna create a better world for those we care about, that doesn't offer us the opportunity to do that. Experiments do, in my in my in my opinion. So why this matters? Well, by focusing on the essence of who we are and how we experience the world, leadership becomes a pathway to self discovery and impact.

And that's what and and so now we're gonna talk a little bit about the ontology of leadership and explore the the being, quote, unquote, of a leader. So ontology as it relates to leadership is the study of one's being. You know? And and it's really an emphasis on the fact that leadership is a journey of understanding oneself at a deeper level. Because if we're going to develop, which we're gonna talk about later, developing people, developing our own leadership capacity and that of other people, then we do that through our interaction with the world and what we are, not what we read. Because leadership doesn't work that way. It isn't something you can study outside of doing. And we'll talk about that a little more. Now, the explorer this this directly lines up to the explorer piece of the of the framework because that's the ontological work.

It's we look at it by examining who we are, our values, our motivations, our perspectives, and and it's a quest for clarity and self awareness. And it's it really becomes a search for the core beliefs that shape our sense of self. We wanna figure out both the what and the why. What am I thinking? What am I feeling? What do I believe, and why? So I'm gonna investigate. I'm gonna explore both of those things. And we're gonna talk about this as leadership as a state of being. It's actually, if you think about this, the best the best way to lead is when it becomes a natural self expression of yours of you. When it becomes your natural self expression is leading.

You're not thinking. Yogi Berra was famous. I love all of his quotes, but this one he had was you can't think and hit at the same time. And my argument is the same thing with you can't think and lead at the same time. You you practice a lot. Like, you you're experimenting all the time. And when you get into that that mindset that that experimentation is constant, then you're you're truly in the moment. Because what he meant by you can't think and hit at the same time is there are 2 sides.

You gotta shut something off. Because if I'm thinking, I can't do, and if I'm doing it, I shouldn't be thinking. And I'm sure all of you have experienced this in some way, shape, or form, and you can call it flow, you can call it whatever you want. But there's something you do maybe as a hobby or something you've done in your life. If you played sports, it could be anything. If you play a musical instrument, where you kind of lost sense of time. You weren't thinking anymore. That part of your brain had had shut off, and you were just being.

And that's the best leader you can be is when you reach that state of natural self expression, then you're there. And and my my argument is you can get there sooner than later. So now we're gonna talk a little bit about the the phenomenology in leadership and the art of being present and connected. Now phenomenology is the study of lived experiences and awareness. So phenomenology essentially is how you experience the world. It's phenomena. You know, that's what it that's where the root of it is. It's phenomena.

And so it's your experience in the world, which by the way is the only way to develop your own leadership skills, is your your own experience. Like, it can't be somebody else's experience, which is where most leadership development and training falls on its face. Because it's not something you can learn from the sidelines. You have to be in the game. You have to be in the

game to do it. There is no practice. Right? And we're

gonna talk about that. We're gonna we're gonna throw in a little Miles Miles Davis reference later as well. It'll be it's that's a tip of the hat to Eric Pennington because Eric and I were talking the other day. Eric's my coach. And, he brought that up, and then it kind of I had already developed that this outline already existed. And as I went back through and prepared today, I'm like, oh, wait a minute. I can throw in Miles Davis right here because I've already got a space for it. So Eric will love that.

So we'll touch on Miles a little later. But this means, like, phenomena, phenomenologically, we have to be present with others and ourselves. And we have to be attuned to what's unfolding in the moment because that's where we live. The only point of power is the present. The future and the past, there's no power in either one of those. The only point of power is the present. Now this is this is in line with we just talked about explore. Now we're gonna talk about experiment.

This is the this is the foundation of experimentation. Mean, because you as a leader, you're gonna have to actively engage in experiences to understand yourself in that experience and in relation to others. There's no way that you could practice having a difficult conversation with somebody. I mean, you certainly can, and you you certainly should walk through it in your head. But I got news for you. It ain't gonna go that way when you have it. Like, the only time you can have it is when you have it. So, again, it's an experiment.

If you've got in your head a couple things you're gonna try, those are experiments, and that's perfectly okay. You have absolutely no idea how it's gonna work, nor should you. And that's the that's the risk involved in leadership because most of the things we do as leaders are that. We're we're constantly experimenting with different behaviors to try to help create a better world for those we care deeply about. We don't know. None of us know the right way to do anything when it comes to that kind of stuff. And you're kidding yourself if you think you do. And it's horrible to put that put that weight on somebody else that, yeah, I'm I'm the leader.

I know exactly what to do. If you do, you got lucky, by the way. You guessed right. And there's nothing wrong with it. Just don't start believing your own press. That's what I would tell you. Right? So, then so you gotta practice being present. And and that's the phenomenological awareness of being present.

How am

I experiencing this moment? And that, by

the way, that enhances empathy, and it fosters deeper connection, which is the which is really the foundation of leading. Relationship is the foundation. Because as, I think it was Maxwell, John Maxwell, who said, I I don't care how much you know until I know how much you care. And the foundation for me, my opinion is the foundation for all leadership is trust. Like, I have to establish that trust. There has to be trust, and the trust has to be in the context of, I trust you have my best interest in mind. Because as a leader, you're gonna ask people to do a lot of stuff. You're gonna ask people to do things that are hard.

So they have to trust that you're doing it for their good as well as the organization's good. I have to have alignment of those two things. If I can connect those things, if I have 2 if I have 2 circles and I have an overlap and that's where my best interest and the company's best interest overlap, awesome. All day long. That's success. But as a leader, there has to be trust that you that you're envisioning that. Because if I think that you're only doing it for your best interest or the company's best interest and it's not serving me as a human, will I do it? Probably because you have authority over me. Am I gonna put my heart and soul into it? Probably not.

Now, I wanna gonna as I as I always do, I'm gonna make a little mark here because I'm diverging from this particular thing because there's something I want to include. And this just struck me as I was preparing, because sometimes when we talk about phenomenology, we talk about being. We're not talking about doing. Right? And sometimes the best thing leaders can do is not do and just be. So I wanna read something to you. It's from an unknown source, But I I think it's important because I wanna I wanna share it with you because sometimes this is what, as humans, we need from each other. Again, not a role, not a position, not at work, not you know, we're not talk we're talking about human beings with each other. I don't care what context.

So here it is. In our darkest moments, we don't need solutions or advice. We simply crave the warmth of human connection. A gentle touch, a silent presence. These are the anchors that ground us when life's storms rage. Don't try to fix me. Don't carry my burden or chase away my shadows. Instead, be the steady hand I can hold as I navigate my inner landscape.

Sit with me in the quiet, bearing witness to my struggle without trying to change it. My pain is my own to feel, my battle's my own to fight, but your presence reminds me I'm not alone in this vast, sometimes terrifying world. It whispers that I'm worthy of love, even in my brokenness. So when the night seems endless and I lose my way, will you simply be there? Not as a savior, but as a companion. Hold my hand until dawn breaks and I find my strength again. Your silent support is the greatest gift you can offer. It's the love that helps me remember who I am, even when I've forgotten. To me, that's leadership.

It's knowing when not to do. Because knowing when not to solve, not to fix, not to help, but just be. Be with other people while they figure it out. It's very hard. It's very, very hard because we always wanna do. You know, don't fix me. Don't carry my burden or chase away the shadows. That's not what people need.

People need to know you're there. You're there for them. You're there with them. You're there because of them. I was listening to a podcast recently, and, it was, Dan Harris. And they had a rabbi Sharon Braus on. She had written a book called The Amen Effect, and it was fascinating to me. She was talking about, the and I'm sure I'm gonna screw this up, but you'll get the point.

She said there's this practice when people walk into the temple, they turn, to the right and all of them and sometimes thousands of people are walking to the right. They're walking counterclockwise around in a circle. Right? Around the temple. And those are the people, if you walk to the right, you're there to comfort other people. Well, you can choose when you walk in to walk to the left. If you walk to the left, it's because you need to be comforted. So imagine thousands of people walking to the right and not thousands of people walking to the left. And the the when you're walking to the right, your duty is if you see somebody walking to the left, that you stop and be with them.

Not fix them, not do it, but be with them in their sorrow, in their anguish, in their grief. If you think about that as a as a metaphor for leading right? Because we're all imagine the choice. Imagine you walk in, and and this is where we have to be cognizant of our of of ourselves. Imagine you're walking in, and there's hundreds of people turning to the right and walking. Do you have the courage to turn left?

We don't do that enough as humans. We don't not enough of us will turn left when we should.

We should. And then the other part of this is if you did turn right and you see that other person, would you stop? Would you be with them? Not fix them, not help them, not not not chase away the shadows, not, you know, carry their burden for them, but would you just be with them? Would you just be present with them? Be there for them. So that was the diversion now and back. So now we're gonna talk about applying on to onto, ontology and phenomenology and leadership development. Again, we're talking about natural self expression. And I view develop our our effort to develop leaders is really about not about external goals or competencies. It's a journey into self discovery and expression. So we're not we're not trying to get somewhere.

We're not trying to achieve a goal. We're not trying to develop specific competencies. Oh, I wanna learn how to do this. I wanna learn that. Okay. It's awesome. I mean, you probably need to do that. But, really, what that what matters is it's a journey to self discovery and self expression.

Because my goal is is that I can do this as a natural self expression. My leadership is a natural self expression of who I am, not what I do. That's why it takes years years years to develop that. You're not doing it in 90 days. So this, again, we go back to experimenting. You got to experiment with different approaches because it allows us as leaders to see how we show up in different contexts. If if you have a challenge with somebody or you have a situation that you have to deal with, there's no 2 of them that are alike. There's always subtle differences.

And as a leader, we should always use our experiences, but what we should be doing is asking ourselves in situations where we see where we feel a similarity, not asking ourselves because our brains will do this. What's the same so I can slap a preexisting solution on it? We should always slow down and ask ourselves, what's different? In this situation, 80% of it's the same, but I gotta stop and think about what's different. What isn't the same here? Because that will be the danger. The danger is I'm gonna I'm gonna apply a preexisting solution to something that isn't the same. It's it it would be it would be wildly efficient, but it's not it's not effective. Right? So we have to slow down a little bit. We have to be in that moment with ourselves and with other people to notice what's different. And, really, this is the only way it works because it's how you develop insights based on your direct experience that that's it's basically phenomenological feedback.

In that moment with your your direct experience with that moment, What happened? It's unlike anybody else's. And that's why a natural self expression cannot be the same in all in different people. Because once you come up with this style, once you come up with this confidence, once you come up with these tools, how you're gonna do it, you no longer have to think about it. It's how you show up. It's how you are being in that moment. You might not have to say anything because you're present. And then it's really kind of interesting. I never thought about this before, but this is where evolution and where we evolve, and it's the it's the natural progression of both the ontological and phenomenological growth.

I never really thought about that in the framework before, and it and this is it just struck me as a big that once we explore an experiment, we evolve as a result. We it isn't it isn't something we really have to focus on doing. It isn't act it isn't as I think about this, it may not be an actual separate step because we don't wanna think about, like, I have to consciously evolve. As we experiment and incorporate those things in, it's it's a subtle evolution. There's there's not a transformation here. We're not looking for, 180. You know, we're not looking for something, this huge transformational experience. We're looking for subtle changes over time until I'm completely unrecognizable to the person I was 20 years ago.

I'm not even the same person inside. I don't show up as the same person. And that only comes through introspection of your experience. And John Dewey said, we don't learn from our experiences, we learn from reflecting on our experiences. So we have to build that in. We have to build in the introspection, the reflection of what we've experienced. That's how we grow phenomenologically. And and, basically, that feedback is the mirror for our growth.

It's we need that feedback, and it's essential in the evolution phase because it allows us to see our impact more clearly on other people, which by the way is how we determine if our leadership's effective. It's it isn't it isn't, I'm a great leader. I do all these things. It's a reflection of what other people did. Did everybody else achieve and grow, and and did that happen on my watch? Not, look at me. I did all this stuff for them. I don't know what's wrong with them. If they'd only listen to me.

If they'd only do what I tell them. There's this great phrase that, if nobody's following, nobody's leading. Because oftentimes, I've heard leaders, oh, well, they won't do what I tell them. That's your problem, not theirs. And it so this final it's really interesting because you this evolution, this new self knowledge, it comes out of exploring and experimenting. It's a manifestation in actions and influencing other people. So we're constantly evolving. Now there is the this kind of transformational power, not growth, but transformational power if we lead from being.

Because once we understand this, we we have to explore the explore phase also roots us in our values and allows us to express leadership consistently and authentically. But we have to go back to the beginning. What and why? Not only I I not only have to understand what I'm doing and what I think, but I have to understand why. Because that's that's the root. Right? That that'll that'll that'll that'll enable me to predict when things could go off track. But I have to become very in tune with who I am and why I am. And if we experiment with presence and deep listening, it's gonna amplify our awareness of other people, which also enhances empathy and nurtures trust. Back to the original trust is the center of it.

Right? So only through that deep listening and the presence, am I gonna am I have a chance to enhance the empathy and nurturing that trust. If I'm in that moment, if I'm with them, if I'm sitting with them, and if I'm not trying to fix them or carry their burden or chase away their shadows, I'm simply there as a source of power for them. And that all of this, all of these phases deepen our connection with ourself and other people, and it leads to a greater sense of personal fulfillment and team cohesion. But I can't I can't profess to know other people if I don't know myself because it's the same set of tools. The only way I can do what that, we wanna call it a poem, said, the only way that I can do that is if I'm at peace with myself, if I know me, and I can have the confidence to show up and shut up, and I can just be with somebody else.

Now now we're gonna get the Miles. Eric, listen up. Alright. So we're getting

to Miles Davis. So we're gonna talk about these kind of some ontological and phenomenological tools. And, you know, explore experiment evolve, we we got all that. But what this means is testing approaches in real time. Like, you have to try new communication styles, emotional responses, and all of these things in alignment with your authentic self. So now I know my values. I understand all of that about myself. Now I have context for how I'm gonna do these things because it's, again, natural self expression.

I have to be able to do this in off on a in inauthentic way. Because if I'm doing it in authentically, it's obvious to everybody else. Doesn't work. That's why you can't that's why you can't read a book. You can't go to a class. You can't go to a 2 day seminar and learn any of this. Now, you can do you can use all of those tools to learn concepts and principles and explore, as long as you're as long as you're using it appropriately. I don't say don't do any of those things.

I just say understand what they're there for. They're a tool for the explore stage. Because in order to in order to gain insight, I have to explore these concepts. So, you know, any class you go to, any seminar you go to, any podcast you listen to, any book that you read, any interaction with anybody else, you can purposely explore concepts, and you should do that. Just don't mistake it for causing any evolution. You can't skip the experiment step. You can't read a book and be different. You can read a book and pull out some things you want to experiment that could lead to you evolving, but there has to be action in the middle of that.

And in reading a book, there's no action. It's thinking. You can't think your way into a new way of acting. You have to act your way into a new way of thinking. We've we've talked about this before. So it's not that it isn't valuable. It's just you can't you can't can't step this you can't skip the step. Now, there's a story about Miles Davis.

And I'm not gonna tell you the whole thing. In fact, this might be a whole episode in and of itself at some point in the future. But, essentially, here's the story. The story is back he was with his band back in the sixties, and one night, the sax player showed out, showed up, trotted out on stage, and played these these new, like, solo licks and used them during the performance. They were perfect and flawless. And Miles Davis was furious. And he said this is the quote that that that I want to share with you. Now whether he said or not, we don't know.

Supposedly, he said it. He said, I pay you to practice on the bandstand. Now what did he mean by that? Because most people think, well, great. The guy came out. He'd already practiced. It sounded great. He Miles Davis didn't want that. Miles Davis wanted the practice to happen live because that's what jazz is.

And that's why leading is much more like jazz than an orchestra. You're not don't envision yourself as a conductor up there with a finely tuned group of people, and you're conducting them and playing perfect music. Because you've all seen that in a movie or something, the conductor is conducting and then has a nervous breakdown because somebody at the second chair of the violin didn't play some note right, and it's gotta be perfect when we perform. That's not the real world. It's the and it's especially not the real world when it comes to leading. It's jazz, baby. Like, you're getting up there, and you're making it up as you go along. And, again, I'm not gonna go into the whole thing, but you it's risk.

Right? You've got to take risks. Experimentation leads to failure most of the time. It's awesome. You know, Thomas Edison said or he's credited with saying, I never failed. I just found 9,999 ways not

to make a light bulb. Well,

we can find 9,999 ways not to lead, because it'll it'll get us to the one that works. Seth Godin. I I know I love Seth Godin. He's he's he's awesome. He said, he he writes a lot of books. And he said, I've written a lot of bad books. He goes, but I wrote all those bad books because it enables me to write a good book. Do we need Seth Godin's pretty successful.

Maybe we should listen. Everything isn't gonna be right the first time you try it. In fact, the majority of stuff you're gonna do is not gonna work the way you want it to. That's okay because news flash, nobody noticed. That's the other fun thing about this. Nobody noticed except you. And you can become so obsessed with it that it didn't work exactly right that you just freeze. And if you keep going, nobody notices.

Nobody cared. That's the awesome part of this. You don't have to be perfect.

You just have to show up. That's

79.4% of the battle. So you gotta you have to do this in real time. You have to do it on the court, not from the sidelines. You can't be up in the you can't be up in the stands trying new stuff. Doesn't work. You gotta be out on the court. You gotta be willing to look stupid. It's not it ain't gonna kill you.

Believe me. I've looked stupid most of my life. I show up and try shit. A lot of it don't work. It's okay.

I don't know who I think it might have been Churchill who said, leaders are people who can go from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. And that's it. But it's not failing. It's learning. Nobody expects perfection. And the more you expect it, the less you try, the less you try,

the less you evolve. Because if

you find the right quote unquote way to do something and that's all you ever do, boy are you cheating yourself and those around you. You're certainly not creating a better world for those you

care about. Because life does not stand still.

You have to continually if you're gonna evolve, you have to integrate what you've learned about yourself and other people. So that it can can continue to become your natural self expression, an evolving natural self expression. If you're not ashamed of who you were 12 months ago, you're not paying close enough attention. And I would tell you the most powerful tool to do this is journaling. You may not like it. You hear about it all the time. I know people get tired of hearing about it, but it works. If it's not written down, it doesn't count.

Just remember that, and that goes for anything at work, at home, whatever. If you didn't take the time to write it down, it doesn't it isn't real. The minute you write it down, it becomes something you can do something about. You can't do something with your thoughts. You can do something with something you write down. You can look at it because it becomes real at that point. It becomes something you can act on, something you can it's Charlie Mingus, another Eric, here's another, jazz reference for you. Charlie Mingus said, you can't improvise on nothing.

And so understand that once you start writing stuff down, you it helps you make sense of your own thoughts. Because I'm telling you right now, just thinking about stuff, you are not clear. Once you start writing it down, you will see how jumbled and a mess your thoughts are. But after you start writing them down, you can make sense of them. You can actually take action. You can you can create and record experiments. You can you can track down what you're doing for your evolution. You can write down and say, these are the things I wanna explore.

But you have to write them down in some way, shape, or form. Now, if you wanna type, type, wouldn't recommend it. I don't think it's as it's not as great as actually writing with something. I'm sitting here on a highlighter. It's not not the same. You can do it. I mean, it's better than nothing, but it isn't the same. So here's what I'll ask you.

I'm gonna ask you I'm gonna give you some prompts, some daily prompts for exploration, because we have to we have to increase our awareness in this. Right? So prompts like, maybe ask yourself, what value surface today? How did I feel in alignment with my true self today? I mean, just think about that question. How did I feel in alignment with my true self? Well, first of all, you have to know who your true self is. So that takes a little bit of work. It takes a lot of work. Matter of fact, I spent the better part of last 10 years trying to figure it the fuck out. Still, I'm not there. Every time I think I'm close, then it changes.

Yeah. But that's my own issue. So, anyway, you have to you have to ask yourself some questions. How do I feel in alignment with my true self? Now once you ask yourself that question, you start recording writing down the responses, you get some very interesting thoughts captured on paper. And it's gonna tell you where you can explore other things, so it's guided exploration. Then, you can start experimenting with new approaches. If you weren't aligned with your true self, then how do you get aligned? So you try different approaches in routine interactions and observing how these things line up with your values and how they affect other people. Again, I always recommend start small.

Don't go out to some huge presentation with a new client and test something. I mean, you can if you want to if you're really if you're if you're, you know, if you like risk and it's fun, go ahead and do it. But I would recommend start small. Start with small things that are that are lower risk until you build up that we'll just call it that muscle. But think about how you can do that every day. Think about take take 15 minutes and ask yourself, how did I feel in alignment with my true self? And then, what do based on that, what do I wanna explore? And then, what experiments do I want to do? It it half page of paper, bullet points. 2 to 5 minutes a day. That's all it is.

Not an hour. Not half day. Not a weekend retreat. Couple minutes. So, remember that effective leading effectively is rooted in a in a natural self expression. It has to be a natural self expression. That's what we're working towards. And and how the the explore experiment of all framework really mirrors the ontological and phenomenological insights, and it helps leaders understand ourselves and connects with other people deeply.

It does both of those things. Because if I learn how to connect with myself and I know myself, I can then help I can then do that with other people. I can have the willingness and the tools to connect with them deeply if I've connected with myself deeply, if I know what that feels like. So I would encourage you to start reflecting on your values, testing new approaches, embracing changes, you evolve your leadership style. This thing is ever evolving. It's never gonna be the same, it's never gonna be finished, it's never gonna be done. That's the freedom of it because we don't know where it's gonna end up. I'll leave you with this.

True leadership flows from knowing yourself and having the courage to express that self. To lead authentically, you must first be authentically. Begin there, and others will be drawn to follow you. So that's it for today's exploration. Now it's up to you to experiment, explore, and evolve. And then recognize those moments when leadership is needed. You already have the tools and the potential, so the only question remains, will you act? If today's session or any piece of it resonated, subscribe, rate, and and please share to build a community that amplifies your impact. And until next time, remember, leadership is a verb.

Go do it.