Episode 2: Meet the Four Empowered Archetypes

What if the way you lead already makes sense — you’ve just never had the language for it?

In this episode of The Archetype Effect, Ros Cardinal introduces the four empowered leadership archetypes that shape how women lead, decide, connect, and cope under pressure. This is not about labels or personality types, but deep recognition — the kind that replaces self-judgement with understanding.

As you listen, you may find yourself recognising patterns you’ve lived for years, but never been able to name. That recognition is the beginning of choice.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why archetypes resonate so deeply with women’s leadership experiences
• The Sovereign and her relationship with authority, vision, and permission
• The Warrior and the hidden cost of strength and endurance
• The Wise Woman and the tension between insight and invisibility
• The Tribe Builder and the fine line between connection and self-erasure
• Why integration — not balance or perfection — is the real goal

Reflection prompts:

Take a moment after listening to reflect on these questions:

• Which archetype felt most familiar or comforting?
• Which one felt uncomfortable or surprising?
• Which archetype do you think has been most rewarded in your life or career?
• Which one may have learned to stay quiet or work overtime?

There’s nothing to fix here. Curiosity is enough.

🎧 Next episode: The Shadows That Shape Us — exploring what happens when these archetypes are under pressure, and how our coping patterns are shaped by safety, stress, and the nervous system.

Stay connected:

Follow The Archetype Effect for new episodes and reflections on feminine leadership, power, and presence.

• Instagram: @archetypeeffectpodcast
• Website: https://www.womensleaderarchetypes.com.au/

[00:00:23] Before we begin today, I want to invite you to slow down a little, not because anything we're about to talk about is difficult or heavy, but because this episode isn't meant to be rushed, it isn't designed to be consumed like content. It's designed to be lived alongside you in whatever you're doing right now.

[00:01:06] Why so many capable, thoughtful, experienced women feel like they're performing leadership rather than inhabiting it. Why success can look impressive on the outside and still feel quietly exhausting on the inside. Today I want to give you language, not labels, not diagnoses, not another framework that tells you who you are or who you should become, but language that's going to create recognition.

[00:01:55] Archetypes aren't personality types. They're not fixed identities, and they're not boxes you put yourself into. They're recurring patterns of motivation, energy, and leadership expression, and they show up across cultures, history and lived experience. They're not about who you are. They're about how energy moves through you.

[00:02:38] You don't need to figure yourself out. You don't need to decide which archetype you are. You don't need to get anything right. Instead, listen with curiosity. Notice what makes you take a breath. Notice what brings a subtle sense of relief, and notice what stirs emotion before thought, because that's usually where the truth lives.

[00:03:27] Because leadership isn't just what you do in the world. Leadership is what it costs you to do it, and many women have been paying a cost that hasn't been named properly. So let's begin naming it. Over the years in my coaching work, I noticed something long before I ever had language for it. When women talk about leadership challenges, they rarely start with skills.

[00:04:11] I can see what needs to happen, but I can't seem to land it. I'm tired of being the strong one. I don't know how to lead in this system without losing myself. These aren't skill gaps, they're pattern experiences. They're what happens when a woman's natural leadership energy meets an environment that doesn't quite recognise it, doesn't fully value it, or subtly asks her to translate it into something that's more acceptable.

[00:05:00] What feels like safety? What feels like threat? What feels like belonging and what feels like exile? Archetypes matter because they don't ask women to justify their experience intellectually. You don't have to prove an archetype, you don't have to explain it. You recognise it, and recognising creates relief.

[00:05:43] They stop saying, I'm too much, and start saying, that's my warrior under pressure. They stop saying, I'm not confident enough, and start saying, my sovereign doesn't feel safe to step forward here. They stop saying, I overthink everything and start saying my wise woman is trying to protect me by slowing things down.

[00:06:38] Or, I've never had words for this before. That response matters. It tells us we're not dealing with theory here. We're dealing with lived experience that's been waiting for language. And I want to normalize something else that also often comes up at this point. As you listen today, you might recognise yourself strongly in one archetype and then feel unsettled by another.

[00:07:23] It just means you're listening honestly. This is not an episode to rush. It's not one to tick off, it's one to let unfold alongside you, and we'll take it slowly. So let's meet the first archetype. The one that sits at the centre of authority, vision, and self-trust. The sovereign. The sovereign is the archetype of our inner authority.

[00:08:06] They notice gaps between what is and what could be. They sense misalignment long before it becomes obvious. They're often the ones saying, there's a bigger picture here. This doesn't align with what we say we value. If we keep going this way, here's where we'll end up. And yet many sovereign women don't recognise themselves as such.

[00:08:46] Assertiveness gets reframed as aggression. Certainty becomes arrogance. Vision becomes idealism. Boundaries become selfishness. So the sovereign adapts. She softens her language. She turns statements into questions. She waits for consensus before trusting what she already knows. Not because she lacks confidence, but because she's learned that authority has consequences.

[00:09:30] I've coached sovereign women who are running entire divisions, holding enormous responsibility and still hesitating to name their own authority out loud. They'd say things like, I don't want to come across as arrogant. I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I'm not the expert here. And I would listen and gently think, you are already leading.

[00:10:10] She stops offering her ideas. She pulls back from visibility, and she tells herself she'll speak later. When she's more prepared, more supported, more certain. If you've ever delayed stepping into your authority, not because you weren't ready, but because the environment didn't feel safe, your sovereign may simply be waiting, waiting for the conditions that allow her to reign.

[00:10:53] Often. It's about staying present. Staying present with your own authority when your instinct is to retreat. Staying present with your voice when the room goes quiet, staying present with your vision when others can't see it. That kind of presence is powerful. And it's something many women are still learning to allow themselves.

[00:11:42] Before we move on, I want you to pause for a moment with the sovereign, because for many women, she's both deeply familiar and deeply complicated. You may have recognised her in your vision, your ideas, your sense of direction, and also in the way you've learned to soften those things, to wait, to hold back.

[00:12:27] So if you've ever found yourself doing, instead of directing, carrying, instead of leading, pushing, instead of trusting, it may not be because you lack vision. It may be because your warrior has been stepping in to protect what your sovereign hasn't felt safe to hold openly. With that in mind, let's talk about the warrior. The one most women know well, the one that gets rewarded, the one that keeps things moving, the one that steps in when something needs to be handled.

[00:13:18] quickly. In coaching conversations, warriors often say things like, if I don't do it, it won't get done. I can handle it. I just need to push through. And for a long time that works. The warrior knows how to mobilize energy. She knows how to take responsibility. She knows how to move things forward even when it's uncomfortable.

[00:13:43] Many of them learned early that strength meant self containment, that vulnerability wasn't safe, that being capable meant not needing help. So the warrior becomes identified with endurance. She carries more than her share. She keeps going, even when she's tired, she pushes through the signals her body is sending her to slow down.

[00:14:27] I've coached many warrior women who didn't recognise how exhausted they were until their bodies forced the issue. Burnout for Warriors is often not about workload. It's about carrying alone. If you've ever felt resentment creeping in behind your competence, or notice yourself becoming rigid when you're exhausted, your warrior may be doing too much without support.

[00:15:13] Now, let's move to a very different energy. One that's quieter, slower, often misunderstood. The wise woman.

[00:15:28] . Her power doesn't come from position. It comes from what she knows and how she uses it. The wise woman is a lifelong learner. She gathers information, experience, and perspectives over time. She reads widely . She observes carefully and she notices patterns that others haven't yet connected.

[00:16:08] This is how her influence grows, not through authority, not through force, but through credibility, depth and meaning making. In leadership and coaching context, wise women often say things like, I love helping people connect the dots. I want others to be successful, not dependent on me. I'm at My best when I'm developing others.

[00:16:57] This is where the shadow of the lone wolf emerges. In the lone wolf, knowledge stops flowing outwards and starts folding inward. Information becomes control. Insight becomes leverage. Delegation decreases not out of ego, but out of fear that others won't see the full picture. The wise woman begins to hold onto what she knows.

[00:17:41] Outwardly, she can look self-contained and capable. Internally she often feels alone. Because the wise woman's deepest fear is not invisibility. It's irrelevance. If you've ever noticed yourself holding back information because others might misuse it, feeling reluctant to delegate because the nuance matters.

[00:18:30] fully, freely without bracing, the system around her becomes wiser too.

[00:18:47] She feels leadership through people. She notices emotional shifts. She senses who feels included and who doesn't. In coaching conversation Tribe Builders will say, I just want everyone to be okay. I can see both sides. I don't want to create any tension. They're often the emotional glue in teams, the ones that people confide in, the ones who sense morale long before it shows up in surveys.

[00:19:35] She builds environments where people feel safe enough to contribute, but under pressure, she becomes the martyr. She puts herself last. She absorbs everyone's emotions. She feels guilty for needing space. If you've ever felt responsible for how others feel or noticed yourself saying yes, when your body is saying no, your tribe builder may be doing too much alone.

[00:20:17] Leadership strength doesn't come from doubling down on your dominant pattern. It comes from integration. Different moments call different archetypes, forward. Different environments reward different energies. Stress reshuffles the balance.

[00:20:55] As we bring all of this together, I want to slow us down one last time because integration doesn't happen in the head, it happens in the body. You might notice that one archetype feels energizing. Another feels heavy. Another feels strangely uncomfortable. That information matters. Often imbalance doesn't show up as dramatic breakdown.

[00:21:40] Many women have learned to survive by overusing one archetype. The warrior who never rests. The tribe builder, who never takes up space. The wise woman who never shares . The sovereign, who never fully claims authority. Integration isn't about becoming balanced overnight. It's about widening your range. It's about having access to more of yourself more often with more choice.

[00:22:24] You begin to lead from wholeness rather than survival. This is the archetype effect. I'm Ros Cardinal, and you are just beginning to meet yourself.