¶ Welcome to Evoke Greatness Year Three
Welcome to Evoke Greatness . We are officially entering year three of this podcast and I am filled with so much gratitude for each and every one of you who've joined me on this incredible journey of growth and self-discovery . I'm Sunny , your host and fellow traveler on this path of personal evolution .
This podcast is a sanctuary for the curious , the ambitious and the introspective . It's for those of you who , like me , are captivated by the champion mindset and driven by an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge .
Whether you're just beginning your journey or you're well along your path , you're going to find stories here that resonate with your experiences and aspirations . Over the last two years , we've shared countless stories of triumph and challenge , of resilience and transformation . We've laughed , we've reflected and we've grown together .
And as we've evolved , so too has this podcast . Remember , no matter what chapter you're on in your own story , you belong here . This community we've built together is a place of support , inspiration and shared growth . Where intention goes , energy flows , and the energy you bring to this space elevates us all .
So , whether you're listening while commuting , working out or enjoying your morning coffee , perhaps from one of those motivational mugs I'm so fond of , know that you're a part of something special . Thank you for being here . Thank you for your curiosity , your openness and your commitment to personal growth .
As we embark on year three , I invite you to lean in , to listen deeply and to let these stories resonate with your soul . I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to evoke greatness .
¶ Smart Power and Authentic Leadership Part Two
Welcome back to part two of Smart Power and Authentic Leadership with my guest , dr Sylvia Rode-Lebanow .
If you haven't yet listened to part one , you go back to last week's episode and take a listen , where we dive deep into redefining power beyond force and control , the three pillars of smart power , why showing emotions at work makes leaders more effective , not less , and the concept of grounded leadership during volatile times .
I think you're going to enjoy part two , so let's go ahead and hop into it . You also talk about the connection between leadership effectiveness and you know , as we talked about , like being fully connected . Are there any other practices that you could recommend for leaders who want to strengthen their sense of internal alignment ?
You know and maybe that is just pausing a little bit in the day , maybe it's pausing as you're hearing this podcast and hearing as we have this conversation , but what are some ways that people can tap into that interconnectedness and maybe it's maybe they're not used to it .
Into that interconnectedness , um , and maybe it's , maybe they they're not used to it , and so it feels really uncomfortable . How could you guide someone who's like your baby steps into that ?
so there is um
¶ Embodiment Practices for Internal Alignment
, a physical , and an exercise can for instance be which comes from embodiment to um , to simply feel into our body that you can stand or sit . It's called actually ABC , centering attention like awareness , like breathing , feel the whole body , just to become , to get into the body , so to have a full awareness where I am with the body , like standing , feeling .
And then the B is balance like to just sitting or standing , just to see , like where's my center point , and so maybe like a thing that balances off , that come to stillness . And then the C is core relaxation .
Like the core is , like these centers in the center of the body , like the , the points in the center of the body that can be tense , like the , like frowning frontier , um , the throat and the , the diaphragm and maybe also the belly , like just to to check that out , to see like where do I have tension and when .
When I've done that , like awareness , balance and core relaxation , I will definitely be more in my body , because the awareness puts me in the body . The balance is like , oh , where , where am I actually ? And then the relaxation when I relax I can be even more present , because where I'm tense I'm not really present .
There is something else that holds me when I relax , that it's like breathing in , just letting the air fill the space . So that's a beautiful one .
Yeah , and those are things that people can really just start with and start getting comfortable with . And you don't have to do it in a big group . You do it in your office when you close the door and really just get re-centered for your day , or re-centered before your meeting or before a hard conversation .
I think those are the times when we're really intentional and we're setting the intentions of the next interaction we're going into . It really helps us navigate to the best of our ability .
And then , if you like , the intention for the next conversation . You just named it . Another practice that I use for myself and that I also give my clients is to think about why . What's the purpose here ? So there's the big purpose of our lives , but there's also the purpose of why do I go to this meeting ?
It's not only because I was told to go there or because I get some money there , but what is actually my purpose then ? So do I want to influence ? Do I want to obtain information ? Is it mainly to create connections ? Now ? So what is my intention here ?
And to align with that intention again , I will show up much differently than just to okay , I go and then I'll see what happens moving back to those leaders that that operate in a way where they're more power hungry again , like me , you know
¶ The Fallacy of Intimidation Leadership
they're .
They're not really tuned in or tapped into like that that right way , but they're . They're those more power hungry's .
What I've seen , it's more like I want to have the power and the control and then I'll be able to do these things . So they miss sometimes that , um , they can't control everything anyways . So they think if I control , then I have the maximum power , whereas we can't control people and outcomes .
Ultimately , we can influence them greatly , but we have more influence if we don't only rely on the control and force leverages . That's one thing , and another thing that I've observed is that some of these people believe that forcing and intimidating is actually a powerful and effective way of getting things done .
So I actually had a conversation , one with a leader and it's very exemplary of this kind of leadership approach where he was known in the organization to be quite a bully , and I had this conversation with him , asking him listen , basically I said what's your approach ? What is your thinking ? What's your approach ? What ? What is your thinking ? What's your strategy ?
And he said like , yeah , uh , I mean , sometimes you really have to um , or I ? I know that I'm actually intimidating them . I want them to like , um , be a little bit afraid , because then there will be more on their toes and they will work harder .
I say , well , that's interesting , because can you also see that when you are intimidating them , then their attention actually goes on you intimidating them and them needing to protect themselves , like their livelihood , from you . And he said oh yes , that makes sense , because he was a very smart man . And I have to think about that .
Well , he continued to do what he did before because probably it was too much of an old recipe for him , and actually he ended up being put aside as a leader , into a faraway office and not having the important role that he had before . So he failed as a leader using that approach . But it's this idea . If I do that , then I will have that outcome .
And it's often really an approach of I know best and since I know best , I have to push people to do it the right way . And that's often also a fallacy , because even the smartest people don't know everything best . So sometimes , even for the smartest people , it's useful to listen and learn something new .
If you think about organizations as living organisms , what vital organ is most dysfunctional in today's leadership ecosystem
¶ The Heart: Leadership's Most Underutilized Organ
? Where do you feel it's most broken ?
That's a very interesting question . Vital organs are where we have the brain and the heart and the stomach . I'd say the heart is often not broken , but not functioning so well , because we still believe that we had this topic earlier in the conversation the heart , the emotions , don't have a place , whereas they have a very important place and it's already .
They have an important place because heart also thinks , like the emotions also think . And as one of our corporate lawyers once explained to me , sylvia , don't you think that the judge was about a court case , that the judge makes only rational decisions ?
Judges are very much influenced by emotions and you , as a psychologist , will also know that most of our decision makings are actually emotional . And then afterwards afterwards , we rationalize what's going on . So of course , it's not that we can't do a mathematical calculation with our heart . We need our logical thinking for that .
But for strategic decisions it's a lot about our intuition , our emotions , and then we think does it make sense , does it work , et cetera , and let's think through the plan of implementation . But this intuition is an emotional thing .
So it's very useful to be aware of that and not stumble into it , so that we can also understand when our emotions trick us that when we are maybe like we are running after an emotional trigger or goodie , that is because we have some unresolved issues . So when we know our emotions and how we we function better , then we can use these emotions more wisely .
So that's one thing , and the other is that in our communication , emotions appear all the time . So sometimes when when leaders tell me yes , but the emotions I should , should leave them out because they have nothing to do at the workplace we talked about that . They have nothing to like . Emotional explosions are not helpful .
But to express our emotions in a good way is much better than to have them like seep through in a negative way , because if I'm raging underneath and I don't know how to handle that , people will feel it . I try to hide it , but people will feel that I'm really in a bad state and they will become unsafe around me .
So it's hugely important you know , mentioned something about intuition , and I think that is . I would love to just kind of pull on that thread a little bit . I think most people have some sort of intuition , even if they try , even if they don't , if they're not really tapped into it .
There are things that sit in our body or cause a response in our body in some way that alerts us to something . It could be good , it could be not so good . Do you see , from a corporate perspective , that people are kind of overall paying attention to their intuition ?
Are they letting that gut feeling guide them , or do you think that's something that's like oh , there's no place for this in the corporate world or in the business world . And I'm curious also if maybe there's a difference between men and women around that .
I wouldn't think that there is a difference about good intuition between men and women . The best leaders I have worked with , they have a strong intuition and they use it definitely . And then there's also pseudo-intuition .
I remember this discussion we had years ago when I was in HR and we were introducing succession planning and one of the old leaders said well , we don't need a succession planning system because a real leader knows who to appoint . So I got the intuition . And that's kind
¶ Who's Really In Charge?
of hiding um behind an intuition which is not an intuition , but like I know bill , I like bill , we're going out for drinks together . I don't know so and so , but actually so and so . With a real intuition you would know he's the better or she is the better person for this job . So intuition would say ah , I think all of that I've seen for them .
They don't even need to go to an assessment center . I know that she or he has got the stuff to do the job . But the pseudo intuition is sometimes yeah , I went , I go golfing with , with , with them , and then therefore , uh , they're friends and therefore they get the job . That's not intuition .
That's a really good point to call out . I understand your new book is titled who's in Charge and I'm curious what inspired that , because I think that could be a provocative question . When you really think about it , when you go back to the smart power and you start unpacking all of that , my thought is it likely kind of folds into this .
But tell us a little bit about you know what is the concept behind it and where did you come up with that name ? What was behind that ?
So , by the way , by now it's already come out . It came out last autumn and um , yeah and uh . Originally , I like the working title was energy , power legacy , because that's the three pillars of the book .
Like , in this chaotic world , how we do , how do we define power and use power , how do we manage our energy , because we need to do that in order to be , remain resilient and effective . And then , how do we combine success with fulfillment ?
Legacy and , as well , I , as I was working , like on the book , working towards completion , I really focused on this aspect of complexity and the chaos that we live and work in , and also about the fact that the old idea of power is to be in charge to control everything . Idea of power is to be in charge , like to control everything .
And then the question is does that really make you be in charge ? Are you really in charge then ? So that was one question . And then the other question is um , in this chaotic world today , um , are we sure that that that like , are we sure who's in charge ? Is it the politicians ? Is it business ? Is it like any ? Who ? Which politicians actually ?
Or is it maybe ai which is in charge meanwhile ? So it's really this question like who is in charge and um , um , are the white people in charge ? But that's that's . That's more of a judgment , but why , who is in charge ? And also , when we are in charge , are we really in charge or is something running us ? So it's this question of self-awareness .
So there are multiple layers to that , and so to be truly in charge that is like to to be sovereign , um is a very important thing for success and and impact in in this chaotic world that we live in . That's , that's how the title came about . There's .
I had a pretty type A personality and I refer to myself as a control enthusiast , which I love it . My husband calls it something very different . I refer to it as a control enthusiast . But what's interesting is , you know , I had shared a quote with someone recently and it says you can have control or you can have growth , but you can't have both .
And when you really sit in that . It's like , ooh , as much as we feel like we want , we desire the control , we want to control our circumstances , we really have very little we can control the controllables , but there's many uncontrollables in life . And I loved that quote because it was really like okay , are you willing to lean into the uncontrollables and grow ?
And sometimes that growth is a little bit painful , sometimes that growth is becoming more self-aware and in tune to oneself . Um , but I really love that is like looking at it of okay , you can fully have control , which you can't , but or you can have growth and such .
she can't have both it's actually true , because when I think I I , then I'm done . I'm not doing so much anymore , so I can't grow actually .
Right , as you think about the future of leadership development , what do you think will be something in future leaders ? What's the most profound evolution in how we think about and practice leadership , you know , in the next 10 years ? Kind of that future forward thought .
¶ Future of Leadership: Beyond AI
Well , it makes me think of AI , and because many of the decisions , so leadership , is often decision-making . It's decision-making and creating followerships . It's decision-making and creating followerships . And when it comes to decision-making , ai by now could probably replace leadership , like see through the information , make logical conclusions and come to the best decision .
But decision-making is not only logic and reason and knowing the data . It's also bringing people together for the decision . And how do you do that ? It's not only through logic .
When I started my career , I thought it was about having the best ideas , and then I learned that it's not only about having good ideas , but actually that's not only about it's good to have good ideas , but actually that's not what it is about . It's about how you connect to other people . That's about how you create trust .
It's about how you make other people feel that they are part of the idea and part of the decision making , um , and also not like we've made the decision . Do you have a comment ? No , um , how they can be part of already developing the decision with you .
And so it's very much about , um , the personal growth of the leader , um , the personality , the self-awareness , because self-awareness means that you have more choice in how you behave inwardly and outwardly , and then the communication skills and communication skills being really communication skill , like technically , how do I um message something in a clear way ?
Um , but that's only a small half of it , and maybe the bigger half is how do I connect , how do I show empathy , how do I show myself authentically so that people can develop that trust ? So it's these elements of leadership that I am certain will be most important in the coming years .
And I love that reference of AI because I think there is a sense of a fear around that and AI taking over and , as you talk about , it's not just about the , you know , the logic side of things , because there is that real , true emotional connectedness that one needs to feel like , okay , I can really , I can really trust this person or I can get behind this
idea or concept . But I think people are really grappling with this AI and the advancement .
And actually , as you go once more into AI , another thought that comes to me is it's really just the distinction between creativity and reactivity .
You know , with with ai , if everyone anyone who has worked with with one of these ai tools to create content or um think about something is , we can easily fall into the trap to give the lead to a young , so to I don't have any idea about this . So , ai , please tell me .
And um , so that's a reactive approach , but I can remain in creativity to first be a creative human being to say to say , okay , what is the purpose , what do we want here and what are maybe main parameters of where we want to go , and then maybe use a tool to really do the implementation , but not over-rely on AI to spoon-feed us what we are supposed to do
. And the other thing is also to maintain our critical thinking because , especially in leadership , we get maybe propositions , whether it's from from partners or staff or or ai , and are we able still to take a step back and say , okay , I see all this , but what do we really want and and where do we go there , what are the priorities ?
And not only react on what's coming .
As we wrap up , the one question I always love to close with is if it were your last day on earth and you could only impart one piece of knowledge or advice with the world of all the things you've learned , what would it be ?
Feel the gratitude of life each moment and every day . It makes such a difference .
Couldn't agree more , Sylvia , I would love for you to share I'm going to put this in the show notes , but I would love for you to share your website where people can find out more about you , follow your content , even become a client if they want to seek your services .
Where people can find out more about you , follow your content , even become a client if they want to seek your services . Where can they find that ?
So I'm on LinkedIn it's my main playground and you can easily find me , sylvia Rode-Liebina . And then there is my website , which is smartpowermethodscom
¶ Gratitude and Closing Thoughts
, and there also you can find out more about my work .
Swamped . Well , like I said , we'll put that in the show notes . Savine , thank you so much for coming on and just embarking with them and sharing with my audience . I hope people pull up a cup of coffee and really lean in and take notes .
I think the world there's always the opportunity to get better , and so I love when people lean in to guests that I have on to see ways in which they can do that .
Thank you so much , sonia , it's a huge pleasure .
Thank you so much for listening and for being here on this journey with me . I hope you'll stick around If you liked this episode . It would mean the world for me if you would rate and review the podcast or share it with someone you know may need to hear this message .
I love to hear from you all and want you to know that you can leave me a voicemail directly . If you go to my website , evokegreatnesscom , and go to the contact me tab , you'll just hit the big old orange button and record your message . I love the feedback and comments that I've been getting , so please keep them coming .
I'll leave you with the wise words of author Robin Sharma Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day . It comes from taking little steps consistently .
It comes from making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary , so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is the extraordinary .