Navigating challenges with curiosity – A personal reflection

When a leader I’m working with feels stuck, exhausted, or confused,

I take them on a journey to get at the problem from a completely different angle. We flip their thinking and expand what they are able to feel in their body.

It’s a research-based way of creative problem solving and tapping into new levels of potential and possibility.

Navigating challenges with curiosity – A method that has evolved within me.

In this particular moment of history, as the ugliest side of American culture is on full display from the White House, the challenges feel particularly acute.

Wrestling with the reality of injustice, inequality, and oppression has been woven into my being since I first learned that some children live in massive slums picking through trash to survive and I did not.

For 33 years I have been asking the questions: Why does the world work this way? And, what am I called to do?

I still remember the wooden bunkbed and puppy dog sheets where I began wondering.

My curiosity took me around the world, to universities and into books and courses, and to front stoops in neighborhoods my parents had been told to leave for the good of their children.

Why was I painfully ‘excluded’ and, at the same time, included in the slurs my classmates made about “those Spanish speaking Mexicans”.

Why couldn’t I seem to grasp the confidence of my peers or to stop caring so much?

It has taken me years to understand that my journey was about unpacking the shame, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt that the insidious nature of white supremacy culture left within.

Whether you feel it personally or not, you too have been left with a journey of learning and un-learning.

Print by MN artist, @Lyngraphite

We live in a culture of domination, colonization (i.e. theft of land and resources) and othering. It is the air we breathe.

I am not immune to it.

But, I have become aware of it.

I now have the joy of healing, imagining, and supporting new ways of being and leading.

When I write, “Let’s lead differently from the Inside Out”, it means let’s explore new, restorative ways of stepping into our power. It means seeing the context and the stories that live in our nervous system and mind and then deciding, with power, how we actually want to show up.

It’s is easier to drop the shame, imposter syndrome, and self doubt when we understand the larger context of where it comes from.

I have committed to bring curiosity, a respect for context and complexity, and a rooted confidence that leaders choosing to do the inner healing work will lead the way.

How are you answering the call to empowered, authentic regenerative leadership?

Your unique story, passion, skills, and desire matter in this moment. Do not discount yourself.

Our stories and pain will not be forgotten. We will compost the rot of this moment and bear fruit.