We don’t have to use a hammer to get a point across, to be heard, to influence. When was the last time any of us used or experienced aggression and it worked? Assertiveness can be gentler and more effective. Assertiveness can be expressed as naming needs and wants with clarity, conviction, emotional and relational intelligence. Assertiveness can contribute to connection, mutual support and trust-building versus resentment, fracture or worse, rupture. There is a gentler, more conscious, grounded way and when we step into it, magnificent things can happen.

Hint: When we feel uncentred within, chances are, we’re “offline” (aka animal brain lights up). Access to conscious and gentler states requires being “online”. Time, space, breathing, movement, connecting with other safe humans, nature work. Five minutes in one of these versus acting out of integrity or ruminating is simple ROI.

As leaders we set the tone to move systems in either surprising or meaningful ways. Where might a gentler way serve ahead?

To shaking things up in your integrity and your very own fervor,

Eva