Have you ever worked in a workplace where you were asked to turn off part of yourself?
Do you know what it’s like to work for a leader who is disconnected from their own emotions and intuition to the point of creating a culture that over values logic and fact?
If so, you know the impact of not bringing your whole self to work.
One of our favorite resources for re-humanizing the workplace is Shakti leadership. From this concept we’ve learned about feminine and masculine qualities of human beings.
Let’s be clear, we aren’t talking about gender, but rather qualities that every human is born with. And, over time we’re either taught to nurture and refine those qualities or we’re taught to abandon or reject them.
The norm today is that we see people (both employees and leaders) who are asked to be less human in some way, shape or form. For example, when a woman leader is told to never say the words, “ I feel…” it leaves out a critical element of information that we get as humans (our emotions).
Traditional leadership was based on a hierarchy of top-down decision making to maintain order. Business as usual over emphasized masculine qualities such as logic, structure, assertiveness, and independence- while at the same time diminishing feminine traits of openness, creativity, inclusion, and trust.
Shakti leadership is based on developing these long ignored feminine qualities and integrating them with traditionally masculine resources.
Leadership today is about navigating ambiguity. Men and women who cultivate both masculine and feminine strengths will be more effective leaders and their organizations get better results including:
At StartHuman we work with leaders of organizations to build cultures that value an integration of feminine and masculine qualities on behalf of both men and women. To learn more about how StartHuman can work with you to build a more human culture at your workplace, schedule a discovery session.