Experiencing our collective entry into 2021 and immersed in news about this week's events – plus the intensity on almost every front of 2020 – it's felt harder to read "motivational" posts, books, or articles lately – or to write them (which is tricky when you’re in the business of leadership and growth and your livelihood is dependent on your ability to hold your space, hold space for others, stay clean vibe, and serve). However, I also know that as a coach, advisor, teacher, and human, my job is not to motivate or fake my state, it’s to hold space and offer inquiries for people to think about things honestly and in ways that may support their growth, leadership, congruency, and peace.

We sent a survey to our subscribers this week to ask them what they needed most right now. Not surprisingly, early themes all point to building resiliency, mental health and self-care, how to create space and safety for honest conversations and conflict, how to truly connect right now, and how to lead when they are exhausted themselves (and their leaders are as well)…Yes.

The energy of the comments and areas of need are more intense than I’ve witnessed in the past, however line up with what I’ve seen in working with anyone on leadership, conflict, change management, crisis, burnout, or simply just creating a healthier culture. While I can (and will) offer “to-do’s” and frameworks, plans, scripts, inquiries, and more to support – at the most foundational level – these needs, all point to the importance of honoring and cultivating the power of our intentions, energy, presence (our IEP), and our contagiousness – and using it all for good… We must start there.

After all, we can have the best tools, skills, scripts, frameworks, etc. but if our intentions are unclear, our energy is bad and we’re exhausted, we’re not truly present, and we’re showing up in a way that’s negatively contagious – I don’t care how great those tools are – it’s not going to work.

I’ll continue this line of thinking (and what to do about it) here on my blog and in our newsletters as we move forward. For now, I invite you simply to just think (and feel) about this notion of your contagiousness. What kind of contagious are you? Not the physical kind we’ve been so focused on, but the emotional, energetic, attitudinal and behavioral contagiousness that comes from our intentions, our energy, our presence, and how we show up. The kind of contagiousness that makes the difference between leading and collaborating by invitation; creating a bridge for curiosity, expansion, safety, care, and healthy dialogue and conflict navigation, vs by force/demand; creating resistance, defensiveness, division, blame, judgment, restriction, carefulness, and deeply painful conflict navigation.

Our presence matters. Our intentions matter. The energy we put out there matters. We're contagious. Our contagiousness is an active choice we make every day and in every moment. And this is where awareness + clarity + ownership + action can be especially powerful.

More to come.

More on this today on my Instagram as well (including questions and frameworks to consider.)