Shadow Work in Leadership

What is shadow work in leadership?

At tonight's belong.community session I led our group through a short exploration of what shadow work is and how it can benefit our professional relationships and leadership in people&culture.

One of the points that came up at the end was that for any kind of new work environment, none of us can really see that working out without consistant inner work.

Another point was that terminology plays a big role. Shadow work as a term itself sounds too "therapy-ish" or esoteric to some people. But under the guise of other terminology, people are doing the exact same thing in high priced business leader courses, for sure.

If we don't dive into the parts of us that we have surpressed, that we ignore or which we fear are undesirable about us, isn't there a big chunk of our wonderful selves that isn't applying itself in all we do?

When I started my personal development journey that also included shadow work, the beginnings were painful, rocky and confusing. But now a couple years down the line, I would not have it any other way. And the best part: The better you get at understanding yourself, uncovering and healing hurt parts of yourself and learning to truly like yourself for who you are, the more incredibly generous you get in understanding others, holding space for others and also liking people for just who they are.

Plus, its pretty dope when something gets you really emotional at work and you are able to separate what about it really has to do with the other person and what simply has to do with yourself only 🚀😉.

So consider this post a warm shout out to everyone doing the hard and at times painful work of working on themselves in order to become better colleagues and leaders. And if this post got you thinking, feel free to look up shadow work or reach out -- I am always happy to have a chat about it.

#peopleandculture #shadowwork #leadershipdevelopment #personaldevelopment