I’m a woman of wealth and taste. I’ve been around for a handful of years, served many a client with guidance and grace.

Pleased to meet you. I hope you enjoy this piece. 

Jagger's voice booms authentic expression so confidently his presence breaks one of my judgements: that success requires conservative expression. Of course, swaggering confidence is one thing on the stage — it is, I presumed for much of my life, quite another thing in the office. I assumed that my inner authenticity, my own Jagger swagger, was unwelcome in a professional setting, threatening to co-workers and especially leadership, and subsumed by office politics.

But I was wrong. Correlation does not make causation. 

My unique strut and sass is indeed welcomed in the office — I just had to find the right teams, and come to understand myself, and the working world, in a deeper way. I’ve discovered that  transformative leadership asks us to exemplify the behavior we desire in others. Aligning feelings and authentic self expression lets us tap into the limitless potential of agency and inspired leadership. I had to feel the heartbreak of rejection to find the path of defining and embodying authentic expression - and I’m wiser for the wear. Success and easeful leadership ride the coattails of authentic expression - which means simply speaking from the heart (with skill, of course). 

And yet, as most of us know, this is more easily said than done. 

Speaking of, what is authentic expression? It’s the harmonic that arises when we say what we believe and we believe what we say. It’s a song of alignment emitting the highest frequencies of which the human body is capable. Authentic expression literally emits a song of high human magnetism. 

Let me clarify the reasoning of this principle, for the hard science of human frequency measurements continues developing at a furious pace. Some neurological studies have placed humans in a faraday cage and measure targeted emitted frequencies. Human emotions can be tracked so well as to predict the mood of the person being measured. This means our bodies literally exude highly articulate melodies, and these harmonies broadcast our physical health, emotional state, and emergent consciousness. 

The implication of these findings, in a work environment, means that how we feel and how honestly we speak of our feelings empowers us. Alignment of feeling and expression augments self agency, confidence, and overall health. Misalignment, in turn, spikes stress and cortisol levels with an increasingly corrosive impact. Unhappiness in work physically and emotionally breaks us; it nearly broke me.

I am grateful for the misalignment in my past, for pressure strong enough to almost break my soul. Pressure offers motivation to build new pathways, invent wiser systems, smarter solutions, new constructs, and new ways of being — diamonds born of coal. Still, we can lower the casualty rate of crestfallen hopes and broken souls in our pursuit of evolved humanity. We can do better than quarterly layoffs and golden parachutes at the expense of a generation’s jaded disillusionment. We only fail when we do not act. 

Authenticity empowers. It seems so simple, so clear. But it took me time to embody this wisdom. I’ve felt the rejection of organizations with values conflicting with mine, or companies where the deliverable was structured to fail due to insufficient support. Instead of recognizing the misalignment of values or expectations, I internalized rejection, feeling heartbreak. It’s easy to hear the melody and feel shame as if you’re tone deaf in that cringe-worthy, karaoke way. But we all have a different starting line in life. 

In some of my previous difficult positions, I moved too quickly, planning five moves ahead on operational processes and team implementation. My failure to adapt my pace to management’s capacity to follow incited resistance. As a result, politics, not growth, ruled. My authentic voice — truthfully speaking out in the wrong place to be heard — provided a target to attack; patronage trumped logic, sycophantism ruled aptitude, and my efforts were met with contempt and abuse. "Get back in your box" was the message, a potent dismissal of all my heart-sweating efforts to support organizational growth. 

“Get back in your box.” But I’m terrible with narrow walls. Forget boxes; I spin merkabas. Constructing data flows through complex organizations, structuring platform integration, and mentoring teams with healthy leadership expression. I don’t – I won’t – stay in your box. My boots break boxes, standing tall, gaze starward. And shouldn’t all good employers wish more of their employees dared to leave their boxes, to see where else they might go, what else they might grow to offer?

Authenticity desires healthy power expression, reverberating from our cells through relationships, shaping a future of better human cohesion. Cohesion and community take the place of profit and control. We’ve been largely raised on models of toxic power dynamics with unhealthy abusive expressions of masculine force in corporate context. We mimic these abuses. And in mirroring the model, we train our friends and coworkers and children the same pain, devaluing, and disconnection. Dominating power at the expense of authentic expression damages every relationship dynamic, including self development. And this harms us ~all of us~ in the entirety of our humanity.

It’s hardly a surprise, then, that some of the most interesting companies arising in today’s world are taking a radically new view of leadership, driven by these principles. What happens when we climb from our boxes and set our compass to the horizon? Taking those first stiff steps, what do you say with unfettered self agency raising the hairs of your neck, rolling your shoulders back wide? 

In positions of authority, we shape the culture of an organization with gratitude, correction, and attention. Elevated healthy expression in business looks like welcoming differing opinions and feeding debate towards the highest outcome for the organization. It embodies clear communication, secure boundaries, and transparency of intent. It’s mentoring staff to speak in their expertise and grow in their agency. It takes responsibility for team shortcomings and gives credit to others. It shines as a beacon of continuous learning and service to the team. Healthy agency isn’t threatened by authenticity, but shines brighter from it. And all of this creates an antifragile organization stronger and more robust than the next valuation.  

In subordination positions, authentic expression speaks up, asking questions and sharing observations to support the overall aims and learn of the bigger systems at play. It seeks mentors to navigate unfamiliar challenges, and communicates obstacles and considered approaches towards success. These voices feed a holistic container that fosters secure development of a whole human being: allowed to exist, and primed to thrive. 

Authentic expression breeds developed leadership, which allows all the systems to evolve. The power dynamic heals. Differing views inspire untamed creative solutions optimized to the group mission. Feed the practice of authentic expression. Heal the power dynamic for the benefit of the collective. Invite the yes to feed you, and each life you touch. Encourage the Jagger’s to strut their stuff in the office, and harness their creativity for the good of all. 

With that, it’s been nice to meet you.