Feminine Leadership Is Not Allergic to Hard Work. It Loves Aligned Work
- May 21
- 2 min read
For decades, women in leadership were required to out-hustle, out-grind, and out-perform every one else in the room. They were told they had to prove their worthiness through sheer volume of effort, with class and a smile. Silently, in order to get ahead and to be in charge, they knew that there had to be a disconnect between what they felt in their bodies and what the outer system demanded. They (sometimes unconsciously) knew that being a leader meant more hours, more output, more loneliness and more tolerance for discomfort.
The model of leadership we were raised on was brutal. And, it wasn’t designed with our health, longevity or sustainability in mind.
In recent years we have become conscious of the leadership demands. We have decided it doesn’t work for us. We have named the issues. Some of us have opted out all together because the effort wasn’t worth it in the long run. We decided that we were allergic to hard work and that if it felt hard in any way, we were not available.
But, this is where it gets tricky. We somehow confused the model of leadership with the work of leadership, and we swung the pendulum to the opposite side.
We decided that if grinding was the problem, rest was the answer, and if rest was the answer, then ambition must be wrong.
So, in that pendulum swing we pathologized drive. We called it “unaligned.” We decided to bypass discomfort. We threw the systems out the window. We called procrastination softness, and told ourselves that if work felt hard, we must be out of alignment.
The problem with finding ourselves at the opposite side of the pendulum is that we won’t find the answers to feminine leadership there either.
Sometimes leadership is hard and sometimes it requires hard work. Sometimes the business is in a difficult season. Sometimes the book is hard to write. Sometimes leadership means making the call nobody wants to make, having the conversation everyone is avoiding, doing the thing that didn't come with a detailed manual. Sometimes leadership means we have to heal old patterns that don’t serve you anymore.
Feminine leadership doesn't exempt you from any of the above. It equips you for it.
Feminine leadership teaches you to not be on the pendulum swing. Hard does not equal unaligned. And easy does not mean flow. There’s an entire paradigm just beneath the surface.
Feminine leadership is not allergic to hard work. It is just a bit more discerning in what that hard work entails.
If it’s aligned hard work, it's worth it.
If you are finding yourself leaning into the conversation, be sure to get The Embodied Leadership Blueprint, a free three part audio series for the high performing women who are ready to lead from presence, intuition and inner authority; instead of leading for approval.
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