Unlock Your Leadership Potential with Energy Awareness

I’m excited to share some valuable insights into leadership and how managing your energy can unlock new levels of potential. Whether you’re leading a team or navigating your own growth, the way you show up each day has a ripple effect on your success and impact.

Word of the Month: Intention
Leadership is most effective when it’s intentional. It’s about aligning your actions, decisions, and energy with your core values. By leading with intention, you create meaningful connections and outcomes. This month, I encourage you to think about how you can be more intentional in your leadership—whether that’s in how you approach challenges, communicate with your team, or plan for the future.

Leadership Goes Beyond Strategy—It’s About Energy
We often get caught up in strategies and decisions, but it’s the energy we bring to those decisions that shapes the results. Leadership isn’t just what we do, but how we do it. Every conversation, every challenge is influenced by our energy.
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My Story: Leading Through Crisis
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Executive Director of a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO), I faced one of the toughest moments of my leadership journey. Imagine leading an organization whose core mission is centered around tourism—an industry that came to a sudden standstill overnight. Everything we had worked for was thrown into uncertainty. There were no clear answers, no roadmap, and every decision I made seemed to carry consequences that rippled far beyond the organization.

As a leader, I felt a profound sense of responsibility. My team was looking to me for guidance and support, but I was grappling with the same uncertainty and fear as everyone else. It was a humbling realization that, as leaders, we don’t always have the answers. I had to make an incredibly difficult decision to temporarily let my entire staff go—a decision that weighed heavily on my heart because these were not just colleagues, but individuals who had dedicated their time, energy, and passion to making the organization thrive.

The hardest part was delivering the news. I remember sitting down before the meeting, taking a deep breath, and asking myself, "How do I communicate this with integrity, compassion, and optimism when I’m feeling so much doubt?" It was a defining moment, not just as a leader, but as a human being.

In that moment, I realized something powerful: while I couldn’t control external circumstances, I could control how I showed up. I had a choice—I could lead with fear and uncertainty, or I could manage my energy, staying present, intentional, and optimistic, no matter how difficult the situation. I chose the latter because I knew my energy would set the tone for the organization. If I faltered, the entire team would falter with me.

I began to focus on leading with purpose, even as we navigated the storm. Each day, I made a conscious effort to remain grounded in the present. Predicting the future was impossible, so instead of dwelling on what we couldn’t control, I focused on what we could do in the moment. This shift made all the difference.

As time passed and the world slowly began to reopen, I led the organization with renewed clarity and energy. It wasn’t easy, but by managing my own energy and inspiring others to do the same, we made it through the crisis. When it was time to rebuild, we did so with a stronger foundation, rooted in resilience, teamwork, and intention.
This experience taught me that leadership is not just about making decisions—it’s about how we show up in the toughest moments. It’s about taking charge of your energy so that you can lead others with clarity, confidence, and hope, even in times of uncertainty.

That’s when I truly began to understand the power of resetting in leadership. In moments of high stress, rather than pushing harder or reacting out of fear, I learned the importance of stepping back, recalibrating my energy, and then stepping forward with intention. This reset allowed me to lead from a place of empowerment instead of helplessness.

This experience also inspired me to start my coaching practice, Brilliance Unleashed. Having seen firsthand the transformative power of energy management in leadership—both in my own journey and in helping others—I knew I wanted to dedicate my time to guiding leaders through their challenges. My mission is to help leaders tap into their energy, reset when necessary, and lead from a place of resilience and purpose.

Simple Tips to Boost Your Leadership Energy

• Tune in to your energy: Regularly check how you're feeling—are you energized, or are you running on empty?
• Pause when needed: A short break or deep breath can help reset your focus and energy.
• Reflect on your day: Spend a few minutes thinking about when your energy was aligned with your actions—and where it wasn’t.

​As you reflect on the ideas we’ve explored, I encourage you to take a moment and consider where you can make small yet meaningful changes in your leadership journey.