Shift Your Leadership Presence in 10 Seconds

Many of the leaders I work with experience an internal divide. They’re expected to portray a sense of calm and confidence, yet on the inside, that’s rarely how they feel. There are often varying degrees of stress, frustration, and uncertainty bubbling just under the surface.

Can you relate?

If so, I’d love to share a strategy that’s helpful for me and that was an eye-opener for a group of senior leaders I recently worked with. As you can imagine, this practice is grounded in somatics and the mind-body connection.

Here’s the strategy: stomping.

I’m sure this seems like a ridiculous suggestion, especially in the context of leadership. But if your body feels up for it, give it a try. If this isn’t an option for your body, imagining that you’re stomping can be just as helpful.

You can try stomping with just your lower body, but I like to involve my arms as well like a kiddo having a tantrum.

This should go without saying, but just to be clear, try this in an office or room by yourself. And then start with just 10 seconds of stomping.

After 10 seconds, pause and check in with how you’re feeling. If stomping feels good, ramp up the intensity for another 10 seconds. If it doesn’t feel good, stop.

After this experiment, notice what feels different. If you try this out, I’d love to know how it goes. And if you’re wondering why I had a group of senior leaders trying out this practice, read on.

In a recent training on Embodied Leadership, participants were invited to observe or try out somatic practices to explore how these practices shift their leadership presence. Stomping was one such practice.

Many of the buttoned-up professionals who were brave enough to try out this practice started laughing because it felt both unfamiliar, especially at work, but also completely necessary.

A practice like stomping is useful for 3 reasons:

1. First, stomping can release suppressed emotions like frustration and anger. We all have these emotions. The more we care about our work, the more heightened these emotions can become. By no means am I advocating for people to start stomping in board meetings or throwing temper tantrums in front of colleagues. But rather, when explored at the right time, stomping can release bottled-up emotions in a safe and healthy way.

2. Secondly, somatic practices like stomping are - in my experience - the most efficient way to release physical tension from the body. This is necessary not only for your physical health, but also to prevent burnout.

You know I love bodywork and craniosacral therapy. While important, I’ve found the practices we do in somatic coaching such as stomping are often more potent at releasing tension from the body. This is true even though releasing tension is not our primary focus.

3. Lastly, stomping is key for leadership presence. Especially in these uncertain times, we want leaders who are calm and steady. But oftentimes we can only find a genuine sense of calm and ease by, counter-intuitively, giving ourselves permission to lean off-center and off-balance for a minute.

Just like a kiddo throwing a tantrum, she’s far more calm and centered once she’s had an opportunity to get the emotion out of her system. This applies to adults as well. Carving out time to check in with and release your emotions can ensure they don’t have undue influence over how you act, communicate, make decisions, and over how others perceive you.

If for you, stomping doesn’t feel useful, it’s possible you’re not dealing with as much frustration as the rest of it. It’s also possible this emotion is just pushed down and hard to access at the moment. If so, revisit this another time and see what happens.

My hope with this practice is that - while a little kooky - stomping can help you avoid the internal divide I mentioned at the start. And as a result, can help you cultivate a leadership presence that is both centered and genuine.

If you’d like to learn more about Embodied Leadership, click HERE to learn more about group offerings and HERE to learn more about one-on-one leadership coaching.