Susan S. Freeman, MBA,NCC,ACC
Founder and President,
Step Up Leader ©2013
“You can’t solve a problem with
the same mind that created it.”
-Albert Einstein
This is Personal!
Spent a decade learning how to break
through my barriers, which allowed me to:
 Navigate career transition successfully
 Heal my body
 Handle challenging family situations with
grace and confidence
How often have you heard?
 Up or out?
 Publish or perish?
 Make rain or find another job?
Is Your Inner Leader Walking
FIDO?
Fear
Insecurity
Doubt
Overwhelm
What’s Really Going On?
 Living in our heads and it’s not working
 Running in reactive state; living in past or future
 Distracted by technology
 Disconnected from self and others
 Enemies of Learning
 I need to make $$
 I don’t have time
 I can only solve problem by working more/harder
 I need to “think it through” ; end up ignoring problem
-Gloria Steinem
What’s Missing in Leadership?
Leadership requires:
 Vision
 Goals
 Drive
 Effort
 Learning
AND……….
The “No-Stress” Zone
 No thought
 No start
 No finish
 No borders
 No shape
 No time
 No you
 Become the witness; not the
judge!
Influence and Credibility:
 55% body
 38% voice tone and emotions
 7% by words we speak!
Yet most leadership training
focuses only on the 7%...
The 93% That Matters
Inner reality creates outer reality
 How are you being?
 Who are you being?
What does the inner world look like
for leaders and influencers?
Is Your Inner Leader Walking With?
 Love
 Security
 Confidence
 Calmness
It is our birthright to re-discover
and live here!
We Are All Leaders
Everyone has a unique roadmap-We differ in:
 Start points and destination
Terrain of our journey
Yet our paths share common
elements
Step Up Now: SUN SYSTEM™
 Shift mindset
 Break through blockages
 Learn skills to support new neural
pathways
 Create habits and practices
 Accountability to sustain the gain
→New neural wiring installed!
Step Up Now™ System
Cutting-edge approach based on integration:
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Neuro-psychology
Emotional Intelligence
Ancient wisdom
Ontological coaching model
Powerful process that allows leaders
re-discover the Natural Leader within
→→Access passion, clarity, and
breakthrough results!
Be. Know. Do.
“Only by this self-development will you
become a confident and competent
leader of character…
Character and competence – the be and
the know – underlie everything a leader
does. So becoming a leader involves
developing all aspects of yourself. “
-Army Leadership “Be, Know, Do” Leader to Leader. 26 (Fall 2002): 21-27
TO DO ≠ TO BE
“Nine tenths of the ills from which
intelligent people suffer spring from their
intellect.”
-Marcel Proust
What’s Really Happening?
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SYMPATHETIC
Dominant during stress
Left-brained
Willful action
Logical, rational linear
thinking
Engaged during ordinary
waking consciousness
Accumulates stress
“Acting and Doing”
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PARASYMPATHETIC
Dominant during
conscious relaxation
Right-brained
Receptive
Intuitive
Visualizations
Impossible to feel anxiety
when body relaxed
“Feeling and Being”
WITHOUT POLARITY
Without balancing from parasympathetic
system, unconscious habits produce:
 Fear, anger and reactivity
 Chronic Stress: residual tension without
counter-balance of relaxation
 Any stress left over is what you eat
 Toxic leftovers are misery and illness
 Stress accumulates and blocks physical,
mental and emotional body; dis-ease
OUT OF MY MIND IS A GOOD THING!
 Body’s innate state is homeostasis and well-
being
 Operates when there is polarity
 Inner harmony, balance, wisdom and leadership
live here….
CHOICE IS THE WAY OUT
 Living in chronic alert/fear/stress is a choice
 Excess use of beta brainwaves creates imbalance
 Alpha brainwaves activate during sleep
 Deep conscious relaxation promotes theta and
delta
 Good news: polarity naturally lives inside us and
not outside of us
 Eliminate habits that force us to ends of the
polarity scale…allowing us to “be”
Step Up Leader Integrative
Model
 “Being” and “Feeling” precede
“Acting” and “Doing”
 Enhanced by timeless and effective
Eastern wisdom traditions
 Access “Choice” via Centering
Laura
 Equity partner/500-person organization
 After years of working in difficult environment, Laura
realized she was failing; she was outside the herd and
felt vulnerable
 She knew she did not inspire trust and confidence
from her colleagues
 Her ability to “make rain” was gone
 She knew something was really wrong, but didn’t know
what to do about it
Laura: Intervention
• We explored her emotional and mood habits
in anticipation of challenging conversations,
e.g. Nervous, anxious, pressured
• Shift repeatedly to curious, exploratory,
flexible
• Alleviate underlying, recurrent patterns of
stress that prevented her from feeling
confident
• Centering practice daily and before highstakes conversations
Laura: Results
 After 6 sessions she brought in the largest piece
of business in her career from an existing client
 Year-end revenue increased by $500,000 over
previous year
Brad
 Newly promoted from General Manager to CEO of
200-person manufacturing company
 Felt ill-prepared to lead vs. manage due to
inexperience as a leader
 Company was also going through major reorganization due to aggressive financial growth goals
created by new owners
 One of first tasks necessary was to fire two longstanding unqualified employees
Brad: Intervention
• Identified critical priorities for immediate
attention
• Learned practice of “Centering”
• Somatic (body) integration to support
better communication and listening,
including body posture for effective
conversations
• Introduced and trained in coaching
conversation
• Learned how to facilitate challenging
conversations with employees
Brad: Results
• Terminated two long-standing employees
• Effectively recruited a top-talent CFO
• Made multiple personnel changes for effective
talent utilization
• Created new company marketing platform
• Made “centering” a habit; coached his #2 to doing
so
• Reports better communication with spouse
• Company on track for meeting financial growth
expectations
Pathway to Stepping Up
 Awareness
of importance of “being” before
“doing”
 Breakthrough barriers and habits
 Create centered presence
 Practice to create new neural pathways
 Connect to vision and strategic action
 Intend and declare
 Accountability
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All steps are necessary to sustain gain!
Probability of Successful Goal
Completion
 10% if you hear an idea
 25% if you consciously decide to adopt it
 40% if you decide when you will do it
 50% if you plan how you will do it
 65% if you commit to someone else that you will do it
 95% if you have a specific accountability appointment
with the person to whom you have committed!
-American Society of Training and Development
Conclusion
 Are you acting from a centered presence or
from reactive habits?
 Are you leading from the 93% or 7%?
 Is your leader a “witness” or “judge”?
 Does your Natural Leader get to the root?
 Are you living and leading your Natural
Leader birthright?
 How would your leadership and life be
different if you lived here?
Step Up Leaders….
Embrace an integrative approach for
accessing the Natural Leader within you.
Rediscover your passion, clarity, and
exceptional results!
Step
Up
Now!