The space between: where we find our truth and power

I gave a TEDx talk at Warwick Business School in February. It takes many months for the talks to be vetted and yesterday we got the go-ahead!

It was the fascinating theme, ‘Jigsaw’ of this year’s event that attracted me to say yes: ‘Jigsaw imagines the world as a puzzle: made up of pieces that appear separate but reveal a deeper story when joined together. Speakers might explore how overlooked fragments influence the whole, or how reframing a single piece can change the entire picture. Jigsaw asks us to step back, zoom out, and reconsider the connections we didn’t realise were there.’

The title of my talk is The Space Between: where we find our truth and power and I talk about the crucial perspective of self-leadership and how understanding our inner landscape can shape the bigger picture of our impact and influence. I frame the talk around 3 stories which explain what I mean by the ‘space between’. The stories also reveal my ongoing journey towards discovering my own truth and power.

I introduce my third story by asking: why does this matter? Why do we need to do the challenging work of joining our separate, often disconnected and conflicting, aspects into a unified and integrated Authentic Self?

My professional field is Leadership, and Leadership is ultimately about power. Power has the propensity to do great harm yes, but power is not good or bad: it is an energy. It is how we use and work with this energy that makes it good or bad.

And core to this is making the right decisions. My third story describes how we do this: not by getting caught in the chaotic vortex of the ‘busy fool syndrome’…busy, busy doing nothing…but by using the skill of ‘Detached Involvement’ and by training our intuitive intelligence to listen to our inner voice. And we can only do both by going into 'the space between’.

Here is my TEDx talk: https://youtu.be/is2k7wMYwyM