I don't want to be a King

On birthing the fifth wave of feminism in leadership

Who's going to break the silence on the bubbling magma soon to erupt around feminine & masculine energy dynamics in leadership? Me?

It’s time. Give me grace as I walk us in:

Many women leaders (🙋🏼‍♀️) are de-armoring. We are remembering how to BE in our femininity. But we dare not speak of this publicly. It's too edgy.

It usually begins with a crisis in our personal lives. As female leaders, we notice

- We built the business, only to come home one too many a night single and lonely
- We have the dream job ($$$) but go through our days like stoic warriors: hollow shells wealthy in one form, but so broke in others
- We hold good face to keep it professional, but our vibrancy has dulled to gray inside systems that do not honor our flows

Those crises invite us down and in. We visit the meaning-making dark. In my recent night, I heard:

I do not want to be a king. I want to be in partnership with one. In the creation of something legendary. Empire, enterprise, whatever. Something that breathes life into this world. Something that brings both our strengths to life. Something in service of bringing the stale bits of people alive.

I don’t want to grow into something I’m not. I want to rise into what I know I already am.

Archetypes become important when role models lack.

Queen. Mother. Huntress. Oracle. You choose your flavor(s), woman.
King. Warrior. Magician. Lover. You choose your flavor(s), sir.

I have incubated in enough subterranean women's communities to know:

I am FAR from alone in these explorations, desires and sensitivities. I simply feel like I’m one of the first breathing them into public air.

Here is why I’m writing this, blunderous as it may feel:

I sense a world coming: a 5th wave of feminism, where we focus less on the gender parity of who’s leading, and more on helping leaders come into right relationship with the truth of their energy.

As an advisor, I am not interested in supporting the masculinization of more women, under the heroic guise that's what will make us “stronger”.

I want to usher in the world feminine leaders create when we feel safe, worthy, and resourced enough to follow the intelligence of our inner GPS.

In this world, feminine women who lead in business don’t build ventures, we birth entire worlds, creations.

In this world, masculine men who lead in business don’t dominate via force, they inspire and command action from integrity and indomitable spirit.

In this world, women and men emerge from journeys reclaiming their sovereignty to become interdependent units in service of higher order missions, together.

When we speak of co-founders as de-risking a venture, I think what we really mean is this:

Mature Units de-risk the process of creation when the energies and roles are complementary and synergistic.

I have no need to strive to be equal to a man, if equal means “same”.

I know this world is already here. I’m choosing to fly its flag to find who else is already on the journey with me.