You’ve Been Taught to Ignore This Leadership Superpower

1 BIG IDEA
Critical thinking is your responsibility—not rebellion. It’s how real leaders lead. This episode helps you reclaim your mind, challenge the assumptions shaping your choices, and use discernment as a powerful leadership tool.

4 WAYS TO APPLY THIS

• Pause before reacting—give yourself space to think
• Use your Core Values as a decision filter
• Ask better questions: Who benefits if I believe this?
• Pay attention to emotional signals and your body’s wisdom

3 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

• Where do I feel a disconnect between what I’m seeing and what I’ve always believed?
• What feels “off” about what I’ve accepted as normal?
• What Core Value do I want to lead from right now?

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RESOURCES & NEXT STEPS
Episode mentioned: The Ripple Effect of Leadership: How to Own Your Impact
Listen : https://www.buzzsprout.com/1282826/episodes/16918171
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/SdNSpZ9GB6g 

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

You're listening to Stand Tall and Own It, the podcast for high-performing female leaders who are ready to make an impact by discovering the safety that comes from understanding their own values and exercising their own authority. I'm your host, Andrea Johnson, and I'm here to tell you it is time to just truly be you, my strong friend. It's time to stand tall and own it. Hey there, and welcome back to Stand Tall and Own It. This is the podcast where we equip purpose-driven women to lead with authenticity and impact. This month we're exploring what it means to build your leadership on something that lasts, something foundational, not flashy, not performative, something real. This month lays the foundation for finishing 2025 strong, and we're starting and then maybe being able to start 2026 with purpose and vitality. Through the end of this year, we're going to explore what it looks like to take bold action, invite honest reflection, and integrate what you've learned along the way. But it all begins right here, with foundation. With the decision to think deeply, reclaim your discernment, and define your own truth before anything else demands your voice. Because for many of us, clarity is not the problem. We see the problem. We see what it is. We may know what even exactly feels off. We sense when something isn't true, right, or healthy. What's missing, however, is the confidence to trust that knowing and to lead from it. And I don't mean in a snarky way. I mean, I love some good snark, but still, this is not what I'm talking about. You've tried all the models, right? You've implemented the productivity hacks, the team building frameworks, the habit stacking, the values posters in the break room. You've read the books, you've attended the webinars, you've listened to all the podcasts like mine, you've even joined that mastermind group or leadership collective. But something still doesn't work. Not quite. Because at some point you've started asking yourself, hang on now, whose map am I following? Where is this even taking me? Well, my friend, maybe you're not lost. Maybe you're just done with everybody else's map. Maybe you found yourself hesitating before making a business decision because it just didn't feel right, even though the spreadsheet said, hey, go, right? Maybe you've held your tongue in a meeting knowing that your perspective could challenge the group, but there's a fear of fallout. Maybe you've stopped yourself from questioning something political because you knew it would spark conflict, even though the question was beyond fair, right? Maybe you've dared to reconsider a spit spiritual teaching that you once accepted without hesitation and realized the fallout might cost you more than you're ready to pay. Or maybe you've just grown tired of saying yes when your gut says, hey, not this time. If any of that sounds familiar, then today's episode is for sure for you. We're naming a leadership skill that's been buried, dismissed, and sometimes even ridiculed, especially in women. It's the ability to pause, examine, and challenge the narrative. It's called critical thinking. And it is one of the most radical leadership acts that you can practice right now. Critical thinking is a form of personal freedom, and most of us have never been taught how to access it. And I don't just say that as a phrase, I live it. It's one of the most powerful shifts that I love to help leaders make, whether I'm coaching them one-on-one or training their entire team. And here's why this matters so deeply, especially right now. If you don't know how to think clearly, you won't lead clearly. And if you don't know how to filter what's true, what's aligned, and what's actually worth your time and energy, you'll keep leading according to someone else's priorities. This is also why I've built Thrive in 25 Live to Lead to be more than just a leadership event. It is a reset point, a chance to step away from all the noise and come back to your own voice, your own values, and your own vision. So if you're planning to join me this October, this episode is a perfect prelude. Consider it your warm-up. All right, so let's talk about why thinking for yourself has become radical, what it looks like to reclaim your mind as a leader. What does it mean when we say critical thinking, right? What does that mean? Because if it's going to be a leadership superpower, we should know what kind of power we're talking about. Now, the standard dictionary definition sounds a little bit like this. The objective analysis, critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment. That's fine. It's technically accurate. We're looking at something from the outside, taking it apart, and figuring out what all the parts mean in order to decide what we think about it, okay? But for me, and in values-driven leadership, it is so much more than that. Here's a definition that I would give to it. Critical thinking in values-driven leadership is the ability to pause, observe, and question, especially your own assumptions, through the lens of your core values. It's how you lead with discernment instead of reaction, creativity instead of conformity, and clarity instead of chaos. It's not about being the smartest person in the room. That's actually kind of boring. It's about asking the better question, especially of yourself. Now, let's be clear. If critical thinking feels hard, uncomfortable, or even risky, you're not imagining it, my friend, but you have been taught to feel that way. Did you catch that? You have been taught to think and to feel that critical thinking is hard, uncomfortable, or risky. So in order to move forward, let's normalize a couple of things and just acknowledge them. If you have ever felt gaslit by a system or institution, meaning told one thing but then shown another, like here's the rule for everybody, but it only applies to your team. Everybody else can do what they want. Or here's the rule for people in general, but women have a different standard, right? That's gaslighting. And I know we don't want to talk about that. It's like this phrase you throw up there. Some people are gonna love it and some people are gonna hate it. But here's the deal: you're not alone, all right? If you've ever felt that way. If you've ever found yourself totally overwhelmed by headlines, leadership messaging, or even your own mentors telling you what to do, and but unsure of what to believe anymore or who to believe, that's not confusion. It's saturation, all right? You have been saturated. So you've been gaslit, we've been gaslit, we've been saturated. And then if you've ever thought things like this, if I say this out loud, I might lose credibility, influence, or even relationships. Or if I put this on my Instagram stories, or if I support this political candidate, or if I speak out against this religious leader, if you've ever thought any of those things, thinking that you might lose that you might lose credibility, influence, or relationships, then you already understand what makes this skill so radical. Because in a world that rewards performance and compliance, thinking for yourself is an act of resistance. I want to pull back the lens just for a minute and talk about what critical thinking really is and where it came from. Back in the early 20th century, John Dewey, a philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, argued that critical thinking wasn't just a personal skill. It was the foundation of a healthy democracy. He defined it as active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it lends. To Dewey, critical thinking was about engaging in reflection and inquiry, not passive acceptance. He believed that schools should teach students how to think, not just what to know. Does that sound familiar? That's one of my phrases. I don't tell you what to think, I tell you how to think. He even developed a five-step process for reflection and reflective thought. First you define the problem, then you analyze it, you establish criteria for solutions, you generate options, and then you choose wisely. In many ways, it's the thinking version of dissecting a frog, right? Let's put this in like physical terms. Not because we're trying to destroy something, but because we want to understand how it works. How does it tick? What's it doing? Is it even alive, right? You don't get insight by glancing at the outside of something. You get insight by taking the time to examine the inner structure. Now I'm going to tell you a little secret here. I am a big proponent of critical thinking. And when I first started developing this episode and doing the research for it, I didn't even know who John Dewey was. I mean, I literally had to Google, is John Dewey the same Dewey that came up with the Dewey Decimal system? Fun fact, no. But you can look it up to find out who really was. I just believed all of these things. They were in my gut. I understood the process. I felt it in my bones. And that tells you what, that it's a core value, right? Like, this is the beat my chest, pound the table kind of conviction. I mean, I'm sure you've heard I have a lot of um passion in this particular episode. I knew long before I had the research to back it up that thinking wasn't just academic. It's how we protect freedom. All freedom, any freedom, personal, collective, creative, spiritual. You see, in Dewey's eyes, critical thinking wasn't just about education. It was how citizens made informed ethical decisions. It was how we participated meaningfully in community life. It was how we protected liberty, responsibility, and growth. But when you fast forward a few generations, and what we see is very, very different. Our systems, be they educational, political, religious, or corporate, are no longer structured to cultivate independent thought, are they? They are structured to maintain order, to preserve power, to move efficiently. And to be fair, some of that isn't bad. Some of that really is progress. We do want systems to run smoothly. We want to reduce waste, create consistency, protect safety, and honor people's time. But you know, when efficiency becomes more important than inquiry, when preserving power matters more than sharing it, when order is prioritized over integrity, that's when we stop thinking. That's when we start complying. And the way to get rewarded in those kinds of systems is not through curiosity, it's through compliance. You get the promotion because you follow the protocol. You get the A because you regurgitated the exact and expected answer. You get the social capital because you knew when to stay quiet or when to just nod along. Curiosity, it is often labeled destructive or disruptive. Reflection is too slow. I don't have time for that, right? And discernment is just too complicated. Just tell me the answer. Right? Yeah. So this is radical. Not in the burn it all down sense. I've been there before, but in the return to the root sense. Because just bear with me as I nerd out on a word here. The Latin root of radical is just that. Radix means root. It's about returning to your own root system, your own filter, your own ability to say, is this true? Is this aligned? Is this even worth my energy? Thinking for yourself isn't rebellion. It is responsibility. All right. It is your responsibility to think for yourself. I'm watching a new show on Apple Plus TV, and evidently it's the third season of it, and I didn't even know it. We're starting in season one. But one of the characters looked at another and said, When did you forget to think for yourself? And I thought, wow, this is everywhere, right? But here's the deal: in leadership, thinking for yourself is an absolute non-negotiable. Otherwise, and this is gonna sound harsh, you're not a leader. You're a puppet. All right? If you're not willing to think for yourself, if you don't see critical thinking or thinking for yourself as a non-negotiable, you're just a puppet for whoever is telling you what to think. And if that's the case, you're never gonna build something that lasts. You'll never build something that actually reflects what matters most. All right. That's the hard stuff. Here's the better stuff, right? So if critical thinking is how we return to our own internal leadership, how we root down into what's actually true, then let's actually get practical about how to do that, right? That's really nice, Andrea, but how do I do that? Well, this is where I talk about ABCs. It's in my own personal model. Um, I'm not introducing a new framework. You can go back to my other, some of my other old podcasts and see where I talk about ABCs. But I call the ABCs, well, I call them, yeah, well, I guess I call it a framework. It it's not easy as ABC. It's not easy. It is elementary, and I mean it isn't elementary, but it is elemental, right? Um, so the ABCs for me are your assumptions or my assumptions, let me put it in my own words, my assumptions, my beliefs, and my conditioning. The three layers that you have to examine if you want to start reacting and start choosing. So let's walk through them. We'll start with assumptions. These are the unconscious expectations that you carry around about how life should work. So if you have a phrase like, I would expect that, or this should be da-da-da-da-da, whatever, that's an assumption. They're the autopilot set settings that are running in the background. You know, things like, well, if I work hard enough, it'll all pay off. But will it? People should just know what I need. That's a famous one. They're one of my favorites, right? And success looks like you fill in the blank, whatever it is. Um, I find that I have a lot of these assumptions that I have to challenge all the time. Like, success in weight loss looks like a certain thing. Success in life looks like a certain salary or monetary or house or something. The tricky part is assumptions often feel like the truth. As a matter of fact, I would say they always feel like the truth until you start asking them questions. They feel like their beliefs, they feel like they're bigger than they really are. And so therefore, they rarely get questioned. They're just the quote, way things are. Most of us never stop to ask who programmed them. Where did the operating system come from? This reminds me from um of a scene from the show Paradise. I don't know if you watch it or not, but it's a um, just without trying to do any spoilers here, the basic premises in a massive underground bunker in Colorado designed to mimic life on the surface. The government, the U.S. government, created a beautiful enclosed world that they call paradise. It has a digital sky, always the right weather, soft sunset, starry nights, everything was curated to make life feel normal, to make it feel real. But one day, a single programmer hacked the system and inserted a message into that perfect sky at night during the day, alerting people that something wasn't as it seemed. The system had been hiding a truth all along and they didn't know it. So if you don't pause to examine the invisible rules shaping your expectations, you end up living inside someone else's version of reality. But the moment you stop to ask, hang on, wait, do I actually believe that? That's when you start reclaiming your mind. Okay? A, B, C's, assumptions, and next, let's talk about beliefs. Beliefs are the stories and conclusions that you hold to be true. Now, for somebody growing up in a really strong faith tradition, this is gonna be a hard one because um we don't want to think about some of the things that we um believe, some of our belief systems, we don't want to think about them as stories. But the reality is they are the stories and conclusions that we hold true about ourselves, about others, and the world. They're shaped by experience, internalization, repetition, and emotion. And yes, some of those beliefs may be religious, spiritual, or cultural, they may feel deeply sacred and moral, and they may be. But here's the nuance. Beliefs are still the meaning that we've assigned to our experience. I've had to I've said this for many, many years. It's like, why have a conversation or an argument with someone about whether or not the Bible is true if they don't believe the Bible is God's word, and I believe the Bible is God's word, well then we're starting from different places. So therefore, that's an interpretation of what it is, right? So that I've assigned a meaning to the Bible that someone else hasn't. And therefore, it is a belief, right? So if we start thinking of our beliefs as things that we've assigned to our experiences, maybe we've taken those from um the church we grew up in or the culture we grew up in. Those are the kinds of things that we can say, okay, this is a meaning I've assigned to it. Do I want to hold on to that or not? Because they are interpretations and they are not fixed. They can actually evolve when we grow or gain new understanding. So let's talk about a little bit more benign beliefs, right? Well, they might not be benign when you're talking about yourself, but things like I'm only valuable when I'm needed, right? That's a belief that you, it's a story that you've assigned to the way you feel based on emotion or experience. Or another one might be people like me don't get those opportunities. I literally had a conversation earlier this week with someone who sees in me things that I think I know are there, but I'm usually feel like I have to defend them to everyone else. And so I don't put them out there, like qualities that I have or experience that I have. And he was like, that makes me angry that you wouldn't understand, or that makes my heart hurt. Somebody else said that you wouldn't understand those things about yourself. So I would, you know, a lot of times I'll say, people like me don't get these opportunities. Or in other words, like leaders don't show emotion, they have to be stoic. Those beliefs may have helped you survive something, right? For me, those beliefs, the belief that I may not be eligible for a particular opportunity is something that developed because I got beat down so much in certain situations and environments. Um, but they're not helping me lead. So are they helping you lead? Are the beliefs that you hold helping you lead? Because beliefs are like the window through which you see the world. If core values are your filter, beliefs are the window. You're standing in a house and you're looking out through the windows. The windows could be clear, right? You could, they could really help you see the world better. They might be distorted. Like some really old windows have really interesting old handmade, hand-blown glass, right? But the good thing is they can also be replaced. Yes. Windows can be replaced, and so can beliefs. Because when a belief keeps you stuck, it's often time to reassign a new meaning, one that reflects truth, not just your past. When your beliefs conflict with your core values, you feel it. You feel friction, you feel tension, you feel cognitive dissonance, you know, when there's just like something is just not right, even anger. But that's not failure. That's a signal. So if you're starting to look at your core values and you're feeling some like tension with your belief systems, whatever they are, if they're personal internal beliefs, if they're religious or they're economic or political, whatever, it's just a signal that you need to pay attention. And that moves us on to our sea, our conditioning. This is the deep layer. If we use the typical iceberg model, if you haven't heard of that, um, conditioning is that massive structure under the waterline, the invisible mass holding everything else in place, the invisible mass that the Titanic ran into, right? Above the surface, you see all your assumptions, right at the waterline, you notice beliefs. Some of them, some of them you may not notice, but down in the depths is where all the conditioning lives. It's the cultural, systemic, and relational programming that shaped what you think is normal, safe, or right. These are your family roles, your gender expectations, faith traditions, educational rules, social hierarchies. And most of it, you didn't choose. It was modeled for you. It was implied, reinforced through patterns, repetition, and consequences, often subtle or invisible, but deeply powerful. It doesn't declare itself loudly, but it anchors you still just the same. It determines what feels comfortable, what feels imp what feels possible, and what feels dangerous. Right? So, I mean, I still wrestle with specific conditioning about certain beliefs and certain situations that it presented with a specific environment or a situation, something will pop up in me and I'll like feel this danger. And like, there's no reason to feel danger about that because it's not a dangerous situation. So I have to talk myself through them. Until you become aware of it, it will quietly direct your leadership. Okay? Why does this matter? Because critical thinking is the tool that helps you see the iceberg. It's how you name the invisible drivers behind all of your decisions. It's how you interrupt patterns that no longer serve you, and it's how you deconstruct what's been handed to you without losing yourself in the progress, in the process. You don't need to burn it all down. Trust me, I have friends who are like, no, Andrew, you can't have the matches because I do hit moments where it's like, just give me a match, right? You don't have to do that. You do, however, need to see it clearly. You can choose what's worth keeping and what you're finally ready to release. Because that's what real leadership is choosing, not performing, not reacting, or conforming, choosing with discernment, alignment, and courage. So let's talk about why this really matters right now. I mean, I said we're laying a foundation for. Finishing out the year strong. Why? Well, we are surrounded, bombarded really, by pre-packaged narratives. Every headline, algorithm, and institution has something they want you to believe. What to care about, what to fear, what to trust, what to lead, or how to lead. You know, I mean, it's you you feel it every day. And to be honest, especially for women leaders, the message is often, hey, don't ask too many questions. Don't make things harder than they need to be. Just smile, be nice, and lead well, right? And if you're paying attention to what's going on in the news, there's a lot out there that is a lot of messages are coming straight to us women. But that's not leadership, my friend. That's performance. It's survival mode. It is the fastest way to wake up in a life or a business that looks great on the outside, but feels completely hollow on the inside. If you are not willing to filter the noise, you're going to end up building something you don't even recognize. This is where critical thinking becomes your lifeline. Not as an intellectual exercise, not as an academic debate tool, but as a discipline, a practice of filtering everything through your core values. It's how you return back to that root, right? What is real. It's how you start to see the difference between urgent and important, between aligned and convenient, right? There's that's a big one. You'd think the line would be really broad there, but it's not. It's really, really narrow. But also the line between performance and purpose. Because the emotional cost of just going along, it's way higher than you think. And you've probably felt it. It looks like numbness, right? You're doing the emotions, but you're disconnected. What about rage on the other end of that spectrum? Numb on one end, rage on the other. You just keep hitting invisible walls and you can't explain why. Another spectrum to be on is the exhaustion to disconnection one. Exhaustion not from doing too much, but from doing what doesn't fit, doing the things that just don't feed you and literally just drain your energy to disconnection, disconnecting from your vision, your people, your sense of self. But I want to offer a reframe really quick because I think it's really important for us to hear this. You are not here to be agreeable, right? You're not here to be agreeable and to be compliant. You are here to be anchored. You're here to be anchored in the truth, anchored in your purpose, anchored in the steady rhythm of your own discernment. That's why critical thinking is not optional for leaders. It is the only way to lead something that lasts, something that matters, something that actually reflects the values you say you stand for. So getting even more practical, if critical thinking is the what, then discernment is the how. And like any form of strength, it's a muscle. It needs to be worked, challenged, and stretched over time. Earlier today in this episode, I mentioned John Dewey, often considered the father of modern critical thinking, and he taught that reflective thought isn't about memorizing facts or proving your point. It's just a process. And you've heard me talk about reflection how often on this on this episode, not this episode, on this podcast, an intentional way of slowing down or thinking so that you can examine something with care. He outlined five steps, I shared them earlier, but they are define the problem, analyze it, set some criteria, generate solutions, and choose the best one. In other words, thoughtfulness over certainty, curiosity over control. Let me show you how that looks really quick in real life, especially for values-driven leaders like you and me. The first is data, gonna collect data plus context before we make a decision, right? We need to know what the data is in the context. So it's like defining the problem and analyzing it in Dewey's words. We're gonna start, and it's gonna sound weird, by slamming on the brakes. Before you react, before you form an opinion, before you pick a side, this has to be an act of hard stop, especially if you're anything like me, your brain moves fast. And in a world where we are constantly bombarded with updates, alerts, like just recording this episode. I've gotten like eight text alerts on my phone. Urgency, right? It's a way too, it's way too easy to just get swept right along with all of it. So here's your permission slip. It is one oh 100% okay to say, you know what, I'm gonna think about this and get back to you. 100%. It is okay to jump on that bandwagon later, like the last person to board the plane or the last person in the seat on that bandwagon after you've had space to reflect and research and decide if it actually aligns. Some decisions are gonna be faster than others, but discernment always begins with pause. Ask, what's really going on here? And what else do I know? What else do I need to know before I decide? All right. Number two, core values as a filter. This is like a popular refrain when you when you listen to me. And this is what Dewey would call setting your criteria. So your criteria would be your filter. This is where core values do all the heavy lifting for you. It's not fluff, they're not optional. These are your non-negotiables that define what matters to you. Every decision, belief, or narrative should run through one question. Does this honor what I say I stand for? Let me tell you, the answer to that question could send you in five different directions. Because if it doesn't honor what I say I stand for, well then, you know, the next question would be Am I really standing? Am I saying what I stand for? Is that what I say I stand for really what I stand for? Or do I need to go in a different direction, right? We talk about this a lot in um in workshops because when you use your core values as a filter, you don't have to rely on groupthink. You get to decide for yourself. You don't have to wait for approval. You already have your guideposts. You get to decide. Without values, pressure, urgency wins. With them, you build something that lasts. All right. Number three, do an emotional intelligence check. This would be what Dewey might call your internal responses before getting solutions, like choosing the right one. This one might sound a little soft because, you know, oh, it's your IQ EQ or whatever, but it's not. Your emotions are signals, they're data. They tell you what's happening under the surface. And if you ignore them, they're still gonna run the show. I have a health coach who often asks me things like, so where do you feel that in your body? And of course, this is me telling her something that is just like, this is disturbing to me, or this is a challenge, or whatever. Where do you feel that in your body? And at first I was like, what? Excuse me, I don't understand, right? But almost every single time she's right. It might be this muscle here, or it might be my gut, or it might be um the lack of ability to sleep, right? All of those things are showing up. My body knows what's going on. Sometimes my body knows way before my brain can catch up. So don't ignore your body. Your emotions will show up there. Um, it's often the first part of you to notice something is off. Emotions are often the expression of things we haven't fully named. They might be trying to protect you or warn you or reveal something that's felt off for a little while. So definitely do not skip this part. Slow down, notice what you're feeling, and ask, what is emotion? What is this emotion pointing to? And what does it want me to see? And then number four is discernment is greater than certainty, which we're doing a little math, you know, greater than certainty. Um, this is general thoughtful, generate thoughtful possibilities. Don't rush, right? We're conditioned to think that leadership always means having the answer right away with confidence on camera, right? No. Discernment isn't about being fast. It's about being faithful to what matters most. Let me tell you, the more you do this, the faster you'll get at it, but it won't be fast at first. You don't need to be sure, you need to be thoughtful, you need to be willing to question. Give your curiosity room to breathe. Let me tell you, we've left that behind too much. You've got to have room for your curiosity to wonder, to explore, to play with possibilities before locking in on a conclusion. This is how innovation happens, and it's how alignment is preserved. And then number five, ask better questions. Just please ask better, ask any questions at first. You'll you'll figure it out. This goes along with Dewey's choose wisely and then act portion of his framework. Because this is where you choose. You've done the reflection, you've paused, you've filtered, you've felt, you've explored, but now you act. Not from fear, but from alignment. Ask questions like, who benefits if I believe this? If you really sit with that question, you will be shocked at the answer. Because nine times out of ten, it ain't you, sister. All right. Who benefits if I believe this? What am I assuming here? And is that even mine, right? Am I walking into this with a should or an assumption, you know, something that or an expectation that I don't really have never examined? Is that mine or did I get that from somebody else? And then what values being ignored, violated, or dismissed? Because this is what discernment actually looks like. It's not certainty and it's not urgency. It's choosing with intention. The more you practice it, the stronger that muscle gets, the faster you move. But until critical thinking becomes not just a tool, right? You gotta do it until it becomes a way of being. So let's land this episode. We've covered a lot today about how to think clearly, lead intentionally, reclaiming your mind as a leader. So here's three questions to help you start noticing your ABCs in action. Where do I feel a disconnect between what I'm seeing and what I've always believed to be true? I'm just gonna let that sit. Where do I feel a disconnect between what I'm seeing and what I've always believed to be true? Number two, what feels off about what I've accepted as normal but haven't questioned in a really, really long time? Right? What do I think of as normal? That's that word, if something comes, if something comes up like, well, this is the normal way or that's not normal, immediately question it, okay? And then number three, what core value do I want to lead from in this moment? If I know what my core values are, then I want that to be my starting point. What do I want to lead from in this moment? Let that let that sit with you, let those be your starting points. Because you're not trying to solve everything, you're just trying to start seeing more clearly. Your challenge this week is to use the ABCs just once, intentionally, and notice what shifts. Pause, reflect, choose differently. And if something clicks, tell me. DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn and let me know what you're uncovering. If you're ready to go deeper, start with the Core Values Blueprint or explore the Core Values Coaching program to build frameworks that actually reflects who you are. And if you want to lead differently, not just think about it, then join me live in October at one of my upcoming Live to Lead events in Central Virginia. We're hosting two incredible experiences, one in Charlottesville, one in Lynchburg. These are designed for purpose-driven leaders who are ready to recharge, refocus, and rise. Tickets are available in the show notes or on my website. Come, bring your team, bring a colleague, or show up and leave, show up solo and leave with renewed vision. All of the links for everything are in the show notes. Grab what you need and let's just keep this momentum going. Now, next week, we're gonna zoom in on what happens after you start thinking critically, how honoring your core values becomes the way you reclaim your direction and your discernment. Because sometimes clarity shows you that something has to change. And that's not the end, it's the beginning of leading on your own terms. But for now, stand tall, lead like you mean it, and remember, your mind is not a liability. It's a leadership asset. Use it.