Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Be an Intuitive Leader
21 Plays9 months ago
In this episode, we explore how leadership has nothing to do with titles and everything to do with how you show up. Together, we look at what it really means to step into leadership in everyday situations . I share how I discovered I could be a leader even when I wasn’t “the boss,” and how my intuition became my guide to read the room, know when to step forward, and when to hold space for others. We also dive into the surprising story of how I just knew a teammate was about to quit before they told anyone, and what that moment taught me about trust, responsibility, and the energy leaders carry. This conversation is for anyone who feels the call to lead in their own way, no matter their role or title.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Intuitive Leadership
00:00:00
Nadia Stejskal
Welcome to the Intuitive Move podcast, the place where we shut our minds, open our hearts so we can overshare. I'm Nadia and this is your space to drop into your truth, trust your inner voice and hopefully laugh at your latest meltdown.
00:00:18
Nadia Stejskal
In today's episode, we are going to talk about be an intuitive leader. So the whole episode is dedicated to those of you who are struggling at work, who are not finding their place, who maybe feel like they are doing, doing, doing and not having enough recognition.
00:00:42
Nadia Stejskal
In this episode, we are going to learn to take the space to own what we are doing and start growing from there.
The Essence of Leadership: Accountability & Empowerment
00:00:53
Nadia Stejskal
Now is not a time to blame others. It's time to take accountability of our own actions. And actually, that's the first characteristic of leaders.
00:01:04
Nadia Stejskal
If you want to be a leader, you need to start taking accountability. You need to start... paying attention at your actions, what your impact is in others, and start growing from there.
00:01:19
Nadia Stejskal
So how about we start talking about how to be a leader before being an intuitive leader? We need to understand so we can find the definition in Google in two seconds. But here we need to learn how to actually be a leader at work.
00:01:37
Nadia Stejskal
So who is a leader at work and what characteristics does this person have? So a leader at work is a person that does their job from the best of their knowledge and from the best of their abilities, but at the same time they take into account others.
00:01:56
Nadia Stejskal
They put others not before themselves, but also at the same time while performing their job and doing their tasks.
00:02:06
Nadia Stejskal
This leader is thinking about others, is thinking on what the impact can be on others, if everyone around them are okay, if they're they are maybe in need of something else.
00:02:21
Nadia Stejskal
Potentially, the leader is thinking how to be a good worker and how to help others. So being a leader is not about having more decision-making or having more authority.
00:02:37
Nadia Stejskal
Actually, none of that. Being a leader means maybe working a little more, working a little harder, and feeling abundant enough in their job, in their skills, in their experience that they are generous to share with others.
00:02:58
Nadia Stejskal
So that's how you start identifying a leader and that's how you start identifying leaders that maybe you aspire to be.
Leadership Beyond Titles
00:03:08
Nadia Stejskal
A leader also never put the blame on others.
00:03:13
Nadia Stejskal
A leader takes accountability and even sometimes a leader takes responsibilities for things that they didn't even make.
00:03:24
Nadia Stejskal
So, for example, if there is miscommunication or especially, yes, in in moments of duality or in moments of ambiguity,
00:03:36
Nadia Stejskal
when things are not clear 100%, the leader is that person that steps up and takes responsibility and takes the blame even sometimes.
00:03:48
Nadia Stejskal
So, so far, it seems like being a leader is a really bad thing, but... Please think that being a leader is kind of like working little by little. Sometimes we have losses in the short term, but in the long run, by becoming a leader, we will have a lot of rewards.
00:04:10
Nadia Stejskal
Of course, everyone has the option of wanting to be a leader and developing themselves as a leader. But that's not mandatory. You can be simply one more worker and doing your job and going home.
00:04:25
Nadia Stejskal
No one is expecting you to be a leader. But if you really want to make a difference in the world, I really encourage you to be a leader from any position whatsoever.
00:04:37
Nadia Stejskal
You can be an assistant, you can be a secretary, you can be a warehouse person, you can be a project officer, project manager, like in my case.
00:04:50
Nadia Stejskal
You can have a leadership position, but you don't have to. have a leadership position in order for you to be a leader. So everything that we explained before about being a leader doesn't require you to have an an executive position.
00:05:06
Nadia Stejskal
And the characteristic that I love the most about leaders is that leaders empower others. If you have a leadership position...
00:05:18
Nadia Stejskal
Potentially, you have more opportunities to empower others, to be flexible in work environments or being flexible with team members.
00:05:29
Nadia Stejskal
But you can also empower others from the bottom. You can empower peers and you can empower bosses as well. And it doesn't have to be in a direct way.
00:05:41
Nadia Stejskal
So how, for example, how can we empower peers? The way in which we empower peers is basically being collaborative.
00:05:51
Nadia Stejskal
So if you focus on collaborate and instead of competing and sharing what you learn, say, for example, that you learn a new process to pay invoices. And that's actually a really useful thing in your team.
00:06:09
Nadia Stejskal
So you can get back in the office and say, hey, team, so I learned this. paying processing invoices and how about I teach you how to do it If you're interested, if not, all good.
00:06:24
Nadia Stejskal
So see how someone that had the opportunity to learn a new skill comes back in the team and says, I can teach you this.
00:06:35
Nadia Stejskal
So I'm not gatekeeping the knowledge. And secondly, I'm sharing it with you. I'm going to put my time and energy for you to learn too.
00:06:46
Nadia Stejskal
That's a way of speaking with actions. And a leader is a person that definitely speaks more with actions than words. Sometimes it's good to have a little speech or explaining things that we are doing, but most of the times it's best not to talk too much.
00:07:06
Nadia Stejskal
And I'm guilty of this. I love talking and that's why I've got this podcast so no one can shut me up. But In the leadership role, or sorry, e when we are a leader at work, it's best to speak with actions.
00:07:25
Nadia Stejskal
And if you want to speak about what you do, that's awesome. But more importantly, your actions.
Empowering Through Constructive Feedback
00:07:34
Nadia Stejskal
How can you empower a boss, for example?
00:07:37
Nadia Stejskal
So you can empower a manager or a boss by simply taking their instructions and trying to do your best.
00:07:49
Nadia Stejskal
Basically, by being a good employee or by being a good team member, you are empowering your manager. You're honoring their ways and their instructions.
00:08:01
Nadia Stejskal
And even if you have feedback to improve things, You can get back to them with feedback. You can propose some different new things to do or i imagine if you have an initiative.
00:08:17
Nadia Stejskal
You can trust them and bring them some ideas. Whatever you want to share, can. go to your manager first and that will honor them and that will empower them to keep being a manager.
00:08:35
Nadia Stejskal
If instead you say that you don't like your manager or you're angry with them, so you potentially fall into the... this empowering them because say that you don't like their instruction or you don't like their ways but instead of providing the feedback in a constructive way you go and talk in their backs with others so things that are not ethical that basically disempowers them.
00:09:07
Nadia Stejskal
And hopefully you don't want to do that because that causes negativity in teams and that also causes negativity in yourself because if there is negativity in the team, that will definitely impact you as well.
00:09:22
Nadia Stejskal
So basically by trusting your manager and even the manager of your manager themselves By taking them into account in the picture, if you do things thinking on yourself, on your team, your manager and everyone that can have an impact in you and in your team, you are empowering others.
Harnessing Intuition in Leadership
00:09:49
Nadia Stejskal
Now that we have a better idea of what a leader looks like at work, maybe we can start talking about how to be an intuitive leader.
00:10:00
Nadia Stejskal
So the intuitive leader is that person that uses their intuition and even maybe some instincts and anything that can be translated from any of our senses and perception And then it gets translated into being a good leader.
00:10:21
Nadia Stejskal
So if you are an intuitive leader, you'll be able to read the room and immediately know who goes to work just to clock on and off, to make the hours, get the paycheck at the end of the week, and that's it.
00:10:37
Nadia Stejskal
If you are an intuitive leader, you'll be able to know who is planning on leaving. How about that? Actually, I've got a story about this.
00:10:48
Nadia Stejskal
I was in a project meeting in one of my jobs in Australia. It was around three years ago.
00:10:59
Nadia Stejskal
And I thought at the moment that how funny it was. But then after, after, with time, I realized that that was a big intuition call. So I was in this project meeting and I was reviewing some action items.
00:11:15
Nadia Stejskal
I was checking, okay, who does what, who is doing this, when are you finishing? Like typical project management, like basic update, meeting update.
00:11:28
Nadia Stejskal
And we were saying, okay, it was kind of the legal, some legal action item. So had this person assigned to it. And I asked him, so when are you going to be able to finish this? So I add the date and the deadline.
00:11:48
Nadia Stejskal
And he said jokingly, four weeks. And I said straight away after, are you leaving? And then it was silence and he said, no, what are you saying?
00:12:01
Nadia Stejskal
And then two weeks after that, he said that he was going to leave. And it was actually four weeks from that day. So what I thought is, wow, I did predict this because when I asked you about this action item, when are you going to finish it?
00:12:22
Nadia Stejskal
You said four weeks. So I thought, oh, four weeks sounds like the notice period. So I know that it has some rationale behind it. But at the same time, I took...
00:12:33
Nadia Stejskal
I took the information available and I said, are you living? So sometimes the intuition can come from gathering information and from absorbing information in our environment from our senses.
00:12:51
Nadia Stejskal
But then the mechanism in which this information gets translated into a conclusion or an idea or something new, that is the intuition.
00:13:03
Nadia Stejskal
So actually, i I love that story because first it happened to me and I felt like I was a psychic. I felt like, oh my God, I predicted this. I saw the future. i i saw you living.
00:13:19
Nadia Stejskal
At that time, when I go back to that moment where I said, are you living? I totally felt the energy of resigning.
00:13:29
Nadia Stejskal
You know, when you see when a person is resigning and they have this energy of like already checked out and they maybe they don't care anymore about their job.
00:13:40
Nadia Stejskal
So I also had this energy from him and I thought, wow, are you leaving? And then, yes, he was leaving after that. So how about using your intuition to see the future? Like who who wouldn't want that? You also can use your intuition to perceive who is having maybe a personal issue.
00:14:04
Nadia Stejskal
And of course, we don't want to dig into people's personal information, but you can always use that information to help you be a better leader or a better co-worker. potentially if you perceive when someone is having a personal issue at home or something like that, you don't have to ask like, you know, like getting into other business, but you can always say something genetic like,
00:14:36
Nadia Stejskal
You know that I'm here if you need anything. I I saw you maybe you're feeling down lately, but I wanted to let you know it's okay, not feeling well all the time.
00:14:47
Nadia Stejskal
And I'm here if you ever want to talk about it. And that's maybe that's an opportunity to first help others, help another person who might be struggling.
00:15:03
Nadia Stejskal
And secondly, that's an opportunity to make a new friend. So a situation, that's another thing that we learn in this podcast is that every every situation, especially situations which can be negative or uncomfortable, can be transformed into positivity and opportunities.
00:15:26
Nadia Stejskal
Another thing that you can do with your intuition is go to work and observe. You can see who is burnout, who loves their job, who doesn't care about their job, and even...
00:15:44
Nadia Stejskal
Even you can predict some issues, definitely. So if you gather information and you have that sense at work that, oh my God, here it feels like tension, potentially there is an issue in the air or maybe there is an issue coming.
00:16:03
Nadia Stejskal
I definitely had this happen many times, but what is happening sometimes is that we feel like there is an issue, but we don't really know where it's coming from or if it's already there.
00:16:16
Nadia Stejskal
You need to develop really sharp intuition for you to be able to know, okay, I'm seeing conflict in between these two people. Like it's not that precise, but you can always anticipate.
00:16:30
Nadia Stejskal
And one thing that is kind is more precise is so when you perceive issues between two people or between a person and yourself,
00:16:41
Nadia Stejskal
you can go and check in with them and ask again, hey, is everything okay? I noticed that maybe there is some tension, but I'm not really sure.
00:16:52
Nadia Stejskal
I just noticed that, but I'm not really sure where or how. I wanted to ask if is everything all right, if there is anything I can do. So if you go and ask this question to the person who is potentially having an issue with you,
00:17:09
Nadia Stejskal
You have 90% chances of preventing the snowball to get bigger and bigger. So you can use your intuition to perceive these things and de-escalate problems like magic.
00:17:25
Nadia Stejskal
I have done this in the past and I love it when when I do that. I love it when it works. And I love it because, yes, it definitely works. Sometimes it doesn't totally prevent the issue 100%, but if it doesn't prevent 100%, at least it helps you to manage the problem little easier. Okay.
Flexible Leadership & Learning from Mistakes
00:17:51
Nadia Stejskal
One misconception about leadership and leaders in particular that we might get confused sometimes is that leaders are on the boss side or are closer to the boss and management than the actual team.
00:18:08
Nadia Stejskal
And that's a complete misconception. The leader is always on the team side. And another misconception is that so the leaders should know everything.
00:18:20
Nadia Stejskal
And that's definitely not the case. A leader doesn't necessarily know everything, but the leader normally, as we said before, does a little like extra mile, works a little more.
00:18:36
Nadia Stejskal
than the rest of the team because, as we said, that leader is thinking about themselves because first ourselves, our work, and then immediately they consider at the same time actually the needs of others, how they are serving the team, how the team is benefiting from them doing that work.
00:18:58
Nadia Stejskal
Another misconception that there is around leadership is that the leader leads by the rules and it has strong boundaries from their work. And that's actually 100% incorrect.
00:19:17
Nadia Stejskal
A leader is flexible because a leader is a leader of humans. It's not a leader of their role. It's not a leader of their work that they are actually doing.
00:19:29
Nadia Stejskal
It's the leader of other people. And by being a leader of others, you can't be a leader of others if you're rigid and strongly within these limits.
00:19:44
Nadia Stejskal
You actually need some big, like, more or less definition of the role and the teams. But then within that space, the leader encourages flexibility and fluidity.
00:19:57
Nadia Stejskal
The leader is able to sense what's happening even when no one's talking. They are able to read the energy, they are able to read the room, and they are able to anticipate problems.
00:20:11
Nadia Stejskal
Another thing that I love about being a leader is that leaders should encourage making mistakes. And what's that? Like, that sounds really wrong.
00:20:25
Nadia Stejskal
Why? Because being a leader is not about authority. It's not about correcting others. It's not about being the boss. no.
00:20:35
Nadia Stejskal
The leader should empower others to find their place. And the only way for others to find their place is by them actually trying.
00:20:46
Nadia Stejskal
Trial and error. Trying a mistake, then correcting, correct it, and then trying again. And so mistake is always part of the steps in which everyone finds their place.
00:21:02
Nadia Stejskal
So if you think that being a leader is being perfect or a leader leads by the rules and the policies from the company, definitely not.
00:21:12
Nadia Stejskal
So of course, the leader tries to comply with everything as much as possible for the organizations. But that we are talking about human beings. It's normal to every now and then adjust in order to work.
00:21:27
Nadia Stejskal
our behavior and feed the resolution of the problem that they might be happening into the big structure of the organization.
Intuition Across Professions
00:21:39
Nadia Stejskal
So remember, if you want to be a leader, you don't need to know everything. You need to do your best and at the same time encourage others to find their place.
00:21:51
Nadia Stejskal
If you have this mindset in place and at the same time you're a little bit like me, like you sense energy and you know when something is right and you know when something is wrong, you can put those skills at work.
00:22:07
Nadia Stejskal
So you can grab your intuition, your instincts, and you can put them to work. And you know, there are many professions, multiple occupations, where people in those fields use their instincts and intuition like one more skill at work, but we don't talk about it much.
00:22:31
Nadia Stejskal
for example, police officers, they definitely use their instincts. And yes, I know it might sound like sometimes judging, but definitely they use their instincts to find the bad person that committed the crime and even...
00:22:48
Nadia Stejskal
Doctors grab all the information from the data and they process with software, but at the end of the day, it's themselves, it's the human being connecting with the patient and then getting into the conclusion of what the diagnosis could be.
00:23:05
Nadia Stejskal
And actually, I think ah every occupation has a little bit of intuition and instinct, but But we don't even realize that we are using that.
00:23:17
Nadia Stejskal
So in this episode, I encourage you to think first, think yourself as a leader. Think yourself as someone who can make the difference. Even if you're the cleaner at the bottom of the whole company, you can be a leader.
00:23:34
Nadia Stejskal
So the summary is you can be a leader by doing your best and potentially, if you can, a little bit like the extra mile.
Embracing Leadership for Fulfillment
00:23:44
Nadia Stejskal
And if you can solve one more problem, helping others, preventing issues from getting worse.
00:23:51
Nadia Stejskal
So you are a leader. You are creating goodness and you are finding your place at work. I hope, I really hope from the bottom of my heart that you find your place at work.
00:24:06
Nadia Stejskal
And if you are not feeling happy right now, please know that this is a temporary situation. You will be able to either change yourself or in the future, my you might even change the role or change the organization. But you have the power, you have the call of deciding if you stay, if you move, or if you change yourself, or if you try to change the situation.
00:24:37
Nadia Stejskal
I really hope that you liked this episode. Please let me know which part you like the most, and let me know which topic you like me to discuss in the next one.
00:24:48
Nadia Stejskal
I'll see you in the next episode of the intuitive move. Stay well. Bye.