Even the most experienced leaders can sometimes feel disempowered in today's complex business environment.

Organizational politics, bureaucracy, inadequate resources and internal self-doubt are just some barriers that can constrain a leader's influence and impact. However, by tuning into themselves more deeply, leaders can gain the clarity, skills and support needed to drive change in the face of adversity.

The Sense-Myself model supports the Collective Strategic Sensing framework and provides a systemic framework for empowering leadership—regardless of gender or background. It's an approach for understanding one's unique situation more objectively, nurturing the emotional energy to persevere, and strategizing pathways to greater effectiveness. It's broadly applicable to any leader seeking to fulfill their potential. By focusing on self-awareness, skill development and community, the model equips leaders to take charge of their growth.

The five dimensions of the Sense-Myself model allow leaders to:

• Objectively assess opportunities and constraints
• Validate emotional responses to challenges
• Counter limiting self-perceptions
• Build resilience and vitality
• Acquire strategic thinking and influence

With this comprehensive approach, leaders can gain clarity, build community and capabilities to drive change with confidence. The Sense-Myself model to empower leaders has the following fix dimensions that need to be tackled simultaneously:

• Situation - Being able to evaluate or reframe circumstances, opportunities, resources, structures, biases and barriers in one's current leadership environment is crucial. Working in this dimension helps leaders gain clarity. The situation dimension involves objectively assessing one's current leadership environment and circumstances. By analyzing opportunities, resources, structures, biases and barriers, leaders can identify factors limiting their influence and impact. This enables addressing constraints like inadequate budgets or restrictive organizational structures.
  
• Emotions - Being able to evaluate the authentic feelings and inner experiences that arise on the leadership journey. Working in this dimension helps leaders understand how the situation impacts their feelings, reduce burnout, and renew their resilience. The emotions dimension involves dealing with emotions and creating safe spaces to openly express authentic feelings that arise like frustration, stress or self-doubt. By acknowledging that they are expressing suppressed emotions and dealing with uncomfortable feelings, leaders can work through tensions, gain perspective and replenish their emotional reserves. Effective leaders understand that emotions are an integral part of decision-making, yet also recognize the need for Intellectual humility (IH).
  
• Mental Chatter - Being able to evaluate the inner voice and self-talk that can empower or hinder their leadership. Working in this dimension helps leaders build confidence and overcome obstacles. The mental chatter dimension involves working and reframing limiting self-talk and inner beliefs into empowering narratives. By transforming inner critics into growth mindsets, leaders can view obstacles as opportunities to learn. This builds confidence to promote ideas despite resistance.By transforming inner critics into inspirations, leaders build the confidence to promote ideas despite resistance. Intellectual humility is key, as it enables leaders to balance self-assurance with openness to feedback. Leaders who can manage their mental chatter avoid arrogance and acknowledge their mistakes.
  
• Energy - Being able to evaluate the physical, emotional and mental vitality required to sustain focus and perseverance. Working in this dimension helps leaders sustain focus, passion, and perseverance. The energy dimension involves prioritizing renewal practices that boost vitality, manage stress, and sustain motivation. By taking time for adequate rest, exercise, reflection and recovery, leaders avoid exhaustion and maintain the positive energy to model resilience.

• Strategy - Being able to evaluate the strategic skills required to influence and lead change is crucial. Working in this dimension helps leaders acquire skills to have more impact and a strategic view of the situation. The strategy dimension is about becoming familiar with different strategies used to address various challenges and place them in practice. By proactively building knowledge in key areas, leaders can overcome gaps that limit their effectiveness. This dimension involves moving from ideas to tactics. In this way, they can address systemic obstacles that inhibit progress.

By cultivating deeper self-awareness across these areas, leaders gain the insight, community and abilities to power through challenges and fulfill their potential. This holistic strengthening empowers leaders to persist when faced with adversity and constraints. By tuning into themselves more deeply, leaders can gain clarity on circumstances limiting their effectiveness and get the support needed to drive change.

Empowering Shared Progress Through Greater Self-Awareness

The Sense-Myself model provides leaders with a systematic way to understand their unique situation objectively. Leaders gain insights into factors inhibiting their influence by delving into the intersecting of the different dimensions.

With a clear-eyed view of realities and roadblocks, leaders can then focus on the emotional reserves and capabilities needed to align priorities for mutual benefit even during accelerated change or high uncertainty. For instance, by taking time to renew physical and mental energy, leaders avoid burnout and sustain the passion required to mobilize people towards a shared vision. Or by reframing limiting mental chatter, leaders build the confidence to foster prudent risk-taking and workforce empowerment.

Cultivating Always-Ready, Responsive and Innovative Leadership

The three universal outcomes of Enterprise Agility can also be applied to leaders to achieve always-ready, always-responsive, and always-innovative leadership style. This empowers the culture and enables organizations to rapidly sense and seize opportunities within complex market environments. However, leaders often struggle to embody these traits, especially with limited support and inner resources. This is where the Sense-Myself model comes in. By working through its six dimensions holistically, leaders gain several capabilities critical for enterprise agility:

• Evaluating their unique situation, skills and support systems fosters readiness to anticipate disruption and volatility.
• Processing emotions and mental chatter openly builds resilience to address issues quickly and fluidly pivot strategies.
• Prioritizing personal energy renewal and skill development sustains the creativity and passion required for continuous innovation.

In essence, by tuning into themselves at a deeper level, leaders gain the self-knowledge, emotional energy, capabilities and community to drive change confidently amid uncertainty. They become empowered to rapidly respond to emerging customer needs, reimagine offerings and realign teams for the future.

The Sense-Myself model provides leaders with a systemic way to cultivate the self-awareness and self-care required to foster always-ready, responsive and innovative organizations.