When Leadership is Disconnected From the Body

When leadership is disconnected from the body, women pay the price, and you’ve probably felt it.

You know the feeling.

That tightening in your chest when you’re interrupted mid-sentence.

The heaviness in your gut when you’re “asked” to take on more, without recognition, without pay.

The inner flinch when your boundaries are reframed as “lack of devotion.”

While anyone can misuse status power, I’m speaking here to patterns I’ve seen repeatedly in spaces led by men, where patriarchal conditioning gives men unearned authority, and women are left carrying the emotional and logistical weight.

It often looks like this — especially for women:

• Voices subtly minimised or dismissed.

• Being cast into unpaid or underpaid roles.

• Boundaries eroded and framed as devotion.

• Emotional labour expected — and invisible.

This is status power at work: unearned authority, often unconsciously conferred because of gender.

Disconnected from the body.

Extractive. Ego-driven.

Prioritising image over relationship.

Personal power is different.

It’s rooted. Embodied. Relational. Attuned. Accountable.

It’s cultivated, not conferred.

It’s a leader connected to their own body, able to feel others, repair ruptures, and lead without making others collapse themselves to stay in the room.

When personal power is present, something shifts.

Trust grows.

People speak without bracing for interruption.

Boundaries are honoured and not tested.

Giving becomes a choice, not an expectation.

Everyone in the room feels safe enough to bring their full self forward.

When we grow our personal power, we grow the embodied safety that allows everyone to belong, without overgiving, without self-betrayal.

This is the work.

This is what leadership can be.