Three-Centered Leadership

Convening your “Internal Board of Directors”

I live in Phoenix, Arizona.

If you’ve been watching the news (an activity I can’t fully bring myself to recommend), you know Arizona is nearing a state of crisis with COVID-19 infections. According to The New York Times, “there is no country in the world where coronavirus cases are growing as rapidly as they are in Arizona.”

It’s March all over again, and it’s scary. States across the country are declaring themselves “open for business” while I go back into a self-imposed lockdown. With this comes a resurgence of enormous stress and uncertainty for me.

In times like these, I convene my Board of Directors.

I’m not talking about a corporate board, or a traditional board, but rather my Internal Board of Directors. If every public company is required to have one, I thought it was important for me to have one, too. The purpose of a Board of Directors is to represent the shareholders’ interests and to keep the loudest voices from steering the company astray. Without a board, a company is beholden to the dominant forces of the moment, and can easily collapse into ruin.

Without my Internal Board of Directors, I would be a dictatorship, a hostage to the issues of the moment, stuck in my habitual patterns and ruled by my ego.

Instead, when I feel myself in a period of extreme stress, I lean into the wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and unique perspective that each of my board members has to offer.
So, who is on my board? My head, my heart, and my gut, of course.

In my recent article “Enneamania” and Integrative Intelligence, I introduced the idea of Three-Centered Leadership, which is built on the ancient idea of engaging each of our inherent centers of intelligence (Head, Heart and Gut) and combining their powers to tackle the many challenges life throws at us.

We all have Three Centers of Intelligence: a Head Center for thinking and perceiving, a Heart Center for emoting and intuitively relating to others, and a Gut Center for sensing an instinctive inner knowing in our bodies (hence the term, “trust your gut”).

You can also think of them like this:

• Head = IQ or Intellectual Intelligence
• Heart = EQ or Emotional Intelligence
• Gut = SQ or Somatic Intelligence

So when times get tough, when I feel that wave of anxiety and uncertainty wash over me, I convene a meeting of my Internal Board of Directors. This looks like slowing down, sitting down, and engaging my Head, my Heart, and my Gut. I check in with my Head (the stories I’m telling), my Heart (my emotions and relationships), and my Gut (my body, my physical situation, my instincts) to gather input on my current situation and generate a plan of action.

Most of my board meetings are impromptu. I find my directors to be available whenever I ask. They’re reliable like that. The most recent meeting was held just a few hours ago, and in this particular meeting, the following question was on the table:

Do I go to the grocery store today?

For some of you, this may be an easy choice. For me, it wasn’t. I had things to consider:

• Could a trip to the grocery store invite undue risk?
• Could it harm me or to the people I care about?
• Would this seemingly mundane task put people in danger?
• And if not, why was I feeling so conflicted in this moment?

I knew I didn’t have the answers, so I called my advisors together. I picture each of us sitting at a medieval round table where everyone is invited to participate and all perspectives are necessary and vital.

I would like to briefly re-introduce these three members of my board.

The Head Center

This center of rational and irrational thought has big ideas and thinks big picture.

At its best, it is data-driven and seeks to cognitively understand the issue fully, concretely and in detail.

When my Head Center is out of sync, however, thoughts can bounce around my brain like a game of ping-pong, jumping from memories of the past to possible scenarios in the future (not all of them great). I’m pretty head-driven normally, and my mind likes to go rogue and solve problems on its own and not engage with the other centers. It also can hijack situations and seek power over the other two centers, crowding them out completely. (Yes, I have a loud head.)

Today, as I engaged my Head Center, I slowed down and gave its ideas thoughtful consideration. When I do this, the healthier side of my center shows up. My Head Center reminds me that we are in a global COVID-19 hotspot with more than 4,000 new cases confirmed in the past 24 hours. It also reminds me that I typically pick better produce than the personal shoppers who deliver my groceries. It acknowledges that this is not necessarily a rational comparison of facts, but it does know both things to be true.

The Heart Center

This center is focused on relatedness, empathy and emotional intelligence. Where the Head Center is inwardly focused, the Heart Center is outwardly focused.

At its best, my Heart Center is aware, self-managing, empathic and engaged in healthy relationships. When out of sync, this center can be intense, all-consuming and unwilling to compromise. It becomes obsessed with the outside world of people and their problems.

Today, my Heart Center feels the separation and isolation that comes from months of staying at home, and it’s hurting.

The Gut Center

This is the center of instinct and inner knowing. While the Head Center trades in cognitive knowing (through facts and reasoning), the Gut Center specializes in that kind of “absolute knowing” that is difficult to describe with words.

At its best, my Gut Center is grounded, confident and unassailable. When this center is out of sync, though, I feel disconnected, invisible and powerless. Usually, this is when one of my other centers has powered up and cut me off from the signals my body is sending.

To hear what this center has to say, I go through a special process I learned, called Sensorial Meditation, to check in with each of my five senses.

Today, I noticed my body feels heavy and wants to stay put.

Common Ground

After hearing from my board and considering the unique perspectives of each center, the next step is to identify a strategy that connects and honors all three.

In the end, I decided to stay home (avoiding danger), order groceries for delivery (to meet the practical need), and spend the time I would go to the store connecting with a friend on the phone (to fight loneliness and feel joy). I also decided to hold off on ordering a few of the produce items I am picky about (since I reasoned that they are important but not urgent) and will consider going to the store in a few days, checking in with my board again if I feel it necessary.

Today, I invite you to check in with your internal board of directors.

1. Identify a question or challenge you’re presently facing.
2. Invite each center to speak to the challenge
3. What does your Head Center reason? What facts does it know objectively?
4. What does your Heart Center feel? What emotions are present? What relationships are affected?
5. What does your Gut Center know instinctively? What signals is your body sending?
6. Identify a strategy that considers, and honors, all three centers.

In the upcoming weeks and months, my team will be breaking down and exploring each of the three centers in more detail. I will also talk more about Three-Centered Leadership and how to integrate all three centers.

If you have questions, I invite you to comment or DM me on Linkedin or Instagram. I’d love nothing more than to help you.