This One Goes Out to All the Leaders

Remember when radio DJs would make dedications, typically in the late-night hours? Some deep-voiced DJ would hypnotize listeners with an intro to a slow-jam-style song? Consider this your leadership dedication—whether you lead kids in classrooms, board rooms, schools, districts, or any other place where you need to call on more than your intellect and your skill. This one is dedicated to your body and soul.

The Mind-Body Mixtape

The morning of leading my first major all-school professional learning, I wasn't reviewing notes or rehearsing talking points. Instead, I was in my car, volume cranked up, letting Rage Against the Machine, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift serve my spirit. Some might call this an unconventional leadership preparation strategy. I call it wisdom.

Here's what nobody tells you about leadership: it lives in your bones as much as your brains. While every practicing and aspiring leader might be busy highlighting passages in team-building books or perfecting their facilitation strategies, the hidden work of leadership is happening in a much more visceral place: in the way you carry yourself into a room, the energy you bring to a difficult conversation, the presence you embody when everything around you is falling apart. We need more ways to tap into the body and spirit when we lead.

Behind the Music

My own journey into embodied leadership began in my childhood bedroom, speakers blasting everything from Mötley Crüe’s “Live Wire” to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” when no one was home, while I played furious air guitar or pointed my finger Saturday Night Fever-style to disco violins. What looked like adolescent angst was actually my first laboratory for understanding power, presence, and emotional expression. Those private moments of uninhibited movement and music were rehearsals for the leader I would become.

As I grew and engaged in different types of leadership, so did my musical palette. From hair metal to hip hop, classical to funk, each genre became another nuance in my leadership spectrum. These weren't just songs on a playlist; they were different frequencies of power, different ways of being present, different tools for meeting the complex demands of leadership.

I discovered that the quiet authority needed for leading a staff meeting might flow from Bach, while the creative energy for trying out a new lesson might emerge from Parliament Funkadelic. The righteous anger needed to advocate for change might come from The Clash, while the nurturing presence needed for mentoring and coaching might arise from Aretha Franklin.

As I expanded my musical repertoire, I added another dimension to my embodied leadership practice: dance. Not the kind you'd see in clubs or on stages, but the messy, gloriously imperfect head bobbing when I think no one sees me driving on the freeway, or the rhythmless gyrations when I close the shades and let loose to Chappell Roan. Before, between, and after meetings and presentations, I dance like no one is watching. It’s not pretty, but it’s powerful and empowering.

Deep Cuts

When we engage our bodies, something remarkable happens in our brains. The analytical networks that help us make decisions begin to dance with the intuitive networks that help us connect and create. This isn't just poetic metaphor. It's neuroscience. Our Default Mode Network and Task Positive Network, typically seen as distinct forces in their respective hemispheres, forge harmony through embodied practice.

The leaders we need today aren't just smart—they're embodied. They don't just understand their emotions; they know how to move with them and harness them. They recognize that sustainable leadership isn't about maintaining a single, professional presence. It's about developing the capacity to access different qualities of presence as needed, while remaining authentically ourselves.

What does this look like in practice? It starts with permission to lead not just from your head, but from your whole self. Permission to create a playlist that serves who you need to be as a leader. Permission to let beats or motions move you before a big presentation. Permission to step away from your desk and shake off a challenging interaction. Permission to find your own rhythm of leadership.

Accessing the body is about finding ways to be fully alive in your leadership role, especially in moments that challenge you most. Some days, that might mean contemplative meditation to Lo-Fi Beats. Other days, it might mean a one-person mosh pit behind closed doors. Both are valid are valuable.

Essential Tracks

This dedication ends where it began—with an invitation to expand your repertoire, to turn up your frequency and create your essential playlist for leadership. As you consider practices for embodied leadership, reflect on the following:

Where in your body do you feel most connected to your authentic leadership disposition, and what practices or experiences help you access that connection?

What would become possible in your leadership if you gave yourself complete permission to access all parts of yourself—the powerful, the playful, the fierce, and the tender?

If your leadership had a soundtrack, what would it be? How might you use that awareness to intentionally shape your presence and impact?

Imagine what’s possible when your leadership flows not only from your mind, but through your body and soul.