ACCESS, restored.
Image: ChatGPT
On a client’s completion call this week, we landed on something that’s stayed with me.
The word access.
Not just access to confidence at work, but access to parts of himself he didn’t realize had gone into hiding for years.
If I’m honest, I see this in myself sometimes, too.
Hiding my own needs to keep the peace.
Not saying the authentic thing to avoid being disruptive.
To maintain continuity.
To stay safe.
And in doing so, I keep myself hidden - operating from a place of restricted internal access.
Recently, I’ve been letting that part of my brain, the one that prioritizes synchronicity above all else, step off center stage.
In keeping with the theater metaphor, I wouldn’t say it’s gone backstage… it’s more like that part of my brain has started standing ‘stage left’.
As a result, I’ve started listening to myself more.
Allowing myself to acknowledge what I need, and letting what I need be known.
Allowing access.
To myself, with myself.
And with others.
Often, when people come to coaching, they arrive through professional development.
Perhaps they’re navigating a transition.
Or they want to learn how to lead better.
Speak up more.
Feel steadier in rooms.
What’s often really happening, though, is a quieter recognition: the need to move from one operating system to another.
In my last Substack, I shared that survival mode isn’t a leadership strategy.
What I want to name today is how survival mode can become an operating system, and when it does, how it quietly narrows internal access.
To voice.
To instincts.
To confidence.
To range.
The leadership development work I do, it isn’t about piling new skills on top of that, because new skills can’t do much if there isn’t space to contain them.
First, my clients and I embark on the process of removing what’s blocking access in the first place. Then we build practical skills - because once access starts to return in one area of life, it rarely stays contained. And that’s a good thing.
I’ve watched this internal access ripple outward for my clients in countless ways - moving from increased professional confidence into stronger relationships, greater creative output, and a more fulfilled life overall.
What often begins as a professional endeavor, learning to name what’s true instead of what’s convenient, ends up improving far more than just having applications at work.
Ever hear the saying how you do one thing is how you do everything?
It’s a cliché, but as we know, clichés exist because they’re true.
When you stop abandoning yourself in small, familiar ways, you don’t just show up differently at work.
You start living less compartmentalized.
More integrated.
More yourself.
That’s what my client was pointing to on that call.
Not his “finish line,” but his return to himself.
This is the kind of work we’ll be doing inside the leadership lab I’m kicking off next week, Is This Thing On?
It’s not about fixing what’s broken or becoming someone new.
It’s about restoring access - to your voice, your instincts, your leadership, and the parts of yourself that may have gone quiet while you were too busy surviving.
We start with work and professional development - and yes, we cover practical tools, too. But we don’t pretend it stops there.
So if you’re feeling that nudge - that sense that you’re ready to come back online in a fuller way - I’d love to have you join the lab next week.
There are two spots remaining.
If this resonates and you’re curious, let me know - I’m happy to share more.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this:
Sometimes the question isn’t “what’s next?”
It’s really “what do I have access to now - and what’s next from here?”