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Smart Power and Authentic Leadership with Dr. Sylvia Rhode-Liebenau (Part 1)

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🎧 Episode 165: Smart Power and Authentic Leadership with Dr. Sylvia Rhode-Liebenau

In Part 1 of this insightful episode, we explore the transformative concept of "Smart Power" with Dr. Sylvia Rhode-Liebenau, founder of the Smart Power Method and leadership expert with over 30 years of experience. From her academic background in international relations to her 17-year tenure at the European Investment Bank, Sylvia brings a unique perspective that integrates artistic expression with executive coaching for organizations like UNHCR, European Central Bank, and Amazon.

We dive deep into:

  • Redefining power beyond force and control
  • The three pillars of Smart Power: purpose, collaboration, and authenticity
  • Why showing emotions at work makes leaders more effective, not less
  • The concept of "grounded leadership" in volatile times
  • How to express emotions professionally without "polluting" the workplace environment
  • The connection between physical presence and leadership resilience
  • Lessons from Viktor Frankl on purpose-driven leadership during chaos

🔑 Key takeaways:

  1. True power comes from inspiring others toward a shared purpose, not from controlling them
  2. Collaboration creates exponential results - "one plus one equals eleven"
  3. Authenticity requires showing up as your healthy self, not your unfiltered self
  4. Leaders who hide their emotions lose trust and connection with their teams
  5. "Speak out but don't act out" - use emotions as signals, not weapons
  6. Physical presence and breath awareness enhance emotional and mental stability
  7. Purpose provides resilience during unprecedented change and complexity

💡 Quotes to remember: 

"When we are grounded in a purpose, something that is really important to us, then we are more resilient and therefore also more powerful."

"Speak out but don't act out. You can use some of your emotion to express that, but you will not pollute the environment with your unfiltered expression."

"Authenticity doesn't mean I always say everything that just comes or I'm my unfiltered self... It means to show up fully, to be really present, to be open, but in the healthy way of being myself."

https://www.smartpowermethod.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvia-rohde-liebenau-phd-b51b0328/

A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Evoke Greatness. We are officially entering year three of this podcast and I am filled with so much gratitude for each and every one of you who've joined me on this incredible journey of growth and self-discovery. I'm Sunny, your host and fellow traveler on this path of personal evolution. This podcast is a sanctuary for the curious, the ambitious and the introspective. It's for those of you who, like me, are captivated by the champion mindset and driven by an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge. Whether you're just beginning your journey or you're well along your path, you're going to find stories here that resonate with your experiences and aspirations. Over the last two years, we've shared countless stories of triumph and challenge, of resilience and transformation. We've laughed, we've reflected and we've grown together. And as we've evolved, so too has this podcast. Remember, no matter what chapter you're on in your own story, you belong here. This community we've built together is a place of support, inspiration and shared growth. Where intention goes, energy flows, and the energy you bring to this space elevates us all. So, whether you're listening while commuting, working out or enjoying your morning coffee, perhaps from one of those motivational mugs I'm so fond of, know that you're a part of something special. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your curiosity, your openness and your commitment to personal growth. As we embark on year three, I invite you to lean in, to listen deeply and to let these stories resonate with your soul. I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to evoke greatness.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of Evoke Greatness, where we uncover the wisdom of remarkable individuals making a genuine impact in our world. Today, we're joined by Dr Sylvia Rowe-Libanau, founder of the Smart Power Method and a leadership expert with over 30 years of experience transforming how leaders create impact with ease. With a PhD in international relations and a background spanning from European Investment Bank to her current work coaching C-suite executives at organizations like UNHCR, european Central Bank and Amazon, sylvia brings a uniquely powerful perspective. What truly sets her apart is how she integrates her artistic talents as a painter, dancer and singer into her leadership approach, giving clients an embodied understanding of presence and authenticity. Her upcoming book who's in Charge promises to reveal pathways to resilience and meaningful leadership. Sylvia, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Hello Sunny. It's such a pleasure to speak to you today.

Speaker 1:

Well, I always like to kick it off in learning a little bit more about your story. What was it? You come from a background of banking and have woven in so much of this artistic component of life to lead you. What led you to the current path you're on today?

Speaker 2:

Well, the path led me to the path. So banking is probably something that if you had asked me when I was in my 20s I wouldn't have dreamt of going into, because I studied political science and I was actually like torn between psychology and political science. So I ended up doing political science and law and focused on international relations, both my master's and the PhD, and I always studied, like, psychological aspects of politics and was very fascinated fascinated about power, about like is is power really what we think it is, or is it also something different? And so I studied power in my master's, which was about the un disarmament conference, and then in my phd, which was about the like of NGOs and transnational collaboration on government politics and how actually the non-government actors had an influence on the East-West conflict and how it ended, and so that taught me a lot. But then I decided not to continue in academia but to go into the practical world, which was a very good decision, because as soon as I had landed there I realized that rolling up my sleeves and doing something practical made me much more happy than sitting behind my desk and studying things and debating academic wisdoms.

Speaker 2:

And so my first job was at the European Commission dealing with development cooperation. And so there I was fascinated about like, why does an organization change and another does not change, when we were helping institutions to reform, and also, how did the institution in which I was working, the European Commission itself, how did that function? Why did people behave the way they behaved and what worked and what kind of leadership style worked? And what kind of leadership style worked? A bit less. And one of the things that fascinated me very early on was this know, these silos in organizations, how they sometimes inhibit good outcomes, where I was told very early on, you shouldn't give information to them because then they will take over and say, well, but we have to talk to them because actually by talking to each other and by sharing information we will have better outcomes together.

Speaker 2:

So that was early insights and well, that was in the institution. And then I went to consulting, actually because I had the feeling that consultants sometimes did the more juicy work compared to the administrators in the institution when it came to these development cooperation programs. And from there then I ended up finally in banking, but it was not as a banker but in organization development and coaching, which I had studied when I was in consulting. So I worked for 17 years for the European Investment Bank dealing with career management, talent management, organization health, where I was leading that function, creating that function for a few years, and then finally with leadership development. And then, having dealt with leadership development in that fantastic institution which I'm working for, at a certain stage I felt like now I want to do more of that beyond this institution. So that's when I left in, like three years ago, when I left the European Investment Bank to work as a leadership coach and facilitator for many different organizations.

Speaker 1:

Sounds like we're very aligned. In early in my career I was committed, I was all in on psychology. I was so fascinated by what made people do and think and behave in the manner in which they did. I didn't end up going into psychology, I ended up going into nursing, but I still think that was a thread that was woven through my career and I think today, farther in my career, I probably embrace that much more of really loving the psychological aspect behind what people take, and so I think that's a similar thread throughout stories.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that also interesting? Because nursing is also a very psychological profession.

Speaker 1:

That's right.

Speaker 2:

My understanding of this psychology.

Speaker 1:

That's right. I never thought about that but I thought, oh man, I can see today looking back, but I think, as I thought, shifting out of psychology and focusing on nursing, I kind of felt like I was giving that up or leaving that behind. It really partnered with me all through my career. You had a LinkedIn post and this goes to really talking about your book and your concept of this smart power LinkedIn post and you distinguish these different kinds of power destructive power, choose power and what you call a smarter kind of power. I would love for you to just kind of share a little bit more about what makes up each of those.

Speaker 2:

So let me start with how I got to this, talking about power. It was really seeing that what people believe to be power is sometimes not that powerful. So in the corporate world, for instance, when people believe like pushing and having control over people or things, that makes them powerful. But then you see that using that kind of power often makes people end up achieving less than they could if they had a different approach. So that made me thought ah, maybe power is actually something different, and so my proposition is let's rethink power so that actually we can achieve more, that we are more successful, and let's question whether power equals force and control is really the right answer, or whether there is maybe another approach that we could use. And what I found is that leaders who use a more purposeful approach to say, not only I'm in control, but hey, people, there is something that we can achieve together and that's inspiring, so let's go there together. They have more followership and therefore they're more effective. Then the aspect of collaboration to privilege, like the one plus one is 11 kind of idea. So it's not that by controlling and being on top that I will achieve more, but to be open to say, well, I want to go there. What do you think? What do you think about it? Can we maybe merge our strategies and merge our resources and achieve more together so that actually makes me more powerful? And merge our resources and achieve more together? So that actually makes me more powerful? It might look as though I was losing power because I'm giving up some control or I'm opening myself up to ideas from other people, but in the end I achieve more. That's simply what we can find when we compare the leadership styles of people.

Speaker 2:

And then it's also more on the personal side. If you see leaders that are afraid of showing emotions, they're afraid of connecting to others personally, they tend to be less powerful. I've seen it very often Someone says, yes, but I can't show my personality at work, because work is work and personal life is personal life, but then people don't trust them that much because they can't see who they really are. And for instance, also when you are in a conflict situation maybe a difficult conversation and you are in a conflict situation, maybe a difficult conversation and you hide behind a wall of I'm not showing anything about my feelings or I'm hiding behind rules rather than being personal. That's a less powerful conversation than being authentically there. So the third aspect of smarter power is just to summarize it is to be authentic, so it's purposeful, it is about collaboration and there are more facets to that. And then there's the authentic personal power.

Speaker 1:

It's so interesting that you say that in. I think sometimes, especially early in one's career, power is maybe more of a perception than a lived experience. Right, because you've not gone through that. Back in the early days, in my very first role of leadership, I had an approach that was not the right approach. My perception was power was this bold thing that you grab a hold of?

Speaker 1:

You are the leader, you are the one leading. I shake my head now like what a fool I was. But a lot of lessons came out of it, and so that's why I wouldn't change it, because I took and I learned and I grew so much as a result of it. What I found was that was my perception, but I had no lived experience. And so once I started getting a lived experience, I fell down and I made some mistakes and I realized that I can't lead a team with I, and so, as I shifted to being open to actually sharing some of those mistakes that I made early on, which there's always a situation where you feel a little embarrassed by it or you feel like it makes you look like you don't know it all. Well, guess what? We don't when we're stepping into it and that's okay, like that's the authenticity.

Speaker 1:

And so I think, by getting to a place of sharing those mistakes and those missteps, like I would much rather have somebody vicariously live through my mistakes and step over the potholes that I stepped into and be able to have that and then it was learning to actually like put my arms out and lock arms with inclusivity of my team, because I could drive that team as hard or as far as I could, but it's to your point. The smart way to do it is to really say what is this vision, that we can go get together, that we feel like collectively we believe it and we're willing to work towards no-transcript, but I really do think that that is such an important part of leadership that I almost hope people have to go through the hard to get the lessons and the insight out of it.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and it's sometimes this idea which I often get, especially in team developments or leadership trainings when it comes to emotional intelligence and communication, when they say, yes, but emotions I can do them at home or with good friends, but not, please, not at work, and I get that it's. It can be difficult to to step into that because it's if you've been told your whole life not to do that, then you can't. It's very difficult to change that rapidly, but the truth is that when you do, when you use your emotions, that means your full self. Then you connect better again, people trust you and, by the way, you also have more fun because you're actually living while being at work and not only functioning, and things become more easy, as you said, like you can say, well, I don't know this, or yesterday I actually made a mistake, I'm really sorry about that. And when you say that and you mean it, so people can feel you, then actually it's where it really becomes interesting, not only using the words but really feeling that connection to other people.

Speaker 1:

I think that also sets an example. It gives people permission to show up more authentically in that interaction versus it being a transactional relationship. You have interactions and then you allow for space where people can really show up with their whole selves, and I think there's always that fine line of showing your emotions, and I think that's more about self-awareness, right, we don't want to be so loosely emotional but at the same time, we don't want to be stoic and not have any emotion whatsoever. And I think you, you learn and get more comfortable, as you, I think, get more comfortable with your own self and your own leadership.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's one very good concept is like to speak out but not act out. So showing your emotions doesn't mean like I'm emotional, I am angry now, no. But it could mean like I feel angry and I'm going to say, well, this is not okay with me, because anger is the emotion of saying this is not okay with me. So so to speak up, I'm setting the boundary here. So you use your emotion as a signal to like, oh, this is not, this is not okay, and you can what you said before. You can give a little like dose of your anger, like, because you will not say that with a smiling I'm angry. You can say, well, this is not okay with me and people.

Speaker 2:

So you can use some of your emotion to express that, but very correctly, especially when you're in a leadership function. You will not pollute the environment with your unfiltered expression of the emotion. You will feel it like you will also not run around in a piggy dance when you're happy. You will express it in a way that people can deal with it. So I think that's the magic of it to feel it and then to share it in a way that is healthy for others. And again, especially when you're in a leadership function. It's not your team's job to manage your emotions. So neither to be in the spotlight for the whole day because your daughter's getting married that's beautiful, but maybe other people have something going on as well and not to pollute when you're in a bad place, because as a leader, your impact is exponentially high on the team. So anything that you do, especially that is negative, will weigh on your team.

Speaker 1:

And I think language is important, and I love the word that you use around pollute, because to me when I think about pollute, I think about, like pollution, right Filling the air with something that isn't healthy, and so I love you say that because I think that provides a really good visualization of what are you bringing to the air in your leadership?

Speaker 1:

Are you bringing? You know we talk about? I think one of the buzzwords today is toxicity. Right, like, oh, I have a toxic workplace. What kind of? In what ways? Or are you bringing any? You know? Are you polluting the air? I really, really like that. That really sits with me well and it makes me observe. It makes me the owner of observing what I'm bringing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's the question again of power. Because if you pollute the environment with your unfiltered whatever happens, then as a leader you're less powerful because people will go into hiding. They will not trust. Trust you less, trust each other less because the atmosphere becomes unsafe, so you will achieve less because your team will not be at its best when you do that. And that's a very good reason to. If it doesn't come naturally to work at it or to use that capacity to say, okay, what's what's the right way to to express myself here authentically, because authenticity doesn't mean I always say everything that that just comes or I'm my unfiltered self, like I'm an authentic asshole. But it's not what it is about Exactly. It means authenticity means more to show up fully, to be really present, to be open, but in the healthy way of being myself, which means also authenticity requires some work.

Speaker 1:

So when I show up, I show up in my healthy version and not in my messed up version you you've written about, uh, in your book you wrote about a concept called grounded leadership and it seems particularly relevant, just in kind of the, I guess, the volatile world that we're living in. Today. How, how would you guide leaders to remain centered and present when facing the volatility or unprecedented change, complexity, the things that are thrown at us? It sometimes feels very heavy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, love this question. It's really important. So to me, there are two main aspects there. The first is purpose. So what I've experienced and there's a lot of literature about that also is when we are grounded in a purpose, like something that is really important to us, that we care about, then we are more resilient and therefore also more powerful. We are able to pull through better, but also we are able to convince more. So that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

So in chaos, there's a very good like book and like philosophy actually about that. Maybe you, you know as a psychologist, victor franco, yes, like the, the father of the, it's not not logopedy, it's the logotherapy around this therapy of purpose, of therapy of reason. And he observed also that other people who survived were the ones who had a purpose beyond the day-to-day and in this extreme environment. I find this so powerful to know this Like it actually works. It's actually something that is beyond powerful to be connected to our purpose. So that can be in this big, like important environment, and that can also be like how do we survive and thrive in the current like important environment? And that can also be like how do we, how do we survive and thrive in the current very chaotic environment like, do we like despair? Or do we say, oh yes, but there is a bigger purpose that I want to pursue and that will actually help me move forward and be resilient and also be convincing, because I'm working towards something mightier. So that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

The second is what I work on a lot and which is linked to my other life, which is about dance and art.

Speaker 2:

And the body is when we are living, inhabiting our body is when we are living, inhabiting our body, when we are comfortable in our body, when we are connected to our breath, it's so much easier to survive a rough day or to orient ourselves in a difficult environment. It works because our body and emotion gets impacted by what happens. Just imagine you want to cross a road and there's a truck coming and it almost runs you over. You're impacted physically, emotionally, but it works also the other way emotionally, but it works also the other way. So when we are working our body, when we are, when we are able to inhabit our body, to be comfortable in the body, then our emotional and mental state are more solid. So that is super effective work and I use it a lot with my clients and I see how beautifully it works for them, does have so much to do with, I think, probably getting to know yourself better, right, would you say, like inhabiting your body.

Speaker 1:

There's so often, and I think so much of it has to do with TV and social media and these images that are portrayed as to you know what amazing looks like, when we can still feel amazing, no matter what body we're in, and I think, leaning into that piece, there's like this inner. There's inner, there's a joy, almost like a childlike, right. It's like that, that awe and wonder and that joy of leaning into that. And when you're in that space, when you're occupying your own body in that way, the hard feels a little lighter, the difficulty feels, you know, feels a little less weighty.

Speaker 2:

It feels very different. It feels very different because when we are physically present in the body, like one can try that out immediately, like you're listening to this and you just after this fall, even while you're listening, you connect to your breath and you really feel into oh, I'm here in my body. You will feel how different that feels and it's exactly something. It's this oh, I feel a sort of happiness that comes from nowhere, and therefore also resilience and strength.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you know the routine. This is where I hit the pause button. I hope you've enjoyed part one of Smart Power and Authentic Leadership with Dr Sylvia Rode-Libanau. Make sure to come back next week where she guides us through practical tools for embodied leadership and navigating our increasingly complex world. Discover the ABC method for instant centering, why the heart is the most dysfunctional organ in today's organizations and how to distinguish true intuition from workplace bias. I think you're going to enjoy it, so hope to see you next week. Thank you so much for listening and for being here on this journey with me. I hope you'll stick around If you liked this episode.

Speaker 1:

It would mean the world for me if you would rate and review the podcast or share it with someone you know. Many need to hear this message. I love to hear from you all and want you to know that you can leave me a voicemail directly. If you go to my website, evokegreatnesscom, and go to the Contact Me tab, you'll just hit the big old orange button and record your message. I love the feedback and comments that I've been getting, so please keep them coming. I'll leave you with the wise words of author Robin Sharma Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day. It comes from taking little steps consistently. It comes from making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary, so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is the extraordinary.

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