Using Your Divine Feminine Energy as a Leader
The following is adapted from F*ck the Glass Ceiling: Start at the Top (and Stay There) as a Feminine Entrepreneur by Mandy Cavanaugh.
The whole concept of “feminine” leadership was the farthest thing from my mind during my first dozen years in business. Until, upon a request from the mentor and colleague who’d helped me pivot into my entrepreneurial life, I played the role of facilitator at Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Conferences in Spain and the United States.
It wasn’t until speaking in the front of these rooms full of women that I discovered the chasm that exists between ultra-competitive, classically trained female leaders (who can embody either masculine or feminine energy on demand but are also few and far between outside of corporate jobs) and the struggles that more inexperienced and/or strictly feminine entrepreneurs were having.
The reason feminine entrepreneurs often struggle is that corporations, working environments, and hierarchical business systems were all created by men; thus, they naturally put men at an advantage.
As a woman, trying to compete on the level of masculine energy is a losing battle. It’s far more fulfilling and effective to tap into your divine feminine energy.
What is Divine Feminine Energy?
When I talk about “divine feminine energy,” I’m not speaking only about women. When I use the words feminine and masculine, I’m referring to energies that any individual can embody to varying degrees.
That said, women tend to have greater feminine energies. Besides influencing our physical bodies, the hormones of being male or female influence our brains, and when analyzed as a group, there is a 30 percent overlap between each gender on masculine and feminine traits. To me, this is significant enough to assert that there are significant differences between the average female and average male, whether biological or environmental, in the expression of the energies of feminine and masculine.
Many cultures have ways of explaining feminine and masculine energies, including references to yin and yang, Shiva and Shakti, and so forth. When I use the phrase “divine feminine energy” I am referring to the purest blueprint of feminine essence within the universe, which contributes equally to everything that is manifested.
So when I say that we should restore divine feminine energy to all levels of leadership, I am suggesting that feminine figures assume their power and collaborate with masculine figures in power and that each of us (women and men) also have that balance within ourselves.
Why Feminine Energy Is Important
In my personal experience, modern society has cultivated women to draw upon their innate masculine energy to such a degree that gaps have been created in our family systems in the same way the world at large has been damaged by the same imbalance. I am not putting the onus on women as being the cause of this trend, nor am I placing it on men, particularly. Rather, I am focusing on moving forward with solutions that benefit us all.
Having more feminine energy in business truly does benefit us all. Being feminine has been highly underrated in leadership. Women are ingrained with a biological skillset that concerns us with wholeness, compassion, and connection, as opposed to the masculine imperative, which is to conquer, control, and compete. In my observation, women are more likely to be empathic and to see things more holistically, with less risk of over-compartmentalizing their decisions, which leads to fewer unintended consequences.
When you recognize these traits as inherent leadership strengths (rather than weaknesses, as outdated societal programming might dictate), you’ll come to find they are some of the most powerful tools in your toolbox. With the advantage of having a uniquely complex way of seeing things, you’re poised to be a powerful, effective CEO who’s built to lead twenty-first-century businesses.
A Balance of Masculine and Feminine
I feel that humanity is being called to restore divine feminine energy to leadership at all levels, and that mission begins with you.
The issue in business today is an imbalance between masculine and feminine energy. The solution is not to replace all masculine energy with feminine, but rather to achieve balance between the two.
If we want to restore balance so global leadership can function optimally, that balance must begin within ourselves — as founders, idea generators, innovators, executives, and CEOs.
When the situation or circumstance dictates, sometimes stepping into masculine energy can be both the right choice and your saving grace. But unless you have the nature to be a manly leader and enjoy embodying it, if you want to feel fulfilled in your relationships, parenting, social life, and health, it’s imperative for you to be authentic to your feminine nature.
For more advice on divine feminine energy in business, you can find F*ck the Glass Ceiling on Amazon.
Mandy Cavanaugh’s passion for leadership, entrepreneurship, and helping people thrive has fueled her roles as CEO, consultant, and facilitator. Her businesses have spanned global lodging logistics, land development, manufacturing, corporate leadership seminars, and turnaround consulting. Mandy succeeds in highly competitive environments by connecting each of her team members to their best future self. She holds various coaching certifications and has conducted seminars on high performance, authentic success, conscious language, imagination activation, conflict resolution, corporate soul retrieval, CEO-ship for start-ups, sales, team building, and wealth wisdom for women.
