This post is part of a five-part series exploring my 5 Pathways to Transformation: Health, Relationships, Wealth, Work, and Truth. These essential areas shape the quality of your lived experience. When you bring clarity and alignment to each, you create a life that feels whole, meaningful, and deeply satisfying.
Transformation is not a one-time event. It is a way of being—living with intention across all domains of your life. We begin with Work—a sacred space to practice who you are here to be. Let this be your invitation to slow down, reflect, and recalibrate.
Work is not a dirty word.
I have always related to my professional life as one of the greatest personal development programs I’ve attended. There are endless opportunities to bump up against my own resistance, inner critic, and sense of limitation. Work for me has also been an incredible place to support the evolution, development and transformation of other human beings—but they have to want it. An early mentor of mine would frequently remind me to “match effort with effort”.
I learned early on in my career that I must work with the willing. If I bleed my energy coaching a team member that fundamentally doesn’t relate to work as an opportunity for their growth then shame on me! I have been known to say, out loud, “Lola, move on!”
A year ago I hired a new Administrative Assistant. She was fresh out of college with very limited professional experience. The first few months were rough. There were things I coached her on that I thought she should have known. But she didn’t.
Yet something in me knew she was hungry. She had a fire in her belly that felt familiar. She wasn’t afraid of feedback, in fact she loved it. She took it on and quickly has become an integral member of our team.
Her drive and persistence is now inspiring me to stay on my edge of growth. She knows how to work. She’s not afraid of work. And that is one of the most admirable qualities in a human today.
Somewhere along the way, work became a dirty word. In the backlash to hustle culture, we forgot something vital: that work—when approached with intention and reverence—can be one of the most meaningful expressions of our humanity—a place to express a sense of purpose and contribution. An outlet for developing oneself.
The pendulum has swung from burnout to disengagement, and now many human beings are stuck in the middle—clocked in physically, but not emotionally. Reactive instead of intentional. Victims of their circumstances instead of powerful creators activating the incredible agency and responsibility we each have the privilege of directing.
As leaders, engaging team members that relate to work from obligation is not just hard to be around—it is draining and quickly erodes a culture. Inspired leaders do not believe that work should be all consuming, but inspired leaders understand the devotional and life giving act of aligning meaning and purpose in work. When team members are energized by creating a context of ownership, not obligation, everything shifts. That becomes an environment that is compelling, attractive, generative, and expansive.
Holding a high bar for “work” as sacred and purposeful fundamentally alters the experience for every team member that chooses to participate. As a leader, it’s time to stop dragging people along. Your time, energy, and intention is too valuable.
Leadership is sacred work.
When you treat your work as sacred and expect that from your team, everyone notices.
You stop leading with stress. You lead with presence that steadies the room.
Ownership rises. Energy lifts. Clarity returns.
And guess what? Everything unlike THAT begins to fall away. You and your organization are no longer a match for anything unlike the generative energy you’re sourcing.
You must go first:
- See work as sacred, even when it is ordinary
- Speak about your role with reverence, not resentment
- Acknowledge effort, but celebrate ownership
- Name what matters, even when it is not measurable
Let your work become a transmission
Let your being shift the air in the room.
Let the way you lead become a prayer for what is possible.
Stand for what you really want. Claim a culture that lights you up. That catches on fire. And that glows brightly enough for the right people to find it.
A Simple Yet Potent Practice
Transformational leadership is not about bypassing outcomes.
It is about shifting your posture in the moments that matter most.
It involves saying the uncomfortable thing. Holding your team to their highest expression. Moving from reaction to responsibility. From frustration to clarity. From default settings to deliberate presence.
A transformational leader takes radical responsibility:
- For the energy they bring
- For the questions they ask
- For the atmosphere they help shape
- For the standards they expect
This kind of potent practice does not mean perfection. It means awareness. It means intention.
One simple but extraordinary tool I return to again and again: Radical Reminders.
These are truth statements to help you recalibrate quickly in the moments that matter most.
Keep them close—on your desk, in your journal, on your phone. Speak them when the room goes sideways. When the stakes feel high. When you forget who you are.
These reminders are a way to return—not just to effectiveness, but to integrity. To clarity. To truth.
Here are a few that work for me:
- I am aligned with this moment.
- I trust the guidance within me.
- I am a clear channel for what wants to come through me.
- I allow myself to be still. That is enough.
- I am whole. I am brilliant. I am alive. I am necessary.
Let these statements of truth meet you where you are. Let them bring you back.
Work is not a dirty word.
You know that. You have built a life around meaningful contribution. You take pride in what you create, how you serve, and the standard you hold.
The challenge is leading in a world where not everyone sees it the same way. Where disengagement is normalized, presence is rare, and too many have forgotten that work can be sacred.
Your invitation is not to fix them. It is to go first.
To embody the reverence you want to see.
To remember that every meeting, every project, every hard conversation is a chance to create something truer.
To choose—again and again—to let your work be a transmission of who you really are.
That is the leadership we need.
And it starts with how you show up today.
Want a simple way to return to truth when the stakes feel high? Download my Radical Reminders poster series—bold, body-based statements designed to help you disrupt old patterns and reconnect to what is already true within you.
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