E87 - Yollana Shore | Founder and Coach at Awakening Leadership - Jeff Mendelson | Automation Superhero

E87 – Yollana Shore | Founder and Coach at Awakening Leadership

Yollana Shore is dedicated to educating others about the integral connection between the body and mind and how it pertains to leadership. Through her coaching methods, she helps leaders have greater confidence and influence in their environment as well as how to overcome and move past their work frustrations through following her One Big Tip. 


The Embodied Leadership Method

As the founder of the company Awakening Leadership, Yollana seeks to train people in harnessing their abilities through what is known as the embodied leadership method. She teaches them to use not only their minds, but also their bodies as “another intelligent system to bring on board to make good decisions.” In this way, she promotes daily practices to instill the idea of remembering your body and how it affects your leadership skills and behaviors. These practices look like touching on the main points of your body, such as feet, hips, and heart, while affirming the kind of leader you would like to be and how your body can help you get to that point. By implementing this unique sense of body control, there are four qualities you must have, which Yollana names as being “grounded, confident, engaged, and open-minded.” It is through these qualities that you will achieve your optimal leadership state and be able to effect the change you want to happen. 

Employing Aikido Practices

In addition to teaching embodied leadership, Yollana also has One Big Tip for helping her clients “overcome their frustrations and melt barriers” through practices that employ what is known as the Aikido martial art form. This method promotes the strategy of defeating your opponent through knowing them deeply and using their actions to throw them off balance, similarly to grabbing a punch and pulling the fist forward instead of pushing it away. Through the Aikido method, Yollana instructs clients who are experiencing dissatisfaction or frustration to “get inside the issue from the other person’s eyes and look at it from an open mind instead of from your own judgment.” This mindset is all about a change of thinking and perspective that allows you to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the people that you are having conflict with. Instead of blaming others for the problems, you may find that you have been acting in the same way as the people you are trying to work against and find a solution. Changing your expression and approach in this way can have a great impact on your personal connections and interactions. Yollana believes in the power of the Aikido method and notes that the most important aspect is that “it changes you, and it changes the other person and also creates more possibilities and opportunities within the dynamic.”
You can learn more about Yollana’s methods for leadership by visiting her website www.yollana.com. To contact her directly, use the contact form on her website, and if you send her a message that you listened to her message on the One Big Tip podcast, she will share with you some resources that will help you get started in your leadership journey.

Since we recorded this episode, Yollana has started her own podcast, which focuses on leadership development through self awareness, cultural awareness and ecological awareness. You can find The Awakening Leadership Podcast at: www.awakening-leadership.com/podcast/