Despite being taught that leaders are primarily logical, strategic, and persuasive, powerful people feel more deeply than they ever admit. To teams. To investors. To their families. To themselves.
By December, when the holiday season arises in the midst of the end of the year stresses, the emotional backlog begins to surface: the unspoken disappointments, small betrayals, quiet victories, and moments of aching clarity.
Holidays can fill us with joy and nostalgia. They can bring out the child within us, while also bringing out the burden of responsibility, entertaining, and family dynamics. That’s a whole lot of activity and a whole lot of emotions – some great – some not so.
If you’re feeling more this month – don’t dull it. Don’t outrun it. Don’t push it back into the vault. Leaders who evolve spiritually with ever-developing emotional intelligence, do something rare: they let themselves feel without losing control and then dealing with regret.
Your emotional intelligence is not a liability. It’s your compass. Knowing when the triggers are being kicked up, when exhaustion or stressors are limiting self-control, or when a simple quiet moment is a much-needed gift, allows you to take care of yourself as well as those around you who would pay the price of your lack of self-understanding and self-care. Not a good move… Emotional intelligence is the gift of honoring, not judging, whatever comes up. Frequently, they are conflicting emotions. Welcome to humanity! “OMG, I love seeing everyone, when are they leaving?”
The deeper and most real truth is this: Feeling everything is not weakness. It’s sovereignty. It allows you to deal with yourself before you stress out, get angry, or need to run away. It makes room for joy, connection, and understanding of all the others in the room with you. It permits spiritual detachment – the ability to emotionally detach from all the energy being swirled around – while you get to lovingly observe the wonder of the moment and feel the love or appreciation that is real as well. That is a gift beyond words, in both our professional and personal lives.
None of this is possible if we don’t recognize and own all the feelings that crop out, whether expected or not. Recognize that as leaders our intuition is an absolute gift in business, as is our ability to read the room. Knowing how to read you, because you allow yourself to be seen, is the greatest use of that intuition, combining spirituality, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness – even self-appreciation – in the bunch. What a way of life that is, especially during the holiday season combined with the end of the year completions and preps. You got this….
Reflection:
What emotions would I finally allow myself to acknowledge this month – without judgment?
If you want a private space to explore what’s rising, I’m here. Emotional clarity is the gateway to a stronger 2026.
