The Next Big Step for Fifth Dimensional Leadership with Ginny Clarke

I think many of us have lost aspects of our true identities and we're acting out characterizations of who we think others want us to be. That makes me so sad. Break free from the need to please others. Start with seeking to please your higher self, not your egoic self, but your higher self. And your own need to do what is good for all, not just you. You need to release this need to be liked. Are you ready to speak your truth and live an alignment with your highest potential? Welcome to Fifth Dimensional Leadership, a podcast for leaders, thinkers and future makers dedicated to creating the conscious workplace of tomorrow. I'm your host, Jenny Clark. Join me and my guest as we move beyond action and doing to the essential truths, knowing and being. Whether you're an accomplished executive like me or leader in training, we invite you to listen, learn and grow with us. Well, welcome to what is going to be the last episode of 2022. And it's going to be me, Jenny Clark, your host and creator of Fifth Dimensional Leadership. And I thought what I would do today is share some updates and some reflections of the past year or so of my life and what I'm observing in the world. But I think we'll help you as leaders during a time that is dare I say unprecedented and pretty tumultuous. So for those of you who are not on my mailing list and didn't see my fall newsletter a couple of weeks ago titled Break Free, first of all, subscribe if you would on my website, jeniclark.com. But I talked about how I've been incubating. I've been existing in what I refer to as this liminal space. It's neither here nor there. It's I know that I'm preparing for something more, something bigger and something deeper. And I expressed my need to break free in this particular newsletter. Break free specifically from limiting thoughts and limiting beliefs. And I'm going to be talking a lot more about that later. But importantly, I also announced in that newsletter that I'm going to be pausing my Fifth Dimensional Leadership Podcast for the first time since starting it in June of the summer of 2020. And I'm doing it so that I can launch a series of courses as a part of what I'm calling Fifth Dimensional Leadership University, 5DLU. And while I thoroughly love talking to fascinating people, I love interviewing. And I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed and benefited from some of the discussions that we've had over the last two and a half years. It's time for me to take a break so that I can do this other thing. And I fully intend to resume the podcast and probably Q2 of 2023. And depending on everything else that might be going on for me, I'll likely do two, three month sessions per year. So I hope you'll hang in there with me and stay in touch and I'll be in communication on all the platforms, social media platforms. So let me tell you about some of these courses because I think it's a passion and it was that thing that was incubating in me. And their creation of 5DLU, as I'm calling it, it's been calling me. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of a few things. I think it's the fact that I've done all these speeches almost over 60 in the last 18 months with leading authorities and I'm really grateful to them. I've loved, loved speaking to all these thousands of people. But as a part of that, I have to create the content for those speeches. I give a series of them and I'm always updating them for the audiences and what's topical and important in these broader discussions. And so there are a lot of things that are impacting the business world and our world and the world of talent. And so there's those considerations that I wanted to be able to address. There's also a need that I have that's emerged from me to offer people an opportunity to explore and learn about some of these topics that I address for these audiences and for among the guests that I've had on the podcast. And then I think it's, you know, needless to say, and I mentioned this just a moment ago, it's been a rough couple of years and people and the environment have suffered greatly. And I feel like I want to call people to a higher frequency. I know it sounds kind of woo-woo for some, but a higher vibration to be able to access some new insights and some solutions, not just for ourselves, but for humanity. Because I think people need new approaches to processing what has been happening and some new frameworks within which to develop a sense of agency over everything, over our careers, our thoughts, our lives. So I just don't want people to fall into this mindset that life is happening to us. I don't believe that at all. We're creating what we're experiencing. We're not victims. And so to the extent that I can offer people some insight and a perspective, you don't always have to agree with me or believe me, but please challenge me. This is something that's been coming to me for quite some time and I really think that it's time. I also want to point out that when I use the word leaders, I want to clarify what I mean. Because yes, I do mean those people who might sit in leadership positions, sitting in those positions, by the way, doesn't make you a leader necessarily. But I also am talking about those people who are simply deliberate about their purpose, what it is that they do for a living, those people who are seeking ways to activate their purpose in their lives and for the benefit of the world. And those who might be individual contributors, household CEOs or warriors for good seeking platforms to elevate others. I mean, you know, it's not just a corporate. I've been a corporate exact for a really long time. It's not just those corporate types who are leading. We need all kinds of people who are leading from wherever their skill or expertise is right now. So, you know, I guess I would, on that point, I would also offer that you, to the extent you're listening to this, you are someone who is a leader in my mind and you're an influencer, not social media influencer, but you're connected to your being or your essence. And that propels what you do. You're doing, right, or your presence in the world. Those things need to go together. So, the courses that I've been talking about, they're going to use the five dimensions that I created for fifth dimensional leadership as the lens through which to look at ourselves in the world. You might remember them. Go yourself, speak your truth, inspire love, expand consciousness and activate mastery. So, as I look back on my own career and I integrate both the functional and the structural aspects of what I've seen work well and not so well in terms of business outcomes. And I use the term business in the broadest sense of the word, right? But also people outcomes or the impact that some of these decisions and things have on people. These dimensions to me are the affirmations of who we need to be as leaders, regardless of the rank or the title, that it's about who you are less than what you do. And I just think that these five dimensions really allow us to get there and speak to that. That makes me so sad because it means that we are contorting ourselves into these synthetic versions of ourselves to assimilate to an assigned norm and to be able to withstand stressful organizational dynamics. I mean, people are just freaking themselves out and it's no wonder that we've had the great resignation and this serious mental health crisis that we're seeing throughout our workforce at all levels. So through these five DLU courses, I want to help people rediscover their talents and their joys and new dimensions of themselves that they didn't necessarily know that they had. I also want to amplify the fact that we never stop learning and evolving. And that's why there was a logo on that newsletter that you might not have seen. But the logo for 5DLU is a derivative of the 5DLU leadership podcast logo. It's overlapping pentagons, right? You remember, "Penta" means 5, 5DLU, right? But the logo for 5DLU is sort of spiralized. It's going in on itself like a spiral staircase. And it's really intended to sort of represent the infinite nature of the exploration and the evolution of our humanity and our consciousness. So I'm asked to deal with the courses. I'm really excited to be working with this man that I've known now for a couple of years. His name is Jay Gilford. Jay's a trainer, educator, coach, and he's going to be my co-pacilitator in these courses. And Jay is formally a Cirque du Soleil where he created their leadership development program known as Spark. So right now Jay and I are in the midst of working to give you an unparalleled experience. I mean a really transformative experience. I've been working at it every day. So be on the lookout for the landing page. And I would urge you to sign up fast because I'm only offering 20 seats to start. And this is a five week online course. So now I want to spend a little bit more time with you talking about this notion of break free that I mentioned earlier because I don't know. I always try to offer a call to action as the title. And this one felt so timely, especially since that was the message I was getting for myself as I was feeling kind of stuck. I needed to free myself, break free from some limiting thoughts and beliefs. And I guess I'm always amazed at how friends and loved ones and I'll include myself because I just said, you know, that was me too. And we always fall into that. Not always. We often. And I think the better we get, the less we'll fall into that trap. But it's funny how people will quick to tell you why something's not going to happen or it's not going to work or how someone had a perspective about them, which they assume was true and cut themselves off from an opportunity even before trying. So think about it. You know, we've all done it. For me, mine was, oh, you know, it's a crowded field out there with this online course stuff. I don't know if mine's going to stand out among all the others. It will in a big way. I know that now. And then I've heard numerous ones, but these are come to mind. There's a maybe little, there's a recency bias here. So I've heard recently, you know, if I say something to my boss about not being happy with my role, they might fire me. Maybe that's not the worst thing to happen. And then there's my mother says that I'm really not sensitive enough and she knows me better than anyone, right? Which I kind of say, does she love? I mean, she's had her own experiences. I think the first question that one has to ask in all of these kinds of scenarios, is it true? You should be asking yourself this every single day, you know, whether you hear something on the news or somebody says something to you and you're like, is that true for me? There's facts, but then there are truths that are unique to an individual. It could be a belief, a fear or just somebody else's stuff, right? That you don't have to subscribe to. And then I think the next question should be, what's the worst thing that could happen if you do something? And what's the worst thing that could happen if you do nothing? And then we could move on to, well, what am I conveying or modeling as a leader if I do something or if I do nothing? I think doing nothing is rarely the best option. It typically means you've decided not to decide. I see that a lot. Or it could mean that you legitimately don't have enough information. That happens. But you should post-haste get that information and get to deciding. I've spoken many times about effective decision making and how it is absolutely a key leader leadership competency. Now, you know me, I miss competencies and that's the criteria against which I think leaders and all people, not just leaders, should be assessed. But particularly for their leadership role, you're going to have functional competencies, your domain expertise is going to be in that realm. And then there are going to be some key leadership competencies. And decision making is absolutely one of them. And yet I see so many people who are absolutely paralyzed by this need to please others. And or who are so conflict diverse that their ability to make decisions effectively is impaired. So here's a little bit of advice on that in a few other points. And being liked cannot be your objective. It cannot. It's fine to be liked. I'm not saying it's not a good thing. I like being liked. Who doesn't? But that's not your objective. Some of these to say you don't have to like me, but you will respect me. And that sticks with me to this day. I think that by doing what serves the business, what serves your team, those others involved, which serves the greater good, even that will likely garner respect and even admiration, which I think is being liked last time I checked by those people who are impacted by your decision. So break free from the need to be liked. Being liked will be an outcome if you are doing what is good for all and you are being decisive. This is Jenny Clark. I hope you're enjoying this episode. We'll get back to it in just a minute. I wanted to share something very special with you. Since mid-2021, when I started speaking professionally, I've completed over 60 speeches live and virtual. Retrait associations, government entities, startups, and other publicly and privately held organizations. I'm told I'm really good at it and I love doing it. Why? Well, because I get to share my wisdom and expertise on topics such as recruiting, talent management, leadership, culture, and diversity, equity and inclusion, and groups eager to gain insights to help their businesses and their people grow. If you like some of the things you're hearing on Fifth Dimensional Leadership, consider having me speak to an organization you're affiliated with. Go to my website, jennieclark.com/speaking and click on "Inquire" to be connected to leading authorities, the speaker's bureau that exclusively represents me for speaking engagements. I hope to hear from you. Enjoy the rest of the episode. Here's another one. Break free from negative self-talk and limiting thoughts and beliefs. That one might be a little bit harder because we all do it. And we give a presentation and tell ourselves, "She's cut it done better. I've got a part where I miss up a little bit that no. Worse yet, we go into the situation preparing for the worst but hoping for the best." And we think somehow that's a good thing, but to me it's like driving with both feet. It's like you got one foot on the gas, you got the other foot on the brakes, and you're just herky jerky. Because you've not committed. Set your intention. Set it. Affirm it. Know it. Don't just believe, but know. Know in your heart. Feel that you will have the intended outcome. And then you show up like you do. Your whole persona, your whole energy shifts when you know that. That's called confidence. It's a beautiful thing. So I guess I could say this because in my belief system, which I never want to impose on anyone, I simply don't believe in random things. To me everything is for a reason. And the most heinous and awful things for a reason. We don't have to understand it. Ours is we're not here to understand necessarily. Everything is for a reason. I just don't think the world is out to get you. I actually think the universe conspires to give you everything you want. The question becomes, are you ready to receive it? And if you're sitting there thinking, well, you know, I'm just going to expect the worst, I think you probably just missed that wonderful thing happening because you were focused on the worst thing that could happen. So when I think about the totality of my life, I simply could not have known I would end up here having gone through all this stuff I have the good stuff and then not so good stuff. There were so many things that I didn't even know existed until I. I had the experience. But through it all, I have to say, I've experienced and learned some amazing things. And the great news, even better news is for me, at least, and hopefully for you, I'm not even being close to done. I can see more possibilities now than ever because I believe in myself and love myself now more than ever. Do you see how this works? And by the way, you know, everybody's got their own timeline. It's so easy to compare yourself to somebody else. Say, well, they're older than me, they're younger than me, and they've achieved this or I've achieved that. And I don't care. I'm not trying to keep up with anybody, but myself. And do what is in my best interest and those that I seek to serve. And, you know, I just think your growth and your expansion, as I like to refer to it, it's not linear. You know, we get into school and you go to first grade, second grade, seventh grade, and I, you know, unless you skipped. This isn't linear what I'm talking about. These can be quantum leaps that you might make. I certainly hope so. I'm waiting for our civilization to make some quantum leaps. And I think if we all can help ourselves expand our own awareness, we indeed will collectively. There's a collective effort that happens here. But the growth and the expansion is a function of what you are allowing by consciously deleting the limiting thoughts and behaviors that you know don't serve you. So it's that self-editing, you know, and just stop comparing yourself to everyone else. Listen to your own inner voice, praise yourself from time to time. You know, finish up that whatever it was that you were working on and go, wow, that is good. That's solid. I know I killed it. Regardless of anybody else has to say, if you feel that way, you probably did. All right. Now here's another really good one. (laughs) Break free from needing to have all the answers, right? I thought about this most recently in the context of leaders who were struggling to know how to get employees to return to the office and to be engaged. And I think that's why a lot of the organizations I speak to tend to be senior leaders of trade associations, big companies that are part of the trade associations. And so they wanna hear from me because well I work for Google and they think, you know, I must be really smart. I think I was smart before I got to Google. But and so they're kind of asking some of these burning short term questions very tactical. How do we get to this? And I guess to me it's bigger than that, right? It's not just about returning to the office. It's why do you think you need to know exactly how this is gonna go? We've never been here before. And to me uncertainty can be really, really good. I mean, do you really wanna know exactly how your life is gonna turn out? And how each scene is going to unfold? I don't. Where's the joy in that? Where's the excitement? I mean, I don't wanna watch a TV show if I know what the Undies gonna be. Now I might watch something a second or third time, but I'm always gonna see something new. So, somewhere, somehow. I think we were all taught to fear the unknown. You know, it's dark. We can't see, it's unknown, we should fear it. The unfamiliar, I don't know that person. Stranger danger. You know, I mean, we think about all the things that we hear as children and growing up and even as adults and stuff that we told our children about how fearful and anxious and dubious we should be about everything in our world. So, I don't know, but it comes to mind that as infants, most of us learned to walk in spite of not knowing how to do it when we came here. And, you know, we relied on encouraging parents, come on, you can do it, you can do it. And the instincts that we had that told us that we were gonna be okay, even if we fell. Kinda interesting, right? And yet, you know, we're still walking around fearful. Oh my God, I have to know what's gonna happen next. Now, what am I supposed to do? You don't have to know. And I also think, and these are kind of a sidebar to this. No one likes to know it all, you know? You have that one friend that like knows every goddamn thing. And you're like, just could you just take a breather? 'Cause that must be tiring for you to know everything, right? And to me, anybody that thinks they know everything is ultimately just a fool. And just so like run, you know, don't walk. Just run. I know, you know, those folks need love too, but they're just so caught up in needing to be right that they don't leave any room for new possibilities for themselves or anybody else. You know, it's interesting when I think about my time at Google, I have three different teams concurrently. One for diversity, one for intermobility, and the non-tech recruiting team. And we regularly come together as a single team, which, and I loved everyone. So much. And I found myself constantly dealing with uncertainty. Change was absolutely, there'd be one reorg, and just wait 'cause there's gonna be another. I think we moved physically into five different office spaces in the four years, I've four and a half years I was there. But what I found in leading my teams was that I had to be honest and I had to be transparent by saying sometimes, here's what I know, there's a lot I still don't know. I think we should go in this direction. And if things change, we'll redirect. And if anyone has some additional insights that might prove or disprove the direction I've chosen, I'm happy to listen. And I think that that put them at ease and it kept them focused because they're getting all this chatter. My job was to just clear the air, keep them focused on where we're trying to go. Progress, that's kinda, let's keep trying to drive progress. Progress and innovation to me are born from uncertainty. You didn't know what was going to happen and yet you moved forward, not in spite of and you moved forward. So let's get comfortable with uncertainty. Break free from your past. I'll admit, I have kind of a bias. I remember dating somebody in high school and he always wanted to go to the place that he'd always been. I'm like, let's go to a new place. No, I really like this one place. What if I don't like that place? Well, if you don't like it, we won't go there again, but at least we will have tried something else. We know what this looks like. And I guess, you know, to me, it can get really dull, the repetition of it and you're missing out on new stuff that could arguably be better and could help you grow and expand who you are. I admit to sometimes having kind of an intentionally short memory, especially for unpleasant things. People are like, remember that time we did XYZ and like, "No, don't remember." Maybe it was more important to you than it was to me, no offense, but we do tend to have a negativity bias as one of my good friends puts it. And it means that when something bad happens, that's the thing we focus on for longer than we need to after it happened. I guess still remember being, I think, eight years old and I played the piano. I enjoyed it, but I'm at this recital and I completely froze up after playing a few notes, completely forgot the rest of the music, the rest of the song. So, fortunately, it seemed like an eternity, but my fingers just instinctively started playing something once I released the fear and didn't look out at my parents who were sitting there terrified. Fortunately for me, that recollection hasn't caused me to avoid being on stage. I wasn't traumatized. I have the memory, yes. I guess some things do stay in my memory, but it's a good thing because being able to be on stage is what allows me to do the speaking that I love. So, yeah, but this negativity bias, do you remember the really wonderful things or do you remember the stuff that you were really embarrassed by? Work on it. My whole point here is, don't just let your past actions or decisions haunt you and prevent you from exploring some new possibilities and don't necessarily fight the memory, but reframe it. If it comes up, then tell yourself what was good about it. What did you learn, right? How much did you learn from that incident or how that seemingly unfortunate outcome led to something really wonderfully unexpected or just instructive. You know, I've met so many people whose identities are rooted in what they have done in the past. And this could be that they're overly proud of accomplishments or status. We know those braggarts maybe sometimes, right? And these things might have allowed them to be held in high esteem or had some status or wealth or whatever be admired. Conversely, there are people who might feel ashamed of certain aspects of their past, [BLANK_AUDIO] because they performed below expectations, bears or someone else's, or because they never tried or because they'd done things that might have caused pain or hardship on themselves or others. Lots of reasons. Regardless, I just think this is a very slippery slope where pride or shame is involved, because associating yourself with solely your actions doesn't leave room for who you are at your core. We all make bad decisions. And we've all made some good ones that have moved us so long, but the point is, you know, we have to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, yes, but we gotta move on to the next thing, right? They sometimes say, "You're only as good as your last," whatever. That's generally true and not to minimize it. So I just don't wanna see any of these kinds of behaviors limit who you are and what you can accomplish. It's just that I just don't think your past defines you. It's there. We talk about our past. I have a long past behind me, and it has helped me shape who I am, but all those individual things don't define me, not for a minute. All right, so I'm gonna wrap up soon, I promise, but the mother of all break free things to me, for letter word, fear. And frankly, it's what's wrong in our world right now. Hatred arises from fear, anxiety and stress arise from fear. All the self-inflicted wounds of low esteem, imposter syndrome, unworthiness, those things arise from a fear of not being enough, not loving yourself. And I just wanna say, stop it. Tell a different story. Reprogram your mind. Start telling yourself what's so good about yourself. Who are you gonna believe? Somebody that you don't even know or don't respect, or you, that inner voice that you have. Marianne Williamson, who's a spiritualist author, thinks she wanted to be a presidential candidate at one point. I'm gonna quote her, she said, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we're more powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. So whether you believe in God or source or Allah, or whatever deity or power out there, don't get caught up on that word. Here what she's saying. We are all liberated from our own fear. As we are all liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. I love that. So that's kind of all I have for you today. I guess that was a lot. But I just wanted to spend some time with you, just us to share what's been on my mind. I expect to learn a ton from this process of producing the content for these courses, as well as from my interaction with all of the participants. And I do hope that you'll consider enrolling and become part of a really rich community of seekers and leaders. I would be honored if you would allow me to be your guide on this journey. In the meantime, know that I'm here for you. I'm supporting your growth and expansion and service of our civilization. I'm sending you love and light. And I will be seeing you very, very soon. That's it for this episode of Fifth Dimensional Leadership. Thank you. And take care of yourselves. I love you. Thanks for listening. If you enjoy Fifth Dimensional Leadership, subscribe, share, and leave a rating review on your platform of choice. And don't forget to check us out at jinniepark.com. That's g-i-n-n-y-c-l-a-r-k-e.com. You can explore this empire episodes, you tips and tricks, and sign up for special announcements. We'll see you back here next week. And until then, remember, you're just that good. Special thanks to writer collaborator Jackson Best, contributors, sedation of kitchen in Tionca Shepherd, production and editing, podcast elevator.