The Fierce Power approach is steeped in Brita’s concepts of ‘In-Powerment’ and ‘Self-Leadership’.
IN-POWERMENT
In-Powerment is the process by which we come to truly own our power.
Empowerment often implies that power is given to us, “we must empower women”. In-Powerment focuses on the fact that our own authentic power already resides within us. The process of owning our power is one where we realise that we already have power within us, and we let go of limiting beliefs and behaviours that suggest otherwise. The key to this approach is that it focuses on the wholeness and the ‘enoughness’ of the person, instead of suggesting we need to be fixed, or that we are not yet enough. It also implies that only we can do this for ourselves, no one else can do this for us.
Self-Leadership
Self-Leadership is the continuation of in-powerment.
Once we realise that the power resides within us to create the change we want to see, we realise that the person we are leading is ourselves. The extent to which we lead our lives with integrity, is the extent to which people may decide to follow us. Knowing ourselves, growing our self-awareness is key to self-leadership. From that self-leadership impact is created.
Trauma-Informed
When we realise that we all carry experiences in us that we have not yet digested, then we can begin to look at certain patterns and reactions in us and in others with more compassion. We can begin to see that with the right support, time and space we can bring those experiences out into the open and integrate them into our life in a conscious way. Trauma-informed means bringing an awareness of this process to our lives.
The Fierce Power Approach can be applied to every walk of life.
FOR THE INDIVIDUAL LEADER:
“To step into your power is a process of transformation. Your power will emerge and it will create change. There is a deep trust build into this work. It feeds into a vision of the world that is more diverse, more co-created, more embracing of the understanding that ‘we are all leaders’. It opens up new ways of being and of doing business. This is the future that is emerging now.”
FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL LEADER:
“Leaders who have stepped into their power will want to lead differently. Lead with more creativity, more collaboration, more trusting, more presencing, more prototyping. As authentic power emerges, positional power changes. That’s when we open up space for creation outside the current paradigm. Fear is no longer what drives us, it’s creativity and flow. This is the space where deep innovation and change can take place.”
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The quality of the invention depends on the internal condition of the inventor.”
FIERCE POWER KEY METHODOLOGIES
Power Analysis: We use a deep understanding of different stages of personal power within organisations/institutions, positional power, authentic power and its interplay. She builds on Janet Hagberg’s work (Real Power) and Michael Meade (The Genius Myth).
The Four ‘I’s of Opression: The Four I’s of Oppression is a framework created by John Bell that examines how oppression occurs at ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalised levels, providing an understanding of the complex ways in which oppression is enacted and sustained. Brita uses it to guide any change intervention to ensure it addresses all four levels.
Deep Listening: We use the deep listening approach that distinguishes between four levels of listening and we guide our clients to level 3 and 4 where deeper more empathetic and generative listening occurs. This is fundamental to creating self-leadership and in-powerment. This approach is built on Otto Scharmer’s work (Theory U – Leading from the Emerging Future).
Presencing: This practice hones our ability to sense into ourselves in the present moment, actualising our highest future potential through the active employment of curiosity, compassion and courage. This practice allows us to explore our blind spots and understand what lies underneath what we can see (iceberg model).
Permission to Feel: Brita encourages the cultivation of emotional intelligence. She builds on the work of Marc Brackett and Minna Salami. This work is key to creating a less binary perception of the world.
Co-Creating: Based on over 25 years of experience working with teams, organisations and institutions, Brita knows that any intervention is only as good as the process that created it. That is why we facilitate processes that allow for stakeholders to co-create interventions.