Descriptive Communication with Leadership Coach Joppe Quaedvlieg

New pod episode is up! I met with leadership coach and community builder Joppe Quaedvlieg for a conversation about communication and what it actually takes to create trust, safety, and belonging in our relationships.

Joppe is the creator of Descriptive Communication, a practical approach to expressing what we want and need in ways that others can actually understand. His work grew out of lived experience: years of not knowing what he wanted, learning to people-please, and eventually realizing how much of our suffering and lost opportunity results from not being able to express ourselves clearly, to ourselves or to others. It’s about using language more clearly, but even more, sometimes, it is about presence and the sisu to be real with each other.

We talked about topics like:

🌀Why the question “What do you want?” is so difficult but also transformative (anyone remember the scene from Notebook? : )
🌀 How vague language hides practical needs
🌀 Why descriptive communication builds agency, courage, and responsibility
🌀 How community is built not through good intentions, but clear asks
🌀 What leadership, relationships, and collaboration can look like when we aim for presence and honesty, not only performance
🌀 Joppe's views on sisu that I found very insightful and beautiful

Joppe shared his poem, “I Consider Us a Village,” and he also walks us through the thinking behind his community practice Help Me Help You, showing how simple, specific requests can unlock collective resources we already have but rarely use. He organises these events in Helsinki and you can participate.

If you’re interested in leadership development or community building, or want tips to improve your relationships and communicate with more clarity, this episode offers tools you can start testing out immediately.

Check out Joppe's work on his website at artiqula.com. There you'll find his courses, coaching offerings, and also his book Reaching Escape Velocity.

Thanks again, Joppe! Great to be in the same village with you : )

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Sisu is a reserve of inner strength but it's also a way for us to know ourselves and impact the world in a positive way. Cultivating these reserves of inner strength starts with self-care and continues through self-inquiry. its power then extends to the world through our inspired acts of deep courage and compassion.

Thanks for tuning in! You can find out more about sisu, find links to research, and check out Gentle Power: A Revolution in How We Think, Lead, and Succeed Using the Finnish Art of Sisu at www.sisulab.com.

Sisu is great, love is greatness.