In The Business of Healthy Masculinity The creative and business impact of emotional health with Dawna Jones
Hi there,
Did you see/hear last week’s episode with the previous CEO of WD-40 Garry Ridge?! The piercing clarity as to how much human potential and money we are leaving on the table is stark.
That links so well to this week’s amazing guest, Dawna Jones.
For over 25 years, Dawna has helped people become great facilitative leaders. A coach and mentor, she asks the annoying questions that helps people, teams and companies grow. Dawna blends science and insights to help people makes sense of what they are experiencing and solve big problems that affect their lives and the world.
Her superpower is to spot old patterns holding people and organizations back hidden in deeper dynamics, reading the hidden feelings and reasons behind how a group acts. From there, new ways to think and make better choices emerge. She helps people restore and revive from adversity stronger and healthier, so they can handle tough challenges.
Dawna is known for giving people clear ideas that show them what to do next. She rides horses, has fallen off many times and learned how to get back on, to become a better person by facing challenges in her own life.
You can learn more about and contact Dawna via a variety of mediums as follows:
Contact via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnahjones/ or website.
Current podcast: https://shows.acast.com/insight-to-action-inspirational-insights-podcast
YouTube Channels:
Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@DawnaJones_Podcast
Personal/professional: https://www.youtube.com/@WisdomWays-Insights
Don’t forget to check out Anna DeNardin’s amazing work, the creative genius behind this platforms artwork, graphics, and branding.
Cultivating clearer ideas
“The capacity to hold multiple worldviews, paradigms, whatever you want to call them, in your mind at the same time without any one of them needing to be right. And I think that’s where we start to see openings for real shifts to take place.” - Dawna Jones
What are you thinking, feeling, or what are your thoughts?
This insight alone exposes how reductive and compartmentalised every aspect of our lives are.
* The narrow job spec.
* The enforced ‘them and us.’
* The ‘best practice.’
All such innocent results of our conditioning over time.
Indeed, if we zoom out for a moment we can see how every systems, every structure is designed to reduce us into particles, rather than allow us to show up in our fullness and wholeness. This isn’t fluffy, this is about personal and systemic transformation.
Breaking binary
“That whole business of ‘either/or,’ you’re either with me or against me. It’s so useless in an environment of complexity. It’s and. There’s this AND there’s that. Everything is connected.” - Dawna Jones
What is possible if we strive to embrace YES/AND rather than either/or?
How many more people and teams get included when we do, and what could the personal, community, and business impact as a result?
I am not sure about you, but I remember being brought up on a system of education that rewarded getting the right answer, not on debating or exploration. There was only one right answer in the end.
In fact this very topic came up in an amazing discussion between Zack Polanski and Natasha Devon on Bold Politics as they explored education. Find this below if interested:
It is time, I would assert, to build the muscle of breaking the binary in our worldviews and within our organisations.
What are you thinking, feeling, and what are your thoughts?
Moving from emotional immaturity to maturity
Dawna speaks straight to my heart in this below clip.
I operated from a place of emotional immaturity when I was younger. After being bullied aged 13/14, I did not know how to ask for help. I suppressed feelings for over 20 years as they were horrible and I didn’t know any other way to deal with that discomfort.
What snapped me out of that was seeing and FEELING myself worthy of investing, when I could, in coaches and other development activities. However that wasn’t enough. Doing it in community was the exponential factor and check out my conversation on episode #3 with Stepheni Mendez as we dive deep into community.
Where in your life today may you be avoiding feeling? What could be possible for you on the other side of that feeling?
How may developing your emotional maturity help you be a better, more impactful leader of self and others?
Engaging in the dance of masculine and feminine energies
One of my biggest learnings over the past years has been observing how much more embodied we can become when we consciously dial up and down our blend of masculine and feminine energies, rather than feeling trapped in a hand ‘dealt to us.’
To what extent are you consciously navigating these two together?
Garry Ridge shared in last weeks episode that leaders need to ‘wake up’ to the importance of being assertive AND tender-hearted. Being a driven leader that builds effectively, with caring about your people.
Again, yes/and, over the either/or.
I hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as I did and a reminder that you can learn more about and contact Dawna via a variety of mediums as follows:
Contact via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnahjones/ or website.
Current podcast: https://shows.acast.com/insight-to-action-inspirational-insights-podcast
In your corner
Finally, a short note to advise that I am here if you are looking for a 1-1 Thinking Partner that can be in your corner by voice note, virtually, and in-person, I have found 5 x 60 minutes calls + unlimited voice note communication to work the best.
If you are ready to embrace the journey towards healthier masculinity, drop me a line at garry.turner@radicality.co.uk. Here is what Rachel Bishop had to say about us working together:
Next week, episode #7 will feature my fellow chemicals industry peer, Christophe Le Ret.
With much love and best regards.
PS - If you have got value from this update, please do share it on your platforms with those that you feel would benefit.
Garry Turner
+44 7928 979358
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