The leader who thinks in systems and feels in truth

The other day I was meeting with one of my former colleagues who is working at a big corporation, with a big title and a big salary. And while she started out saying how everything was great, I could feel that something was off. 

Underneath her smile, I saw tension. I saw force. I could tell that she was carrying a burden within her that she was too proud to admit to. 

As the conversation continued, I gently asked her how she really felt. And that question cracked something open. You could see how her body started to stop pretending, stop holding the tension and releasing into something softer. Truth. 

She admitted that she felt extremely close to burnout, and that she felt extremely disconnected from her husband and her family. All she was doing was working, holding up the perfect image. But inside, something was slowly dying. 

As someone who has been working with many C-Suite leaders, I’m very familiar with this pattern. And as someone who has been carrying big titles and big responsibilities in large corporations myself, I’ve lived through the high-performance pressure, the pushing and the competitiveness. While some are able to deal with it better than others, there are limitations for all of us of how much we can carry. And this is important - we are not all built equally. And that’s why conventional “burnout” prevention or treatments that are one size fits all often don’t work. 

But this article is not about burnout. This article is about the energy every single human being carries within themselves that determines how we thrive and how we stay in balance. Because when we are out of balance, we end up having either burn out, anxiety or depression. 

How to see the world through Ayurveda

I want to introduce Ayurveda to you. Ayurveda has helped me see the world through a 3000 year old system that always holds true. Ayurveda is a sister science to yoga and is a holistic way of looking at energy, and how to keep that energy in balance. My husband is an Ayurvedic practitioner and we live by Ayurveda. So you can imagine, we talk about it a lot. 

The essence of Ayurveda is Knowledge of Life. The word Ayurveda comes from ayur (life) and veda (knowledge or science). Its essence is understanding the laws of nature and living in alignment with them for balance, vitality and longevity. Ayurveda sees each person as a unique blend of energies (doshas - vata, pitta, kapha) and guides lifestyle, nutrition, and daily rhythms (dinacharya) to maintain harmony between body, mind, and environment. In leadership teams, Ayurveda is about cultivating sustainable energy, resilience, and balance and leading in a way that supports long-term wellbeing for self and others. 

Understanding these ancient concepts helps us to understand our world better. It helps us see where we are out of balance and where energy is running out. It helps us see where connection is missing. 

Let’s look at a couple of examples. 

The Doshas or energies

The doshas (vata, pitta, kapha) essentially describe the energies that all of us carry within to various degrees:

Vata is airy, creative. It’s the energy that drives creativity. The visionaries and innovators, the idea generators, future-focused, and creative problem-solvers. They thrive in ambiguity, see patterns others miss. They are great at inspiring and sparking possibilities

Pitta is fire, the strategic executors. They are results-driven, decisive, analytical. Excellent at strategy, competition, and making tough calls. They inspire teams with clarity and a sense of direction. 

Kapha is earth, the stabilizers & nurturers. They are grounded, steady and dependable. They are excellent at building culture, trust, and long-term relationships. They hold teams together through challenges with resilience. 

When the doshas are out of balance

We all carry all three energies within us. But usually we have one or two that are dominant. For example my prakriti (which translates to our natural state) is pitta-vata. While my body is more vata (long, slim), my mind has some more pitta (fire, strategy) in it. So when my mind takes over too much, I’m a prime candidate for burnout because my body is not a pitta body, so it can’t carry as much stress as a pitta body could. Being out of balance pushes us into a state of illness in the long-term, and in the short-term it manifests as the following:

Vata risks to be scattered, too many new initiatives, difficult following through or bringing ideas to completion. Oftentimes resulting in anxiety.

Pitta is impatient, over-controlling, tendency toward burnout or harshness. May value short-term wins over long-term sustainability.

Kapha can be resistant to change, overly cautious, risk of stagnation. Can struggle with speed or agility in fast-moving markets. Oftentimes resulting in depression.

Balanced leadership - in life and at work - requires all three energies in the room. Vata imagines the future, Pitta decides and drives, and Kapha sustains and stabilizes. 

But reality usually looks very different. And when leaders or even entire organizations over-index on one energy everyone suffers: 

Too much vata = chaos

Too much pitta = burnout

Too much kapha = stagnation

The problem that we see today though is that the world is led by pitta first leaders. Everything is “high-performing”, “fast-paced”. Which is the reason for the burnout crisis that we have. The fire literally burns out people. Even increasing wildfires and rising temperatures across the world can be associated with the fact that our entire world is out of balance through the domination of pitta. 

Doshas Overview

How to create balance

To create more balance in organizations and the world, we need to bring in more kapha. Groundedness and trust, kindness and connection. 

You might think, why don’t we do this? Why aren’t more people seeing this? Why aren’t  more people seeing that we are creating our own misery in many cases?

And that’s where the concept of Yoga comes in. Yoga means the union of the self with higher consciousness. While there is a strong movement through meditation and other mindfulness practices to create more awareness for the higher self, we experience a world of division like never before. The rise of the ego in ways we haven’t seen in a long time. In simple Yoga terms, people are disconnected from their true self. They only identify with their ego self or performing self. 

The ego comes with power, with titles, and with materialistic shiny objects that make us happy, for a short period. But truly people constantly lack something. Deeper meaning. Deeper purpose. And that is where the connection with the higher self and the awareness of oneself's constitution or prakriti provides answers. 

Connection with one self, the awareness of who we truly are (for example through the doshas) allows us to empathize with others and see the bigger picture of every situation. We detach from the outcome and become part of the situation. We are fully present. We are in flow. 

Thinking in systems, feeling in truth

After I had explained this concept to my friend who was suffering from burnout, she was almost in tears. She realized that she had caused her own misery, not only to her own mind and her body, but to her family and her team. She was the one pushing for something that wasn’t even hers. She had blindly followed targets without questioning them. For the first time, she truly saw what was real - for herself and those around her. 

Having learnt about the concept of Ayurveda made her curious for more and she changed not only her lifestyle, but her way of leading. She became more connected to herself again and her family. She stopped pushing for things she didn’t believe in and started asking questions that challenged the ways of thinking of those around her and gently slowed down the hamster wheel everyone was running in. She became a force for balance, connection and truth. 

If this approach resonates with you, like, comment and share it with your friends and follow me on linkedin for more tips aligning your performing and true self and translate it into the world around you.

About the author

Miriam Lesa is a multi-dimensional certified coach, nutritionist, yoga teacher and experienced business strategist, practicing the art of connection and aligned living since almost 10+ years.

Attuned to corporate life and navigating C-Suite for 15+ years, yet grounded in peace, intuition and connections, she is deeply passionate about supporting leaders to access their inner compass to ignite their strength and live a life in abundance.

Born and raised in Germany, Miriam now lives with her husband and children in Toronto since 2018.