Growth comes from unexpected moments that shake us awake. Not the planned development programs or the carefully curated learning experiences, but the jolts that force us to see differently.
I have been thinking about jolts lately. The moments that disrupt our comfortable patterns and force us to reckon with reality. The feedback that lands hard. The project that fails spectacularly. The relationship that fractures. The role that does not fit.
We spend so much energy trying to avoid these moments. We build systems to protect ourselves from discomfort. We surround ourselves with people who affirm our existing worldview. We stay in roles that feel safe even when they no longer serve us.
But the women I work with who have made the most significant leadership transitions all point to jolts as the catalyst. The moment their manager told them they were over-functioning. The realization that they were leading through compensation instead of conviction. The feedback that they were not showing up as themselves.
Jolts are not comfortable. They are not neat. They do not fit into a 12-week development program. But they are essential.
The question is not whether you will experience jolts. You will. The question is whether you will let them wake you up or whether you will go back to sleep.
Leadership development is not about avoiding jolts. It is about building the capacity to metabolize them. To let them reshape you instead of breaking you. To use them as fuel for the next iteration of yourself.
What jolt are you avoiding right now? What uncomfortable truth are you not ready to face? What feedback are you dismissing because it does not align with how you see yourself?
The women who RISE do not avoid jolts. They lean into them. They let themselves be disrupted. They use the discomfort as data.
That is the work.