Find Your Fierce

Since you’re one of my readers, you’re a world changer. You want to have impact with your business.

You’ll have a lot more impact if you get in touch with your fierce.

In a virtual meeting I was in recently, we were talking about winning vs. collaboration (as if they were two diametrically opposed things!). A young man touted the old party line about business being all about competition, that you have to crush your opponent (the competition) in order for your business to thrive. I could hear the grunting and fist pumping in his voice. The meeting went silent.

At first, I was taken aback. Flashback to the Dark Ages. Does anyone really hold this view anymore? Well, I just have to look around me in the news to know that there are those who do. I was disappointed to see it being perpetuated in this young man.

You see, I believe that collaboration and business success go hand in hand. I not only believe it. I’ve SEEN it in my own businesses. Whenever I’ve put collaboration with people who were supposed to be my competitors first, we ALL made more money. We ALL had more impact. 

Even though I was taken aback at first by his vehemence, his fierceness, I responded with my own brand of fierce. I spoke up calmly. I disagreed. I explained my own experience. I was quietly forceful in making my point of view heard.

No one else responded, and the discussion moved on to other things. Later, one of the other young men in the meeting emailed me to ask, can we talk about what you said about winning vs. collaboration?

In that request, I see that I made a difference. There is an opening for us to have a conversation. He may shift his views as a result, to a more collaborative approach to his own business. To more IMPACT. That’ll be up to him to decide, but I have the opportunity to share my own experience.

I haven’t always been solid in my fierce. When someone was fierce with me, I used to shut down. I’d pull away, retreating from the strong energy. It felt like too much energy to deal with. It frightened me. It felt like anger.

Other people do respond to fierce with their own anger.

You have a choice. You can respond, if that is a conversation you want to have, with your own fierce.

No one is going to have your impact but you. To have it, tap into your fierce.

The word, fierce, can be interpreted as angry and aggressive. That’s not what I’m talking about here.

Fierce is strength. Fierce is clarity. Fierce is courageously holding to your boundaries. Fierce is a focused commitment to your impact.

Cultural norms about how someone is ‘supposed to’ behave can get in the way of fierce. Fierceness in people of color or women in particular is often not welcomed. There’s often a concerted effort to shut you down, especially when your fierceness conflicts with a norm that serves the status quo or the patriarchy. Look at what happened to US Senator Elizabeth Warren when she fiercely defended her right to speak. And yet, she persisted.

You too can persist.

We are in a unique time. Old structures are collapsing under the weight of this pandemic. We have an opportunity to remake things, to build a better future. Finding your fierce allows you to be a bigger part of that. Wouldn’t you like to have a say in what the future looks like? How would you like it to be? I would love your contribution to be a part of the world that is now being created.

Once you start to tap into your fierce, it can start to really light a fire in you. In fact, you may even want to burn the house right down. A societal structure that is serving no one but a privileged few. A practice that is doing harm. That can be a sign that your fierce is really and truly activated.

Metaphorically burning things down may or may not be the way you decide to go. It may not be needed. We all have our own ways to have impact, in that worldchanging way that you alone have.

I still feel that frisson of fear when someone sends their fierce in my direction. My first impulse is to keep silent. Leftovers from the past, when laying low kept me safe. But now, I acknowledge it and tap into my own fierce. Oof, that’s liberating! And potentially worldchanging.   

How do you find your fierce? Tap into something you’re passionate about. Your Impact Purpose is the best way into your fierce.

Then use your fierce to keep your own inner fire burning and to make a difference.

May the fierce be with you.