PRESENCE LEADERSHIP

Let me ask you something nobody asks in a boardroom.

Are you keeping your forehead smooth on your own — or do you need something to do it for you?

I am not talking about skincare.

I am talking about the moment you realized that feeling everything was too much. That the tension in your face, your jaw, your chest — the signals your body was sending — were inconvenient. Unprofessional. Too loud for the room you were trying to stay in.

So you found a way to turn the volume down.

Maybe it was Botox. Maybe it was the third glass of wine on a Wednesday. Maybe it was the 6am workout that left no room for anything else, or the calendar so full that silence became the enemy. Maybe it was just work — more of it, always more — because as long as you were producing, you did not have to feel what was underneath.

We call these things self-care. Stress management. Hustle culture. Ambition.

I call them what they are: the real addiction nobody talks about in business.

The Body That Stopped Talking

Here is what I have seen in sixteen years of working with high-achieving women:

The body never stops sending signals. It just gets quieter and quieter — until it stops waiting to be heard and starts speaking in symptoms instead.

The frozen forehead is not just aesthetic. When we paralyze the muscles of expression — whether with a needle or with years of suppression — we interrupt something fundamental. The face is not just the messenger of our emotional state. It is, as clinical research now confirms, an active participant in creating it.

When the corrugator muscles — the ones that furrow between your brows when something is wrong, when something needs attention, when your body is trying to tell you the truth — are silenced, something else goes quiet too.

Emotional intelligence. The ability to read the room, to feel what is not being said, to access the deeper knowing that sits beneath logic and strategy.

The genius mode.

And for women especially — for whom emotional intelligence is not a soft skill but a leadership superpower — this is not a small loss.

Three Faces of the Same Pattern

Botox. Overwork. Numbing.

They look different from the outside. In the business world, one is considered a beauty choice, one is considered ambition, and one is rarely discussed at all. But underneath, they are running the same program:

Get away from what the body is feeling. Keep going. Stay functional. Do not let anyone — including yourself — see what is actually happening.

I know this pattern intimately. Twenty-two years of competitive sport taught me to override pain signals with discipline. Fifteen years in corporate refined that into an art form. And the body — patient, persistent, loyal to the truth even when I was not — eventually stopped accepting the override.

It spoke louder. In places I could not ignore.

That is the moment most women arrive at my work. Not when things are bad. When they have been managing bad for so long that managing itself has become the problem.

What Gets Lost When We Numb

We live in a time that is asking something new of leaders.

The old model — push harder, feel less, perform more — is visibly breaking down. Burnout is not a personal failure. It is the predictable outcome of a system that treated the body as a machine and emotion as a liability.

What is emerging now requires something different entirely.

Feminine leadership qualities — receiving, sensing, connecting, reading what is unspoken, leading from presence rather than pressure — are not trends. They are the intelligence the moment actually needs.

But here is the thing: you cannot access those qualities from a numbed nervous system.

You cannot receive when you are too busy producing. You cannot sense the room when your own signals have been muted for years. You cannot lead from presence when presence itself has become uncomfortable.

The real cost of the addiction to numbing is not the wrinkles you are trying to prevent or the exhaustion you are trying to push through.

It is the loss of access to your own intelligence.

The Return Is Not Dramatic

I want to be honest about what coming back to yourself actually looks like.

It is not a retreat. It is not a breakdown. It is not a dramatic moment of awakening.

It is ten minutes in the morning, before the phone, before the calendar, before the first demand of the day — in your body. Feeling what is actually there. Releasing what has accumulated. Returning to yourself before you give yourself to everything else.

It is learning to read your own signals again. The jaw that tightens in certain meetings. The breath that shallows when someone speaks over you. The eyes that go empty when you are performing rather than present.

These are not weaknesses. They are data. The most precise leadership intelligence available to you — and it is free, it does not require a subscription, and it does not wear off after three months.

The woman who can feel herself can lead anything.

The woman who has numbed herself to stay functional is leading on borrowed time.

You Were Never Supposed to Hold It All Alone

The real addiction in business is not alcohol or ambition or even Botox.

It is the belief that you have to keep it together at all costs. That feeling is weakness. That the body’s signals are inconvenient. That the only way through is to push harder, smooth it over, and never let them see you waver.

That belief is exhausting. And it is running most of the high-achieving women I know.

You were not built to hold your forehead smooth through willpower.

You were built to feel, to lead, to connect — from a body that is fully inhabited, fully alive, fully yours.

That is not soft. That is the most powerful thing in the room.

And it starts the moment you stop numbing — and start listening.

Renée Ambarees is a Presence Leadership Coach, international bestselling author, and one of the first certified Face Yoga trainers in Europe. With 22 years in competitive sport, 15 years in corporate, and a gift for somatic and intuitive intelligence she has carried since childhood, she has guided over 10,000 people through transformation — career changes, country changes, continent changes, leaving toxic fields, and coming home to themselves. She is the founder of the Yoga4Face® method, the Smile Revolution, the Back2Paradise framework, and the 10 Magic Minutes™ — a daily body reset practice that changes everything before the day even begins.

Be Seen. Be Felt. Be Unforgettable.

→ reneeambarees.comhttps://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oUZG5sspWHNCVMm8wZGmfrRbLX6lBim3

Written by Dr. Tina J. Ramsay

Many purpose-driven entrepreneurs, educators, authors, coaches, and leaders struggle with visibility. Not because they lack expertise. Not because they lack passion. Not because they have nothing valuable to offer. They struggle because they have convinced themselves that visibility is vanity.

For years, I believed that if I worked hard enough, served enough people, and produced quality work, the right opportunities would eventually find me. Like many mission-driven individuals, I focused almost entirely on the work itself. I believed that excellence would speak for itself.

Excellence matters. But excellence without visibility often remains undiscovered.

What I eventually learned changed the way I viewed leadership, influence, and service: visibility is not vanity. Visibility is service.

The truth is simple. Your expertise, experiences, lessons, and perspective cannot help the people they were meant to serve if no one knows you exist.

Every day, talented people remain hidden. The educator with a strategy that could help struggling families stays silent because she does not want to appear self-promotional. The entrepreneur with a product that could improve lives hesitates to talk about it because he fears judgment. The author with a message that could inspire thousands never finishes the book because she doubts anyone will read it. The leader with years of wisdom questions whether anyone would care to hear what he has learned.

Meanwhile, louder voices dominate the conversation—not necessarily because they have greater expertise, but because they understand the power of visibility. This creates a troubling reality: many of the people most qualified to create meaningful change are often the least visible.

When people think about visibility, they usually focus on what they might gain—more followers, more clients, more opportunities, or more recognition. But few people stop to consider what is lost when they remain invisible.

Someone may never discover the solution you have already found. Someone may never receive the encouragement you could have offered. Someone may continue struggling because the lesson you learned through experience was never shared. Someone may abandon a dream because they never heard the story that would have given them hope.

Your story is not valuable simply because it belongs to you. Your story is valuable because of what it can unlock in someone else.

The challenges you overcame may become a roadmap for another person. The mistakes you survived may save someone years of frustration. The lessons you learned through failure may become someone else’s breakthrough. The experiences you sometimes hesitate to discuss may be the very things that make your voice uniquely valuable.

Impact requires visibility—not because visibility is the goal, but because visibility is often the vehicle.

There is an important distinction between visibility and attention. Attention seeks applause. Visibility seeks impact.

Attention asks, “How can I get people to notice me?” Visibility asks, “How can I help the people who need what I have to offer find me?”

That shift changes everything.

Purpose-driven visibility is not about becoming famous. It is not about chasing likes, followers, or viral moments. It is not about proving your worth through numbers. Purpose-driven visibility is about becoming available—available to serve, teach, encourage, inspire, and lead.

When viewed through that lens, visibility becomes an act of stewardship rather than self-promotion. You are no longer trying to make yourself look important. You are simply making your message accessible to the people who need it.

That perspective changes how we approach our platforms, businesses, and opportunities. Instead of asking, “What will people think of me?” we begin asking, “Who might benefit if I share this?” Instead of worrying about criticism, we focus on contribution. Instead of seeking validation, we seek impact.

Your story is bigger than your business.

Many people assume their professional expertise is the only thing worth sharing. In reality, people often connect with your humanity before they connect with your credentials. They connect with the struggle, the journey, the lessons, and the perseverance.

Stories create trust in ways facts alone never can. Stories remind people they are not alone. Stories build bridges between experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. Stories help people see possibilities where they once saw obstacles.

In a world overflowing with information, authenticity has become one of the most valuable forms of leadership. People are surrounded by content every day. What they are truly searching for is connection.

They want real stories. Real lessons. Real leadership. Real people willing to share both victories and challenges.

You do not need millions of followers to make a difference. You do not need to be perfect to be influential. You do not need all the answers before sharing what you have learned. You simply need the courage to show up and contribute to the conversation.

Someone is waiting for the message you almost didn’t share. Someone is searching for the answer you already possess. Someone needs the perspective that only you can provide.

The question is not whether your story matters. The question is whether you are willing to let the people who need it hear it.

Because visibility is not vanity.

Visibility is service.

And the right people need to hear your story

About the Author

Dr. Tina J. Ramsay (h.c.) is the Founder and CEO of CTR Media Network, an award-winning global media company dedicated to helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, educators, nonprofits, and business leaders increase their visibility and expand their impact. Through podcasting, television distribution, digital media, press releases, blogging, and strategic storytelling, she helps clients position themselves as trusted authorities in their industries.

Under her leadership, CTR Media Network has grown into an international media platform with distribution reaching more than 175 countries and 3.6 billion potential households and digital touchpoints. Through its multimedia ecosystem, CTR Media Network provides opportunities for individuals and organizations to amplify their message, build credibility, and create meaningful influence on a global scale.

Known for her commitment to authentic storytelling and purpose-driven visibility, Dr. Ramsay believes that when the right message reaches the right audience, it has the power to inspire change, create opportunities, and leave a lasting legacy.

To learn more about CTR Media Network, visit http://www.ctrmedianetwork.com or contact the team at info@ctrmedianetwork.com.

Why high-performing women get pulled into narcissistic dynamics — and how to return to yourself.

Written by Renee Ambarees.

There is a pattern I see again and again in the women who come to me.

They are accomplished, intelligent, intuitive, driven. Often they are CEOs, founders, executives, directors, creatives, healers, leaders. Women who have built something real. Women who know how to perform under pressure. Women who know how to hold a room, carry responsibility, read complexity, and still show up with grace.

And somewhere along the way, someone got close enough to begin dismantling exactly that.

Not all at once. Slowly. Subtly. Through criticism disguised as concern. Through projection disguised as truth. Through emotional withdrawal, confusion, blame, comparison, or control. Through the kind of manipulation that does not always look dramatic from the outside — but lands deeply in the body.

This is why so many high-performing women ask the same question:

How did I not see this?

I am not naive.
I am not weak.
I know people.
I have led teams.
I have navigated pressure.
I have built a life, a career, a business.

So why did I stay? Why did I explain? Why did I shrink? Why did I keep trying to make sense of something that kept hurting me?

Here is what I want you to understand:

You were not targeted because you were weak.
You were targeted because you were strong.

Narcissistic dynamics are often drawn to the very qualities that make a high-performing woman exceptional: her empathy, her standards, her loyalty, her desire to understand, her capacity to hold space, her commitment to getting it right.

These are not weaknesses. They are strengths.

But in the wrong hands, they become entry points.

Your empathy gets used to keep you explaining.
Your excellence gets used to keep you proving.
Your loyalty gets used to keep you staying.
Your self-reflection gets turned into self-doubt.

And slowly, the woman who once felt clear begins to question herself. This is where most conversations about narcissistic dynamics miss something essential.

We talk about the psychology: gaslighting, confusion, push and pull, emotional manipulation, control, love bombing, silent treatment. And yes, these patterns matter, but your body knows first. Before your mind has language, before you have proof, before you can explain what is happening, your body is already responding.

Your breath becomes shallow.
Your jaw tightens.
Your shoulders lift.
Your sleep changes.
Your stomach contracts.
Your eyes lose their softness.
Your smile becomes something you perform instead of something you feel.

You may still be functioning. Still leading. Still answering emails. Still holding meetings. Still appearing composed. But inside, your nervous system is no longer at ease. You are in the tunnel.

This is what happens when criticism, manipulation, lies, or projection enter the system. The body contracts. The field of vision narrows. The voice freezes. The face tightens. The self becomes smaller, not because that is who you are, but because your body is trying to protect you.

And because high-performing women are often trained to override discomfort, they may miss the signal.

They push through.
They communicate better.
They try harder.
They become more patient.
They analyze the other person.
They look for the missing piece.
They wonder if they are the problem.

But the body keeps whispering: Something is not right here.

The turning point comes when a woman stops fighting that signal and starts listening.

Not as a victim.
Not as someone broken.
Not as someone who needs to be fixed.

But as a leader returning to her own body.

Because your body is not betraying you. Your body is trying to bring you home.

This is why I created the 4 Magic Moves™ — a simple body-based reset designed to help you come back to yourself in minutes.

Not through more analysis.
Not through performing positivity.
Not through pretending it did not hurt.
Not through another conversation with someone committed to misunderstanding you.

Through the body.

The first move is about getting your eyes out of the tunnel.

When you are emotionally impacted, your vision often narrows. You lock onto the threat, the words, the person, the pain. Your system goes into freeze or shutdown. The first step is to open your eyes again — literally and energetically. To widen your vision. To let your body remember: there is more than this moment.

The second move is acceptance.

Not approval. Not agreement. Acceptance means recognizing what is happening inside your body without abandoning yourself. I am tense. I am hurt. I am frozen. I am overwhelmed. I am here. The moment you stop fighting your body’s response, you begin to lead it.

The third move is boundaries.

A body without boundaries becomes a container for everyone else’s projection. Boundaries begin before words. They begin as an inner declaration: this is not mine. I do not have to carry this. I can stay connected to myself. I can be loving and clear. I can choose what enters my system.

The fourth move is your real smile.

Not the smile you perform to keep the peace.
Not the smile that says, “I’m fine.”
Not the smile that covers the truth.

Your real smile.

The one that rises when your body recognizes itself again. The one that tells you that you have returned. The one that becomes your compass back to peace, presence, and truth.

Your smile is not just a smile.

It is a key.

A key back to your breath.
A key back to your body.
A key back to your power.
A key back to the part of you that was never broken.

This is the work of returning.

Not becoming someone new.
Not rebuilding from nothing.
Not proving your worth.

Returning.

To your breath.
To your body.
To your boundaries.
To your real smile.
To the woman beneath the performance, the pressure, the pleasing, the over-explaining.

In ten honest minutes, your body can shift.

You can feel air again.
Your face can soften.
Your eyes can open.
Your nervous system can begin to settle.
Your body can remember that you are here now, and you are allowed to come back.

This is not a surface makeover. It is a return from the inside out. Because it is written all over your face. Your face tells the story of what you are carrying. Your breath tells the truth about what your mind is still trying to explain. And your real smile reveals the moment you stop carrying what was never yours.

High-performing woman, your strength was never the problem.

Your empathy was never the problem.
Your standards were never the problem.
Your capacity to love, lead, feel, build, and hold space was never the problem.

The problem was forgetting that your body gets to have a voice too.

And when you listen, it will lead you back.

Begin with the free 4 Magic Moves™ Body Reset — four short practices to help you release emotional tension, calm your nervous system, reconnect with your body, and activate your real smile as your inner compass.

Your body already knows the way back.

Your smile is your key.

Renée Ambarees is the founder of Yoga4Face®, international bestselling author, keynote speaker, and creator of the Smile Revolution. She works with high-performing women, leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives who are navigating or recovering from narcissistic dynamics — helping them return to their body,
their truth, and their real smile.

Through her body-based work, Renée combines facial embodiment, nervous system regulation, emotional release, and presence leadership to help women reconnect with themselves from the inside out. Her signature practices,
including the 4 Magic Moves™ and 10 Magic Minutes™, support women in releasing emotional tension, calming the nervous system,
and activating the real smile as an inner compass.

Renée’s message is simple and powerful: It is written all over your face.
Your face is your business card. Your smile is your key.

Learn more at reneeambarees.com
Watch the Back2Paradise Show every Sunday on YouTube.
Contact: contact@yoga4face.com
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ren%C3%A9e-isermann/

Published: 06-12-2026

Strategy Alone Is Quietly Failing 

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that does not show up on any performance review.

It lives behind the eyes of people who have built real things. Who made hard decisions. Who still show up every morning looking like they have it together.

On the outside, success.

On the inside, something quietly collapsing.

Most leaders do not talk about it. The language of business has no vocabulary for it. There is no word for the moment a high-achieving person realises they have become a stranger to themselves.

This is not a burnout article. Burnout is a symptom.

What lies beneath it requires a different conversation. One about energy.

I know what happens when that energy collapses.

Because it almost killed me.

I was a high achiever. The kind of person others pointed to and said, “She has it together.”

Then came the cancer diagnosis.

Not from weakness. Not from bad luck.

From years of swallowing pain to keep the peace. A colleague I trusted was systematically betraying me. Instead of responding, I absorbed it. My nervous system had been conditioned to prioritise everyone else’s comfort over my own truth, and I did not even know it.

When we become energetically unstable, everything built on that energy collapses. First the mind. Then the emotions. Then the body.

This is not just my story. It is the story of most leaders who are honest enough to admit what is really going on.

The Problem Nobody Is Naming

Research from McKinsey shows 75% of senior leaders report burnout. The response is always the same. Better systems. Clearer KPIs. More delegation.

Nobody asks the one question that actually matters.

What energy are you leading from?

Every business reflects its leader’s inner state. Pricing reflects self-worth. Boundaries reflect the nervous system. Visibility reflects emotional safety.

Here is what that looks like in practice.

A founder I worked with kept undercharging despite extraordinary results. Every time she raised her prices, her nervous system resisted. The business problem looked financial. The real problem was survival conditioning. Once that pattern cleared, her pricing changed. So did her revenue.

Most business problems are not strategy problems. They are nervous system problems running beneath every decision a leader makes.

What Energy Leadership Actually Means

Energy leadership is the ability to lead from five integrated intelligences at once – I call it multidimensional intelligence.

Mental: strategy and logic. But a brilliant plan built from fear still carries the frequency of fear. It awakens when a leader stops outsourcing authority and starts trusting inner knowing.

Emotional: processing what you feel rather than suppressing it. Unprocessed grief becomes self-sabotage. Fear of rejection becomes underpricing. It awakens when challenges become invitations when a leader stops asking why and starts asking what it is teaching them.

Somatic: the intelligence of the body. When the nervous system regulates, decisions sharpen and leadership becomes magnetic rather than exhausting. The somatic intelligence awakens through peace not as a reward, but as a practice. The most powerful decisions are never made from urgency. Peace expands what urgency collapses.

Sensory: the capacity to feel truth before logic catches up. A competitive advantage most leaders have abandoned. It returns when a leader stops forcing and starts listening to the room, to the body, to what is not being said.

Spiritual: intuition and purpose. Moving from alignment rather than pressure. It awakens the moment a leader chooses their own truth over inherited conditioning.

When these five work together, leadership stops being something you perform. It becomes something you embody.

Embodiment does not happen through insight alone.

It happens when the three layers blocking each intelligence are cleared: stored patterns in the body, survival coding in the nervous system, inherited emotional programmes in the mind.

The F.L.O.W. Method is the 28-day programme I built from my own journey through collapse and back. Through somatic practices, nervous system regulation, breathwork, and emotional processing, it clears all three simultaneously.

The body releases fatigue, mental fog, physical tension, trapped energy that can be dissolved.

The nervous system is reset. Not managed. Reset. Peace becomes the default, not something a leader performs before every difficult conversation.

The mind is freed from the guilt, the survival thinking, the unworthiness quietly running decisions for years that no strategy has ever fixed.

When all five intelligences are finally free, leadership stops being something you force.

It becomes your competitive advantage.

The leaders who will shape the future are not the ones who can push the hardest.

They are the ones who can remain deeply connected to themselves while carrying immense responsibility.

If that is the leader you are becoming, the first step is awareness. The second is choosing differently. This is your next step.

Find Out If You Are Ready to Reset

The future of leadership belongs to people who understand that energy leadership is not a concept. It is the foundation of every clear, embodied decision.

Dr. Neja Zupan is an Energy Leadership Mentor and Founder of Energy Masters Academy.
She helps business owners, leaders, and change makers elevate the energy of their brain, body, and nervous system so they can lead, create, and build from their full capacity.
With over 30 years of experience, she has become internationally recognized for her work in Inner Energy Mastery and Recalibration, guiding entrepreneurs and purpose-driven leaders to transform energy into their most valuable leadership asset.
Her authority is not built on theory alone.
In 2013, she was given a 5% chance of survival after being diagnosed with aggressive cancer. She chose a different path entirely and began mastering the deeper relationship between energy, nervous system regulation, and human potential. She healed.
The principles that restored her life became the foundation of the work she now brings to leaders around the world. Because when the system carrying your success changes, everything built on top of it changes too.
Follow her at Instagram @dr.neja.zupan.institute or LinkedIn @drnejazupan

By Regina Huber

Many entrepreneurs start with a simple intention: freedom. Freedom of time, freedom of choice, freedom to design a life on their own terms instead of living inside someone else’s structure.

But somewhere along the way, that intention gets replaced: more clients, more responsibility, faster growth, and more pressure to maintain what was built.

And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the business that was meant to create freedom starts to demand everything. Long hours become normal, boundaries blur, and personal needs get postponed “until things calm down.” Enthusiastic creativity becomes output under pressure. And even when success is present on the outside, something essential begins to fade on the inside: joy.

And then comes the uncomfortable realization: “I built this… and I don’t feel free in it anymore.”

The paradox of entrepreneurial success

Most entrepreneurs don’t lose themselves because something goes wrong. They lose themselves because things go right.

The business grows. Fame does, too. The income increases. And with that growth comes an invisible expansion of responsibility that often goes unexamined. At first, it feels like dedication or discipline. Over time, a choice becomes a heavy necessity. Because now, the structure of the business dictates the structure of the life around it.

Many business owners don’t notice the shift until they reach a point where enthusiasm has flattened. The spark is still there, but harder to access… because it’s surrounded by dullness. Work continues, but without the same sense of aliveness that once made it fun.

This is not burnout in the dramatic sense. It’s something more subtle: disconnection from self inside success.

When the business expands, but the self contracts

There is a particular tension many entrepreneurs recognize but rarely articulate.

On paper, things are working. But internally, something’s missing.

Less presence. Less ease. Less room to feel like a human being beyond the role of “business owner.”

The days become structured around output rather than alignment. Even time set aside for rest is often mentally occupied by what still needs to be done. And without noticing it, life becomes organized around the business instead of the business being in service of life.

This is where the sense of freedom erodes.

“How do I scale?” is not the only important question

Another one is: “How do I stay connected to myself while I build?”

Because without that connection, growth becomes heavier with every new level.

What many entrepreneurs eventually crave is internal harmony. The ability to move through work without losing themselves in it. The capacity to make decisions without constant pressure. The experience of having space inside their own life again.

Freedom, in this sense, is not about doing less or escaping responsibility. It’s about no longer being internally trapped inside the structures you created.

Reclaiming freedom starts from within

There is a shift that happens when an entrepreneur stops trying to fix the business first and starts paying attention to the inner experience of how they are building it.

Because external change without internal alignment simply recreates the same pattern at a different scale.

Real freedom begins with awareness:

• Where are you operating from obligation instead of choice?
• Where has expansion come at the cost of your presence?
• Where are you still moving forward, but no longer feeling connected to yourself?

These questions may not sound strategic; but they are essential for your wellbeing… and that of your business, which is an extension of you.

They reveal whether your current structure is supporting your life or slowly replacing it.

A different way of building: Live Fully

Reclaiming freedom does not require abandoning what you’ve built. It requires rebuilding your relationship to it.

This is where conscious self-leadership becomes essential: the ability to lead not only your business, but your internal state while you do it.

A simple framework I use with clients is what I call Live Fully: The A-Life Method.

It is not a productivity system. It is a way of realigning how you operate from the inside out.

Freedom is not outside your business. It is inside your structure.

Many entrepreneurs keep searching for freedom as if it exists beyond their current setup. But in reality, freedom is not something you eventually reach after enough success.

It is something you either build into your business from the beginning or gradually rebuild into it once you realize it’s missing.

The shift is subtle, but profound: from “How do I make this work?” to “How do I make this feel aligned while it works?”

Because a business can be highly successful and still cost too much of the person running it. And success that comes at the expense of freedom, harmony, and joy is not the final destination many thought it would be.

The invitation

If your life looks successful but doesn’t consistently feel like it belongs to you anymore, the question is not what to add.

It is what to realign.

Freedom, harmony, and joy are not outcomes you earn after enough effort.

They are conditions you can rebuild into how you live and lead – starting from the inside. And when that shift happens, the business stops being a structure you have to endure and becomes something that finally moves with you again.

Regina Huber
Freedom-First Leadership Coach, Speaker, Author, Podcast Host, and CEO of Transform Your Performance
http://www.transformyourperformance.com
regina@transformyourperformance.com

By Steve Higginbotham (Steve Higgy)

TALENT ACQUISITION & OPTIMIZATION: WHAT WE GET WRONG AND HOW TO MAKE IT BETTER

I started in this industry back when we had the Yellow Pages and carried a beeper. I felt like things got revolutionized when I got my first cell phone and when I stopped receiving faxed resumes. Monster came up and I had free resumes at my fingertips. That was just the beginning of it. You look now and there’s LinkedIn and AI software that can parse through resumes and navigate those choppy waters. And now, we’re on smartphones and can apply to jobs on our phone versus a computer. In the 27 years, I’ve seen a few major shifts and changes. Same thing with the way in which we recruit.

Nowadays, I feel like it’s not as humanized as it could be. People hire people that they trust, like, and respect. They don’t hire resumes. It’s great to automate, but there’s still a person at the other side of that resume. So, it has to have a humanized approach. And I feel that’s where people and companies get it wrong. They are moving so fast, they forget about the human touch.

When I look at the recruitment industry, there’s some things that are done really well, and other things that are done really poorly. Having a good talent acquisition team can make a difference. And it’s not just going through quick resumes or having the interview, but it’s everything — making sure that interviewers and candidates are truly engaged. Candidate engagement refers to the ongoing process of building meaningful communication with job seekers throughout the recruitment journey. It’s not just about sending resumes or updates — it’s about creating a connection that keeps candidates interested, informed, and aligned with your company’s values and culture. And that’s the difference between candidates and applicants. The human connection. And now, that’s also moved into the candidate experience, not just once they get hired, but how they move through their journey within a company. That’s how I look at my role and what I’ve done over the years.

First and foremost, job descriptions that a lot of companies write are either archaic or not specific enough. They’re a little too generic and too open. I’ll give you one example, and part of this is based on compliance. People know that they might want someone with five years of experience, so they’ll put three plus years of experience. So, it opens up the candidate pool a little too wide. You’ll get people with two or three years, and then you’ll get people with 20 years. And it doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t hire someone with 20 years of experience, but let’s narrow down a little bit. No longer are the days where they put five to seven years. And again, they shouldn’t because someone with eight years might be very well qualified for that job. You don’t know until you interview them. The second thing they do is they give tasks to the wrong person, meaning that they have a coordinator who is overworked, probably underpaid, and doesn’t have the time to sift through the quality resumes. And again, how can you tell a person from their resume? Some resumes are one page, some are two.

The hard thing is when people look at resumes, they tend to look for what candidates don’t have. What are they missing? This is standard human bias. AI and assessments could help companies predict better qualified candidates if they could focus more on the hiring practice versus their time to fill metrics. We don’t have time to screen 20 candidates. We only want to shortlist the top five or seven. And then we give that to our managers and they narrow down even further.

So, that’s where AI comes in now — can it help sift through the rubbish and get the better qualified candidates? Well, if we don’t have the best job description and we don’t know what that means, how do we know where we’re going? I think the greater part of it is when a recruiter and a hiring manager do not have that connection. I’ll give you an example. Some companies hire the same person month after month. Maybe it’s a maintenance mechanic or manufacturing technician. There’s heavy turnover, there’s high volume, and we think we have the perfect job description. We’re going to send it out, and we just get the same people, and we’re praying a little bit.

Basically, it’s a posting and coasting method that we’re using to get a candidate. But we really don’t know. Every time we put someone in that group, the culture shifts just a little bit, good or bad. And we’re not necessarily in tune or engaged with that because we’re worried about the production and keeping the line moving. If we can get that intake call a little bit tighter and more narrowed down when we’re screening and interviewing candidates, we can choose someone that may be more retainable.

Steve Higginbotham — known as Steve Higgy — is a Talent Acquisition strategist, speaker, and mentor focused on helping leaders and professionals move with clarity and confidence.

He brings deep expertise in talent strategy, career progression, and execution discipline — guiding individuals and organizations through complex challenges, as a Hands-on Project Manager, with practical structure and intentional action.

http://www.hipo.services