The ABCs of Leading with Impact: How to Be Present, Elevate Yourself, and Bring All Your Intelligences to the Party
Reclaim Your Wholeness: The Four Intelligences That Transform Leadership from Performance to Purpose
The ABCs of Leading with Impact: How to Be Present, Elevate Yourself, and Bring All Your Intelligences to the Party
There is a question I ask myself every single day:
Am I actually listening to the voice within, or am I still trying to fit into a mold someone else built for me?
I started my career in the 1980s as a sales representative in a male-dominated field. Back then, it felt like you needed both confidence and a college degree to land a sales job—and I had neither. I learned quickly how to hide confusion, swallow tears, and never appear weak.
But here is what I also learned: when I stopped performing and started listening—to my clients, to something greater than myself, and eventually to my own heart—everything changed.
That is when I discovered what I now call the ABCs of leading with impact.
A is for Awareness.
B is for Being Present.
C is for Coherence.
And here is the secret most leadership training misses: you cannot get to C without bringing all four of your intelligences to the party.
The Four Intelligences Every Influential Woman Needs
We have spent decades over-indexing on one type of intelligence—IQ. Analytical thinking, data, strategy, intelligence. And yes, that matters. But it is not enough.
To lead with impact, to elevate yourself and others, you need to integrate all four:
- IQ (Intellectual Intelligence) – Your ability to think critically, solve problems, and process information.
- EQ (Emotional Intelligence) – Your ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions and those of others.
- PQ (Physical Intelligence) – Your body’s wisdom. The signals, energy, and somatic knowing that live beneath your thoughts.
- SQ (Spiritual Intelligence) – Your connection to something greater than yourself. Your purpose, inner guidance, and soul’s voice.
When you bring all four to the party, that is coherence. That is when peace, love, and joy flow through you, as you, and out into the world in everything you do.
Where Are You Still Playing Small?
I choose a word every year, guided by Spirit. Two years in a row, that word was integrity—and it grew me in ways I did not expect. It made me notice when I was surrounding myself with people who were out of integrity. It also made me notice when I was out of integrity with myself.
So let me ask you, sister to sister:
What would you love?
What is tugging on your heart?
Where are you out of integrity?
Where are you still playing small—fitting in just to please others?
These are not rhetorical questions. They are the doorway to your next level of impact. But most of us do not take time to reflect. We are too busy doing, performing, and achieving. We forget that the most influential women are not the busiest—they are the most present.
The Nike Slogan I Have Reclaimed
You have heard it: Just Do It.
But I do not mean force, pressure, or pushing through. I mean acting on your inner guidance the moment you receive it.
When you get that nudge to call your daughter, do not tell yourself the story that she is busy, or in a meeting, or that it is not a good time. Stop. You are making things up. Just act on it.
I started turning my life around when I began acting on my inner guidance in the moment—not when it felt good, not when it was convenient, not when all my stories finally aligned, but now. Right now.
When you act in the moment, you honor the value of that inner guidance. And that changes everything.
The Future Belongs to Women Who Hold Multiple Perceptions
We are living through a massive shift. Artificial intelligence is showing us a new model of what is possible. But here is what I know: the future does not belong to machines. It belongs to humans who can hold multiple perceptions at once—who can hear from many perspectives and integrate them into a fuller reality.
Right now, most of us are not there yet. We are stuck in one perception: this is the way it is done.
The influential woman of tomorrow will be the one who can say, Show me what I cannot see. Help me integrate new structures into my operating system. She will elevate herself not by climbing over others, but by bringing all four intelligences to every room she enters—and inviting others to do the same.
A Final Reflection for You
Ask yourself today:
Where am I out of integrity?
Where am I still playing small to please others?
What would I love—if I actually allowed myself to want it?
And then, sister—just do it. Not with force. With coherence. With all of you—IQ, EQ, PQ, and SQ—showing up to the party.
Because when you lead from coherence, you do not just elevate yourself. You give everyone around you permission to do the same.
And that, right there, is what influential women do.
Here Is What I Have Learned Along the Way
You do not need another framework, another certification, or someone else’s permission.
You just need to come back to your Self—capital S.
Without the noise. Without the static. Back to your essence so you can meet this present moment with wholeness, not a fractured version of yourself shaped by who you were supposed to please, impress, or become.
That is not anyone else’s job to do for you. That is your birthright to reclaim for yourself.
About the Author
Donalee Gastreich started her business in 2008 after a profound healing journey that transformed three back surgeries and a prognosis of lifelong pain into a deep understanding of the potential within our human architecture. Certified with the HeartMath Institute, she supports leaders and organizations in integrating physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual intelligence—activating what she calls Energetic Intelligence (EnQ). She works with senior executives and HR leaders to serve from coherence, authenticity, and impact.
