🧩 Can you hold two opposites? The secret to high-performing inclusive leadership starts here - with Coherency Lab.

Hello and welcome,

I’m excited to bring you along as I launch the writing process of my first book.​

If you choose to stay on this journey, you’ll learn a new, deeper perspective on what it truly takes to become a leader who builds a psychologically safe, high-performing culture in diverse teams with an inclusive and courageous mindset.

My book will unfold in three parts:

​📕 Part 1: The Shift Within - Redefining your identity as a leader

📕 Part 2: The Space Between - Building a team where trust and stretch coexist

📕 Part 3: The Everyday Moves - Practical tools that create coherency in action

Each newsletter issue, I’ll share one key insight I’m working on and a practical recommendation you can use right away, whether you’re a leader yourself or someone supporting leaders.

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Week #1 Focus: Leader Self-Concept Complexity and Integration

Key definitions for this week:

• Self-Concept Complexity (Linville, 1987) means having a rich, differentiated view of oneself (not "I am just a challenger" or "I am just nurturing," but "I can be both, depending on context").

• Self-Concept Integration (Higgins, 1987; Rogers ) is the ability to unifydifferent (sometimes opposing) aspects of self without seeing them as contradictions or threats.

Why I am studying these concepts for my book:

To hold Safe and Challenge together, a leader must see themselves as capable of embodying both, even if these traits feel opposite.

This requires reframing identity:

• Not "I am either strong or kind"

• but "My strength includes kindness; my kindness includes strength."

Without this deep self-concept work, leaders will feel like they are "betraying" themselves when they try to stretch into the opposite pole.

Example:

A leader who thinks "I'm either a tough results-driver OR a compassionate people-person" gets stuck.

A Safe Challenger thinks "My drive for results is an act of care for the team's potential."

Research Evidence:

• ​Linville's research showed that people with complex, integrated self-concepts handle stress, setbacks, and identity threats much better.

• ​Carl Rogers in his book spoke of "becoming a fully functioning person" as integrating parts of the self that once seemed contradictory.

• ​Newer neuroscience research (Siegel's book called "Mindsight") shows that integration of neural networks handling different "selves" builds emotional resilience and flexibility.

Practice It with Me: Both-And Leadership Reflection Exercise

If you want to lead with both safety and challenge, start by stretching how you see yourself. Try this simple reflection exercise for yourself or the leaders you support:

Step 1: Identify two opposites

• Think of two leadership qualities that feel opposite to you (e.g., "being empathetic" and "holding high standards").

  
  

Step 2: Name the Strength in Each

• Write one sentence for each quality about why it’s valuable for your team’s growth.

  
  

Step 3: Find the Bridge

• "How might combining these two make me an even stronger leader?"

  
  

Write a new leadership statement that holds both qualities together.​(Example: "I challenge my team because I care about their potential.")

This helps you expand your leadership identity, which in my approach is the foundational first step to becoming a leader who is both high-achieving and psychologically safe and who builds coherency within the team, beyond just balancing diverse needs.

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I hope you’ll give this exercise a try or simply, the next time you catch yourself sensing a contradiction between two leadership approaches, you’ll pause, reflect, and gently find the bridge between them, for yourself and those you lead.

P.S.: When you try this reflection or even just notice a moment of contradiction in your leadership what comes up for you? Please, share.

Warmly,

Susanna