Lead Between the Lines: The Unwritten Rules of Leadership & Power
Welcome to Lead Between the Lines, the podcast where we expose the unspoken truths and hidden strategies that fuel real power and lasting leadership. I’m Lois St. Germaine, your guide into the sophisticated, no-BS arena of authentic influence. This space is designed for the accomplished woman who’s ready to play a bolder, deeper game—who wants more than surface-level success and is ready to embrace the true essence of what it means to lead.
Each episode dives beneath the conventional, dissecting the subtle dynamics that define power in both corporate and entrepreneurial worlds. From breaking down the myths of authority to exploring the transformative journey of self-mastery, this podcast brings you raw insights, candid conversations, and the unfiltered strategies that will challenge you to step into your full power.
Here, we go beyond the expected. You’ll explore the hidden principles of influence and authority that don’t make it into the guidebooks but drive real, lasting impact. This isn’t just a podcast—it’s an invitation to forge your own path, navigate uncharted territory, and define success on your terms. If you’re ready to rethink leadership, challenge the status quo, and unlock the power to lead between the lines, then let’s dive in.
Get ready to see leadership differently. Here, we navigate the unspoken rules of power and unleash the leader within.
The Shift from Hustle to Wisdom: Embracing Crystallized Intelligence In this episode, we unpack a pivotal, yet often overlooked, evolution in personal growth and leadership: the shift from fluid intelligence—marked by quick problem-solving and hustle—to crystallized intelligence, where deep wisdom and strategic power take center stage.
Why does this shift matter? Because it’s not just a cognitive transition—it’s a transformational opportunity for high-achieving women to step into their most powerful chapter yet. We explore why women are uniquely equipped to embrace this evolution, and how society’s narratives around relevance and aging often mask the true strength of this phase.
With insights inspired by Arthur Brooks' Strength to Strength and my own frameworks, we tackle:
Why hustle and willpower stop working—and why that’s not a sign of failure.
The burnout trap caused by trying to operate in a "past power" curve.
How to redefine success and leverage the calm, grounded authority that crystallized intelligence offers.
We also dive into actionable steps to navigate this shift with confidence, including how to:
Redefine success in alignment with your legacy.
Leverage your crystallized intelligence to mentor, lead, and create sustainable impact.
Let go of outdated tools and methods to rise to new heights of influence and fulfillment.
This episode is your blueprint for leaving hustle behind and stepping boldly into the leadership role you were made for.
Episode Breakdown 00:00 – Introduction: The Double-Edged Sword of Success 00:38 – The Shift from Fluid to Crystallized Intelligence: Understanding the transition. 04:15 – Why Women Are Uniquely Equipped for This Shift: Turning societal narratives into strengths. 08:01 – Challenges in the Transition: Burnout, misalignment, and the hustle trap. 14:50 – Embracing the New Game: Moving into alignment and grounded authority. 15:36 – Actionable Steps for a Smooth Transition: Redefine success, leverage wisdom, and let go of the past. 17:11 – Conclusion: Your Next Iconic Chapter.
Ready to elevate your personal power and step into your most authentic self? Download the Reinvention Roadmap now and start your journey toward unmatched clarity, self-mastery, and bold transformation. This powerful guide will help you redefine your path and create a vision for your future that aligns with your deepest values and aspirations. Get instant access and begin crafting the life you’re meant to lead.
Success can feel like a double edge sword. You've climbed the ladder, check the boxes hit the milestones. Others have only dreamed of, and yet deep down something feels off unfulfilling, almost hollow. But here's the truth that most women don't talk about. What got you here, your drive, your innovation and your hustle. Isn't what will get you to your next chapter? And for women, this shift, isn't just an adjustment. It's an opportunity to lead, like never before. Welcome back. My friends. Today, we're diving into a powerful and frankly unwritten rule of leadership. The inevitable shift from fluid intelligence, right? Which is fast problem solving and innovation to crystallized intelligence, which is the deep calm wisdom that comes from experience. And here's the thing. Women are uniquely designed for this shift. It's not easier, but we're better equipped to thrive in this evolution than many of our male counterparts. And by the end of this episode, I'll show you why that's your superpower and how you can use it to step into your most iconic chapter yet. So. There is a shift that happens in everyone's life at some point. So let's start with what I mean by fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. And I learned this concept from Arthur Brooks in his book, strength to strength, where he goes into great detail about this concept. But today, I'm just going to share my takeaways and you'll see how this is exactly what is known as crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence. Is your ability to think quickly innovate, solve problems on the fly. It's. What many of us rely on in the first part of our careers to get noticed, climbed the ladder and make a name for ourselves. And it peaks in your twenties and thirties. And for some of us, we are not in those areas anymore. Crystallized intelligence on the other hand. Is what emerges as we gain experience. It's slower, deeper and more reflective. It's not about reacting. It's about synthesizing. Connecting dots, seeing the big picture and more importantly, teaching mentoring and guiding others from a place of deep knowing. Now society. Tells us to fear the shift. Doesn't it. Especially as women we're sold the idea that our value diminishes as we age. That our relevance fades. If we're not hustling at the same speed or innovating at the same level. It's the same for men like this isn't unique to women. I just feel like we are more designed to make the shift. Just because we don't carry the baggage and we're going to get into all this right. But here's where society gets it wrong for women. This isn't a decline. It's a transformation. And if you can embrace it, it's your most powerful chapter yet? I mean, I made the audacious claim that my sixties, right, which is my seventh decade here on planet earth is going to be my most powerful, my most, um, productive and successful. And. Um, Liberty almost liberating yet. Calm and, um, decisive chapter of my life. Pretty bold claim. If I do say so myself. So. Let's talk about why I think that women are built for this shift. The first one reason is that women are less ego driven by past wins. Now. A lot of us have some pretty strong egos. However, unlike many men. We are not as tied to the idea that our identity is wrapped up in the last title or the last innovation or the last six cess. Sure. We're proud of what we've built, but we're not afraid or not as afraid to let it go. And this gives us a huge advantage while others are busy clinging to what was. Where more likely to step into what's next. Right? There are more women. Seeking identity coaching than men. Right? A man might seek out executive coaching, but he's really looking for, um, more tactical doing type of, uh, guidance versus women are much more interested in the. The identity, the being the becoming, who do I get to be? In my next chapter. The second reason that I think we're more equipped is that. We thrive in collaboration and legacy work, right. Women naturally Excel. In creating systems. Fostering relationships and mentoring others, all hallmarks of crystallized intelligence. And here's the kicker. These qualities are exactly what's needed in this next stage of leadership. People don't need you to hustle harder. They need your wisdom. Your guidance and your ability to connect the dots that no one else sees. Right. Women, especially as we age, we really, really understand the concept of connecting the dots in a rears. Right. When we're in our twenties, thirties, we are out there making dots. Right where. Creating dot after dot, after dot. And then we hit this point where we, now we can look back and see, oh, that's why I did that. That's why I had to go through that challenge. That's why I learned that thing. Right. And we can put it all together. In this beautiful package of wisdom and Sage. Advice. Right. And the third reason that I think that we're more equipped is we don't have our, we actually carry a different kind of baggage, right? Men often see their careers as a linear climb, win after win. And women on the other hand are used to, like, I just spoke about evolving identities. We've been shifting our roles who are our whole life. Right. We go from partner to mother to leader innovator. And that means that we are more practiced in reinvention or at reinvention reinventing ourselves. And this makes the transformation to crystallized intelligence, feel more aligned with who we are. It's not about holding on, but about rising higher and letting go. So. Why can this still feel extremely difficult? Right? So when you think about the curve, and this is how Arthur Brooks explains it is. We have, um, that fluid intelligence curve that peaks somewhere late twenties, early thirties, and then declines from then on out. Well, most of us aren't even halfway through our lives when we've already peaked in that. Curve. The second curve that comes is this crystallized intelligence. And it begins like just before. The fluid, curve begins to tail off. We begin to enter into this crystallized curve, which now has us peaking very late in life. And. Depending on your, um, John rhe of, of development, right? Y you can peak as late as your 60 seventies, even beyond if need be right. Professors, when you think about professors, right? They get very, very good at their craft later in life because they've spent all of that time leading up to it, preparing right. I want to look out some of the air quote between the lines challenges that aren't often normalized. And definitely not this directly that we're going to speak about it today. And the first challenge in this transition that we might come across is internalized imposter syndrome. Right? One of the hardest parts of this shift is trusting that your wisdom is enough. And for so long. You've been taught to prove your worth. We've been taught to prove our worth by doing, by achieving more, creating, more hustling, more letting go of that. External validation can feel terrifying, especially if you're used to moving fast. And the entire corporate structure is an Eagle based game that is fueled by shadow behavior, which I'm going to touch on in a second. And additionally, this game is not designed to require a woman, especially to develop prowess. Something that would actually aid her in the transition from fluid to crystallized intelligence curves of her life and specifically her career. The second challenge that I see us facing is the pressure to stay relevant. Unfortunately society doesn't always value women's wisdom in the same way. It celebrates men's achievements. And that's why so many women feel this subtle pressure to prove that they can still compete in the hustle game. But here's the thing staying in the hustle when you're meant to lead with wisdom. Is the quickest way to burn out and diminish your power. Detaching from the significance that you've developed or felt through your corporate experience is going to be the key to making this transition. And speaking of the hustle trap. Y let's talk about why, what used to work feels broken now. One of the most disorienting parts of this shift is realizing that hustle, grit. And willpower the tools that built your first wave of success. Suddenly stopped working. And when that happens, what's our instinct. Double down right. You think I'll just push harder. I need to work longer hours, take more and more projects. Prove that I still have what it takes. And no matter how much. We overextend ourselves. The results don't match the effort and it feels like you're spinning your wheels in quicksand. So here's the truth. It's not the overworking that's burning you out. It's the misalignment. You're still trying to operate on your fluid intelligence curve. Fast problem solving quick wins, sheer willpower, right? When your greatest strengths have already shifted to crystallized intelligence. And the problem is no one tells us this is happening. There's no memo. That says, Hey. You're transitioning into a different type of power, one rooted in wisdom and synthesis, not speed and brute force. So we cling to what worked before. Unaware that the game has changed. And this feels so frustrating because we take the lack of results personally. We think what's wrong with me? Why can't I keep up? But nothing is wrong. You are not broken your evolving. The burnout comes from trying to stay in the fast lane of fluid intelligence when your power is now in the depth and stillness of crystallized intelligence. It's like trying to sprint a marathon. Your expending massive amounts of energy in ways that no longer align with who you've become. And I told you we were going to get to the whole shadow connection, right? So, this is where your shadow operating system really kicks in. It is whispering. You are just not trying hard enough. You need to prove that you can still compete. But that's the trap. The more you chase, what used to work, the more disconnected and exhausted you feel. The real work here is recognizing that you're not supposed to keep playing the same game. Your meant to step into a new game. A game where power comes from strategy, depth and presence, not hustle. So. There's a turning point. Good news. Right? The moment that you realized this everything shifts. The moment you realize that the game has changed. And that power is now coming from strategy, depth and presence. Everything in your world shifts. You stop wasting energy on methods that no longer serve you. And you start leaning into your evolved strengths. You move from trying to keep up to leading with decisive, calm. And suddenly you're not just surviving. You're thriving in a way that feels deeply aligned. So let's talk about. Some clear leaders moves that you can make to help this shift happen a lot. Uh, more smoothly. First step is redefined success. Start by asking yourself, what does success look like in this season of my life? Is it about chasing more accolades or is it about creating impact through wisdom, calm and presence? Success. Isn't about doing it's about being the woman who holds the space, the vision and the strategy. Step two. Is leverage your crystallized intelligence. Recognize that your most valuable asset, isn't your ability to hustle? It's your ability to lead with clarity and wisdom. And whether it's mentoring others or guiding your team or building your legacy, this is where your power lies. And lastly, let go to rise. You cannot hold onto the tools that built your past and expect them to serve your future. Letting go of the hustle. Isn't a loss. It's a liberation. And your power now lies in your ability to rise by stepping into that decisive, calm that I'm always talking about. And your grounded authority. This shift from fluid intelligence to crystallized intelligence is one of the most powerful transformations you will ever experience. And as a woman, you are uniquely equipped to navigate it with grace and power. But here's the truth. This is a conscious decision. You can either cling to what you felt grown, or you can step boldly into the woman that you're meant to become. So what will you choose? If this episode resonated with you, I invite you to take the first step in embracing your next chapter. Download my re-invention roadmap where I'll guide you through the exact process of redefining success. Mastering your shadow operating system and stepping into your most iconic decade yet. The link is in the show notes. And if you're ready to dive deeper, join me in my 21 day identity accelerator, a no coddling transformation driven experience designed for women like you, who are ready to stop climbing and start raining.
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