Your Next Clear Move
Welcome to Your Next Clear Move™—the podcast for leaders, professionals, and high-capacity humans who are done “getting ready” and ready to move.
I’m Debbie Peterson, Leadership Readiness Expert, and in each episode I deliver grounded insight, clarity-driven mindset strategies, and one actionable step to help you stop the drift and lead yourself forward.
This isn’t about fixing what’s broken. It’s about reconnecting to what matters—and making decisions that align with who you are and how you want to lead next.
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Your Next Clear Move
How Your Internal Labels Are Shaping the Way You Lead
What would change in your leadership if you could see the hidden labels running your decisions? That's the powerful question at the heart of this transformative episode on how the stories we tell ourselves shape our professional journey.
The most influential factor in your leadership isn't your experience or skills—it's your identity. Those quiet beliefs about who you are ("I'm the fixer," "I'm the strong one," "I'm just lucky to be here") function as unconscious instructions to your mind, filtering what information you allow in and determining how you show up in professional settings. These identity-level beliefs operate silently in the background until we bring them into awareness.
I walk you through a practical framework for getting unstuck from these patterns, starting with understanding why most leaders make decisions through outdated beliefs shaped by fear or feedback that no longer serves them. These internal misalignments manifest as hesitation, overcompensation, burnout, or playing small in situations where your expertise is needed. Leadership isn't just about skills—it's fundamentally about self-perception.
The transformative four-step reflection process I share will help you notice when you're triggered, name the theme of the story you're telling yourself, question whether this label truly serves who you're becoming, and reframe it with a more aligned truth. Small shifts like these create new leadership habits thought by thought, choice by choice. You're allowed to outgrow the stories you've been given or created for yourself.
Ready to identify one label you've been living under that no longer serves you? Visit debbiepetersonspeaks.com for more leadership readiness resources, or explore my Readiness Reset Keynote or Leadership Labs for your organization. Your next clear move awaits—what new leadership story are you ready to write?
Hey, hello and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity, and this is another episode of the Getting to Clarity podcast. I am so glad you are here today. This is the place where you come to get the tips, tools and techniques that you need to make your next clear move in your career, your leadership or your business. It is time to cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters to help you get to the next level of your growth, and today we are talking about something that holds us back, and it is your labels, your internal labels, how you label yourself, how you label others, and it is shaping the way that you lead, and probably in ways that you don't even realize that. So we're going to kick the door open on that. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Getting to Clarity podcast.
Speaker 3:The place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life.
Speaker 2:Here's your host, debbie Peterson, of Getting to Clarity. Here's your host, debbie Peterson, of Getting to Clarity.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we don't lead from just experience. We also lead from identity. It's really amazing the role that identity can play, and this comes from the names that we've claimed and the ones that we've been given. It's from the stories we believe about who we are and also what we believe about who we're not. So phrases pop up like oh, I'm not ready, I'm not senior enough to go for something like this. I've only been, you know, in this role a certain number of months. Maybe it is well, I'm the fixer, or I'm the strong one. So you keep telling yourself you have to be strong. Or maybe you tell yourself, whew, I am just lucky to be here, right?
Speaker 1:These aren't just thoughts, though. They're actually labels. They are unconscious instruction to our mind to tell us how to think about ourselves and to think about others, and they shape everything from how you show up in a meeting to what you believe that you are allowed to ask for. They have that much power and they all happen behind the scenes, which is one of the reasons that we are just pulling them out front, so that we can see them and be able to see this pattern. If you run it, these labels, they live in the subconscious right and they're reinforced over time and through feedback. It's the roles that we have, it's the survival strategies that we've employed, and in NLP we call them identity level beliefs, and they are the most powerful and stubborn beliefs that we hold. Okay, they operate in the background. They shape how we lead without permission. So when we have that thought and we create that label, we give instruction to our mind. This is what we lead without permission. So when we have that thought and we create that label, we give instruction to our mind. This is what I want to find. So this is how we find ourselves showing up. This is how we find other people showing up. Do you have a problem child in your office? Well, if you label them as a problem child, that is the only way they're ever going to show up to you. That's the power of labels. And you know, for me, my label was I'm good at chaos. Well, you better believe chaos was all I found coming for me.
Speaker 1:So it's not just about how we label ourselves, it's also the labels that we place on others. Like somebody is difficult, or they're high maintenance, or oh, they're not leadership material, that can do just as much damage. And when we box someone in, we stop seeing the full person. You know, there is no potential, the door is closed and our subconscious reinforces the pattern until, well, they show up, exactly the way we expect, because that's what we're filtering for. It's not that they have changed, but the information that we let in related to them. That's all that gets through, is what we're sorting for.
Speaker 1:So what you call yourself is leading you, and I want you to know that, because these quiet beliefs are running the show, and until we name them, we can't shift them. So let's kind of look underneath the surface, because what I'm going to take you through is a framework that helps people like you get unstuck from old patterns. It's a way to move from hidden beliefs to being more intentional in your career, in your leadership, in your business. This isn't about fixing Okay, let me be clear about that, you're not broken. Okay, but it's about uncovering what's already there and choosing how you want to move forward from there. So why does this even matter? So, in the framework, why? Is always the first question, most leaders are making decisions through outdated beliefs. Okay, they are stories that we have held on to, they're shaped by fear or somehow, you know, feedback that no longer serves you in your role and that internal misalignment shows up as hesitation. It shows up as overcompensation, burnout, playing small, you might act less boldly than you're capable of or second guess yourself your insight in rooms where you actually belong. And it's not because you aren't skilled you are. It's because an old belief is still calling the shots. So what? What's really driving this? What is where we go to next? Leadership isn't just about skills. It's about self-perception. It's what we think about ourselves.
Speaker 1:Labels like the fixer or the strong one might have helped you succeed in the past, but they can also keep you stuck. They make it hard to ask for help, take risks or grow in new roles. Once, one at one time protected, you could now be holding you back. So it served its purpose and it's time for it to go. So here's a powerful question Ask yourself what do I want instead? When you figure out you're running an old pattern and it doesn't serve you anymore, what do I want instead? When you explore that question without judgment, just with curiosity, you begin to shift the narrative. Even naming a new possibility helps your subconscious to start creating, building toward it. So the next step is who? Who can help. You don't have to do this alone as a matter of fact, you shouldn't because sometimes other perspectives will help you see things that you can't see on your own. So growth accelerates when we're supported by people who believe in our potential, because, frankly, sometimes we have to borrow their belief.
Speaker 1:Think about coaches, think about mentors or peer leaders. Maybe there are it's not people, but it's courses or podcasts or subject matter experts like myself. There's content all over YouTube and LinkedIn and other social media outputs. So think about the voices that can reflect back a version of you that your current label won't let you see. Pay attention to who you admire and who you resist. Those reactions are clues, often people that we admire. They have traits that we long to activate in ourselves, and we also resist traits that we were taught not to express, or perhaps fear we might be judged for right.
Speaker 1:So what's one way to shift this? This is the how. This is the get you into action, and I want you to pay attention. I want to take you through a reflection. So the first step in this four-step reflection is one Notice the trigger when you feel yourself shrinking or overcompensating. I want you to pause. That's the trigger Anytime that happens and ask yourself what is the story that just ran through your mind?
Speaker 1:What is it that you were telling yourself? I want you to be aware of it, because until you are aware of it, nothing can change. Number two name it. What is the theme of the story that you're telling yourself? I'm the fixer. I'm too much. Have you heard of too muchness? Right, I'm just the admin.
Speaker 1:Number three once you figure out the label, ask yourself is this mine? Is it useful? Now, is it factual? You know who gave it to you? Does it serve the person that you are becoming, the leader that you're becoming, or the business owner that you're becoming? And then, number four, reframe it and replace it with a more aligned truth, something like I bring perspective that matters, that's unique. I bring value in who I am and how I show up, not just what I do. So you know you are not your title.
Speaker 1:Small shifts like this are how new leadership habits take root thought by thought, choice by choice. So now, what's your next clear move? So this insight that you've gleaned only matters if it leads to action. So I want you to identify one label that you've been living under, what is a way that you've labeled yourself and it is just not working anymore. Ask yourself once you identify it is this mine or was it assigned? Is this something you picked up on the way that doesn't serve you anymore?
Speaker 1:And then next choose a new phrase to lead from this week.
Speaker 1:What do you want instead? And then create a phrase around that I am a person who listens deeply, I am ready to be seen for who I am now, or, you know, I'm a leader who cares about developing my people, so you're allowed to outgrow the story that you've been given. I'm a leader who cares about developing my people, so you're allowed to outgrow the story that you've been given and you're ready more ready than you realize to write a new story. So if this article pulled at something to you, great, it's no accident. It means you are ready for more aligned leadership and I'd love to support you. Head on over to my website to pick up other leadership readiness resources at wwwdebbypetersonspeakscom. And if you have teams that you're preparing for a new role in your organization, starting a mentoring program, or you are just ready for your people to stop playing small, I invite you to explore the readiness reset Reset Keynote or one of my Readiness Leadership Labs, customized just for you. So take good care of yourself and bye-bye for now.
Speaker 2:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast with Debbie Peterson.
Speaker 3:If you enjoyed this show, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.
Speaker 2:To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit DebbiePetersonSpeakscom.
