Greguyschka Félix on leadership, the self, and emotional intelligence
Greguyschka Félix is a human behaviour expert. For the last two decades, she has been mentoring women around the world, bringing them to a level to live bolder in the areas of relationship and business. She is a seasoned entrepreneur, speaker, creator of the Brave Womanhood movement and founder of Minage. She is putting on The Break Through Your Barriers Masterclass 1 on Saturday, December 12, free of charge.
Which areas of the EQ model are you a champion at?
Emotional Self-Awareness and the Interpersonal composite. Each person faces all kinds of situational storms. Without a solid set of values and a sense of ‘who am I?‘; ‘what do I stand for?‘; and ‘what am I willing to sacrifice?‘ it will feel as if we are experiencing our challenges for the first time. When you are able to answer the question ‘who and what’, it is the beginning of understanding yourself. And when you understand ‘yourself’, you develop your own personal GPS.
Most often the thing that limits us from achieving our dreams and goals is not the lack of knowledge or ability; it’s within our own brain. When people can see what’s possible, they become generators of their own life. They take a stand for their own power and responsibility and produce better people, and better results. Quite simply, we need to be good at relationships to be successful. The EQ model is an accessible construct for our deeper awareness, our relationship management, and ultimately our growth.
How has the EQ-i 2.0 certification training impacted your professional life?
When I first started my career, I would have never thought my life would be where it is today. Emotional intelligence, combined with neuroscience, is the powerful science-based framework we use for addressing and clearing self-sabotage, success blocks, and limiting glitches at the root cause. Without fail, the certification training has made my life better in countless ways. It provided a rubric for understanding my own character, and the tools to skillfully navigate the journey I’ve undertaken.
What is your definition of a leader?
Over the years, this is what I have learned about leadership: the image that we conjure up when we think of true leadership could be a false image. We respect the leaders in our lives and history books and we may adore them. And even if these leaders have never been elevated to the steps of a monument, we elevate them in our imagination.
True leaders are not great because they have power, they are great because they can empower others. Great leaders make us feel what they feel. When they see struggle, they inspire success. When they see hopelessness, they inspire hope. They make us feel that we can do the unthinkable.
Therefore, leadership is an internal quality; to lead outwardly you must first learn to lead from within.
How are you living out what it means to be a leader?
On my personal journey, nothing has changed my life like recognizing that my fears and insecurities were not uncommon. So I shared the kind of messages that deliver me from my own fears and this resonates with other people.
What I’m working on now has a lot to do with structure, accountability and leadership. I was at a place in my life where everything I had done up to now was because someone invited me in the realm of their vision. I think it’s a blessing because I learn so much from so many people, but there comes a certain point where I stopped wanting to be invited into someone else’s vision. It is not everyone’s journey, but I asked God what the vision was for my life – that’s where Brave WomanHood developed.
Brave WomanHood, a national conference and movement, is designed to help women shatter glass ceilings to find their path to unlock their full potential and live a fulfilled life. From there, they could pay it forward to their children so they too break that glass ceiling, grab that glass slipper, and determine their life course.
Women have a need to connect, expand and determine where they fit in the ever-changing world. My desire is to host events where women feel comfortable being authentic and transparent. I believe it’s so powerful for women to look around and see other women who may not look like them but who still found themselves in a place where they’re hoping to unlock their full potential and are able to become vulnerable.
Who is your favourite leader and why?
When I think of leaders, Martin Luther King, Jeff Bezos, and Malala come to mind. They are people who stood for the vision in their hearts and develop inner architectures based on their values – a vision that benefited the greater good. But when I think of my favourite transformational leader, I would think of Jesus Christ – standing in front of his people with a love model in his arms and a vision in his heart.
Regardless of one’s beliefs, Jesus Christ led from within. He showed how to master leadership and intentionally and unapologetically built better people through personal transformation and education. He mustered the courage to speak up against the predominant views despite facing structural racism – a system of hierarchy and inequity, preferential treatment, privilege and power diffused and infused in all aspects of society at the expense of racially oppressed people. When you lead from within you are able to do what is right, which is not necessarily easy.
What’s your superpower or secret skill?
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr: “all you need to have to serve is a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love”. For me, it’s not merely what I can get but what I can give to others. I care about people. I’m that ‘corner woman’ for people, encouraging them to experience and maximize the potential in their life. I am willing to fight for the dream that is inside them. Because I see people at that next level – a place where they raise the banner to become the change and impact they want to see in the world. Leadership in service – that is my secret sauce.
Change leader
EITC celebrates people in our community who are living out and championing emotional intelligence in their professional lives and in their communities. They are leading by example.
- Link no longer works: https://minage-image.lpages.co/breakthrough-your-barriers-masterclass/ ↩
Thank you for your post. This was so inspiring. I am a pastor and leading a church for the first time and boy did I need that encouragement.