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Learn how to be a heart-centered leader with Andrea Flack-Wetherald

Andrea Flack-Wetherald helps companies incorporate fun and mindfulness to transform their leadership for optimal growth and success. 

Andrea Flack-Wetherald
Photo courtesy Andrea Flack-Wetherald
Photo courtesy Andrea Flack-Wetherald

Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.

During her journey of healing and self-rediscovery, Andrea Flack-Wetherald found improv. With a background in behavior modification coaching, she noticed an overlap between the two disciplines. Now, she helps companies incorporate fun and mindfulness to transform their leadership for optimal growth and success. 

When you think of a successful company, often money is at the forefront. But at the backbone of any organization is the team, and a unified team starts with strong, heart-centered leadership.

Leadership shows up in all areas of life and understanding how to not only lead but lead well is an asset everyone should have. 

Leadership plays a huge role in the success of any business, but only 48% of employees in the US view their company’s leadership as “high quality” and 77% of businesses report that leadership is lacking. 

It’s not easy to find and develop leaders especially if you don’t know the essential soft skills every leader needs. A few top soft skills include communication, teamwork, empathy, and self-awareness, but what often goes unnoticed is forgiveness

That’s where Andrea Flack-Wetherald comes in, an individual who knows just how important forgiveness is when it comes to heart-centered leadership. 

“When we are not in a place of forgiveness of ourselves and other people, then we’re not truly connecting with people. We’re trying to prove things to them. We’re trying to earn something from them,” Flack-Wetherald explains, and it affects our ability to form authentic relationships. 

Fostering a team in a work environment is a critical part of any company, and a key piece of this process is building relationships. Without authentic leadership at the core of a team, it can be difficult to create and sustain relationships. That is where leaders have to step up to bring their company together, but a majority are unaware of the most important leadership skill: forgiveness. 

A skill Flack-Wetherald developed after realizing the truth about forgiveness. She made it her life’s mission to help others do the same; looking forward to the future and saying yes rather than focusing on the past and saying I can’t.

Photo courtesy Andrea Flack-Wetherald

From Social Worker to Comedian, Andrea Flack-Wetherald is a unique and inspiring individual. She teaches Mindful Improv Thinking™ as a motivational speaker, retreat facilitator and author of her Amazon #1 bestselling book, The Funny Thing About Forgiveness. Her concept is built on a framework for self-healing and engaging in vulnerable conversations using mindfulness practice and improvised comedy principles. She teaches these ideas to leaders, innovators, peace-builders, and heart-centered humans worldwide.  

“All of life is improv and we’re making this thing up as we go,” says Flack-Wetherald. She cites that we need to learn to be braver, kinder, and more resilient versions of ourselves through pivoting and shifting – even when we mess up or “fail.” “This is the main part of improvisation and the key to success in life, especially when it comes to business success.”

“Forgiveness is the most important leadership skill,” Flack-Wetherald shares. “This is because everything else that we talk about for heart-centered leadership – including empathy, creating a culture of belonging, and inclusion: our ability to do these things sincerely hinges upon whether or not we can be present in our lives authentically. That is exactly what forgiveness allows us to do.”

Through her own experience with improv, Flack-Wetherald learned the true meaning of vulnerability and authenticity and it all starts from within. Once you’re able to step outside of yourself and your limiting beliefs, your true self is achievable. 

“Curiosity instead of judgment is a core Mindful Improv Thinking™ skill,” she says. “The degree to which we’re able to choose curiosity is intrinsically connected to how deeply we’ve engaged the work of forgiveness.” 

Leaders hold themselves back when they’re focused on proving others wrong or not following in another’s footsteps, and it limits their ability to truly be heart-centered leaders. 

Flack-Wetherald teaches leaders to forgive not just other people from their past but to forgive themselves as well. This way they can “work towards something with focus and intentionality, and that’s what forgiveness frees people up to do,” she shares. 

“I don’t think forgiveness has anything to do with whether or not you’re good but has everything to do with whether or not you’re free; whether or not you’re able to be optimistic,” Flack-Wetherald emphasizes. 

By removing barriers of resentment or shame, we open ourselves up to so many more opportunities and possibilities. When you’re able to live in the present, you can create authentic relationships and inspire your team to do the same. 

For improv, “your whole job is to have each other’s backs and make each other’s ideas look amazing,” Flack-Wetherald describes, and “if we can find a way to prioritize each other within a company, that’s what it feels like.” 

If you’re ready to learn the skill of forgiveness to become a powerful heart-centered leader for not only yourself but your team, Andrea Flack-Wetherald can help. Join the FREE Mindful improv Community today and transform your organization for the better. 

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Written By

George Nellist is a public relations, marketing and strategic brand expert who has executed social media and strategic marketing campaigns for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. For more information, visit Ascend Agency.

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