Live Your Legacy: Principle 1 - Know Your Soil – The Foundation of Rooted Leadership

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

— Carl Jung

Just as a tree draws its strength from the richness of the soil it grows in, rooted leadership begins with a deep understanding of the ground you stand on—your personal story, values, beliefs, and experiences. Before you lead others, you must know yourself. This is the inner terrain that informs your decisions, shapes your leadership presence, and determines the depth of your impact.

In rooted leadership, self-awareness is not optional—it is the foundation.

What Does It Mean to Know Your Soil?

To know your soil means being deeply attuned to the influences that shaped you, the values that guide you, and the patterns—both empowering and limiting—that live in your nervous system and mindset.

Rooted leaders ask:

• What are the stories I’ve been told—and am still telling myself—about who I am?

• What values are non-negotiable for me?

• How do my past experiences inform how I show up today?

Knowing your soil is an act of compassion and courage. It requires you to turn inward—not to navel gaze, but to understand what you’re growing from. Because leadership without introspection risks repeating inherited patterns that no longer serve.

Why This Principle Matters

1. Self-awareness Creates Clarity

When you know what you stand for, your choices become clearer. You’re less easily swayed by external noise or performative leadership. Your compass becomes internal, not reactive.

2. Roots Prevent Uprooting

When challenges come—and they will—being rooted in who you are allows you to stay grounded. You don’t collapse or spin out. You respond with steadiness because you know what matters most.

3. Authenticity Builds Trust

People don’t follow perfection—they follow realness. Leaders who are in touch with their own humanity invite trust and connection. When you know your soil, you lead with transparency and humility.

4. Healing the Soil Heals the System

When leaders do the work to understand and heal their own wounds or inherited patterns, they become generational change-makers. Your leadership becomes a force that not only drives results, but transforms culture.

Practices for Rooted Leaders

• Inner Mapping: Create a map of the “soil” you’ve grown from. Include family influences, cultural messages, formative experiences, and personal turning points. Ask yourself: What do I want to carry forward? What do I want to compost?

• Values Clarification: Identify your top 3–5 core values. Not the ones you think you should have, but the ones that truly guide your decisions

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• Narrative Inquiry: Examine the stories you tell yourself about your worth, your role, and your capacity. Are they rooted in truth or fear? Are they inherited or chosen?

• Body as Soil: Somatic awareness helps you tune into where old patterns live in your body. Pay attention to where you feel grounded or triggered. This gives you valuable data about what’s in your “soil.”

Root Reflection

• What are the core experiences that have shaped your leadership identity?

• Where are you being called to examine or re-nourish the “soil” of your leadership?