Being Yourself Is Also a Strategy

Being Yourself Is Also a Strategy: Why self-knowledge is the foundation of sustainable leadership.

Leading from who you are.

During a moment of meditation, after a hectic week, I asked myself the following question: how many decisions in my life were made based on who I am, and how many were made simply because an opportunity arose?

It seems simple. But it makes a lot of sense, especially for those who undertake, lead, create, or carry great responsibilities.

Opportunities arise all the time. And often we confuse an open door with direction.

Not every opportunity is a path. Sometimes it's just movement. And movement without purpose may seem like growth for a while, but it's rarely sustainable.

The day my body stopped before I did.

In September 2022, I was experiencing one of the most successful moments of my professional life, but I looked around at other areas and saw only a desert. I was experiencing burnout and needed to stop everything.

It wasn't a planned break. Nor was it the kind of beautiful rest one imagines when hearing the word sabbatical. It was an interruption. My body, mind, and soul were already signaling that something was out of place. It took me a while to listen.

That year, I began to understand that the problem wasn't just the amount of things I was doing.

It was a misalignment between what I was doing and how I was designed to function.

When you insist on living outside your comfort zone for too long, the bill comes due. In my case, it came as burnout.

What NBI taught me about myself

During this period, my mentor, Rod Medeiros, introduced me to NBI , a tool that analyzes brain preferences and thinking styles. No test fully explains a person, but some tools help us see patterns that, on our own, might take us much longer to notice.

Simply put, the NBI doesn't tell you who you are, but it helps identify how you tend to think, decide, communicate, learn, solve problems, and relate to work. It observes thinking preferences such as analysis, organization, creativity, future vision, communication, and relationships. From this, you begin to realize which environments, roles, and responsibilities strengthen your natural way of functioning and which require more energy, structure, or support.

In my case, I began to understand that my most natural way of thinking was linked to envisioning the future, creating possibilities, connecting with people, communicating, and constructing meaning.

My right side, the creative side, is working hard...

I function best when I can see the big picture, connect the dots, inspire people, and transform ideas into direction. But at that moment, I was trying to sustain a work and leadership model based on excessive control, operational pressure, and immediate responses to everything.

That's when it clicked: not all tiredness comes from overexertion.

Sometimes, fatigue comes from exerting oneself in the wrong direction.

I didn't need to escape organization, routine, or management. I needed to build these structures in a way that was more consistent with my nature.

Effort is part of life. Constant wear and tear is a sign of misalignment.

Self-awareness is not vanity. It's responsibility.

A person who doesn't know themselves tends to make decisions based on pressure, expectations, and comparison.

Accepts what shouldn't be accepted, rejects what should be considered, imitates models that don't match its essence.

For a while, this might work. You might grow outside of yourself. But what doesn't spring from your truth starts to demand too much maintenance.

That which has no roots requires great strength to stand upright.

Knowing yourself isn't about limiting yourself. It's about understanding more clearly what your raw material is. How you think, where you flourish, where you need structure, and where you need to stop trying to be someone you were never called to be.

Opportunity asks: what can be created? Identity asks: what kind of life am I building?

When you lead solely based on opportunity, the main question is usually: "What came up?". When you lead based on identity, the question changes: "Does this align with my mission?".

Opportunity focuses on gain, speed, and possibility. Identity focuses on coherence, direction, and consequence.

Opportunity can open doors, but identity helps to discern which doors are truly part of the path.

Because not everything that is good is ours. Not everything that makes money builds a future. Not all visibility strengthens reputation.

Sometimes an opportunity increases revenue but steals peace of mind. Sometimes it expands the agenda but weakens presence.

Therefore, maturing also means learning to discern.

There are opportunities that arrive as invitations, but end up serving as distractions. And there are closed doors that seem like losses, but later reveal themselves as blessings in disguise.

Being yourself doesn't mean staying the same.

Self-awareness is no excuse to avoid what is difficult.

When you know yourself better, you also see your weaknesses and blind spots more honestly.

Being yourself isn't about staying the same. It's about growing without abandoning yourself.

You can be creative and learn to have a routine. You can be relational and learn to make difficult decisions.

The point is not to choose between essence and maturity. It's to allow maturity to strengthen essence.

This process is a kind of metamorphosis.

Growing up isn't about abandoning who we are, but about allowing who we are to take on a new form, more awareness, more structure, and more responsibility. There are phases in life when we are pushed not to change our character, but to reveal a more complete version of ourselves.

The essence remains, but the form matures.

The gift remains, but it learns to carry weight. The identity stays alive, but it now has to support more difficult decisions, deeper commitments, and more lasting endeavors.

Perhaps that is why Isaiah records: “Thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel .” - Isaiah 43:1

Jacob was the man in process. Israel was the mature form of a promise that would not end with him.

In biblical language, to form is not merely to manufacture something from scratch, but to work with matter from a mold, to shape that which already carried a destiny. What God did in Jacob was not just an individual transformation. It was the formation of a mold for an entire people who would come after him.

In a way, maturing is also about this: allowing Life to shape our story, so that what is born within us can sustain something greater than ourselves.

What a leader who knows themselves changes around them

Self-knowledge doesn't just benefit the person who knows themselves. It transforms the entire environment.

When a leader knows themselves, they communicate better.

Stop transferring the workload to the team.

Build with complementary people.

It creates a less anxious culture.

People don't need perfect leaders. They need whole leaders.

Self-awareness: being yourself is also a strategy.

For a long time I thought strategy meant looking outward. Market, opportunities, competition. All of that matters. But a good strategy also requires looking inward.

Who am I? How do I function? What motivates me and what drains me?

If you don't understand who is making the decisions, your decisions may be driven by fear, anxiety, or a need for approval. And none of these factors sustains healthy long-term development.

Self-awareness is not a pause in strategy. It's part of it.

Perhaps that's why I see self-knowledge differently today. Not as an abstract exercise, but as a supporting structure. A way to make better decisions, lead with more coherence, and build without having to abandon oneself along the way.

Burnout wasn't just a sign that I needed to stop. It was a sign that I needed to come back to myself.

Leading from who I am doesn't exempt me from struggles. But it helps me not to fight against myself while facing the right battles.

Ultimately, being yourself is also a form of service.

Perhaps the most important question this week isn't, "What's the next opportunity?" It might be, "Who do I need to continue being when that opportunity arrives?"

This is Terça Share, ORIGEM's weekly space for reflections that help leaders and companies grow with more clarity. If this text resonated with you, share it with someone who is facing an important decision.

Join Our Community