Episode
[Update] What is Leverage and How to Use It
- Podcast
- The Empowered Leader Podcast
- Published
- Jul 2, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1006
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Summary
You are not asking for too much. You are using what is already yours. Leverage is one of the most misunderstood words in leadership. We hear the word, and we flinch. We think of manipulation. Power plays. Hardball tactics. The kind of leadership that wins by making someone else lose. That is not leverage. That is intimidation wearing a borrowed name. Leverage is the strategic use of what you already have: your expertise, your results, your relationships, your timing, your value, to create movement that hard work alone cannot create. And for women who have been taught to be grateful, to wait their turn, to not appear too ambitious, too much, too loud, leverage has felt forbidden. We were told that if we just worked hard enough, kept our heads down, delivered excellence, the recognition would come. The promotion would come. The resourcing would come. It did not. Hard work is the price of admission. Leverage is the price of advancement. Without leverage, you will work twice as hard for half the influence. Every time. Why It Matters Leverage is not optional. It is the difference between working in your career and being moved through it. It directly shapes : • Whether you are resourced or quietly exhausted • Whether your work translates into power, or stops at performance reviews • Whether you advance or watch others get advanced ahead of you • Whether your value is recognized in real time or only in farewell speeches Leaders who understand leverage build influence that compounds. Leaders who do not work harder every year wonder why nothing moves. Leverage is not about taking. It is about no longer giving away what was always yours to use. Visibility: Know What You Already Have Most leaders underestimate their own leverage. You will negotiate from a place of scarcity for as…