Leadership Is an Inside Job

Three Years of Conscious Change, Archetypally

For the past three years, I’ve completed an Archetypal Preferences Report (APR) through the Archetypes at Work™ framework. Each year, I told myself I’d share the findings, and each year, I didn’t quite know how to talk about it without either over-explaining or under-valuing what it actually revealed. So instead of treating it like an “assessment result,” I’m sharing it as what it really is: a record of inner leadership development over time.

Why I Track Archetypes Annually

The APR isn’t a personality test or a typology. It’s a snapshot of how different levels of leadership are expressed in a given season of life — across five realms of order, relationships, creativity, change, action. Just like a muscle group can be changed and built upon, so can our inner characters. This intrigued me to see if I could adjust my factory settings and challenged me to ask questions like: Who am I becoming? What parts of myself are learning to collaborate? Where am I over-relying, and where am I integrating?

The Pattern That Emerged

Across all three years, two archetypes remained dominant: The Dreamer and The Explorer.

That didn’t change. What changed was what surrounded them.

The Dreamer is the archetype of imagination, vision, and possibility. The Dreamer senses what wants to exist before there is evidence for it. It connects dots across time, symbolism, sound, story, and future potential. This is the part of me that hears music before it’s written, feels movements before they’re choreographed, and imagines worlds that don’t yet have language.

The Explorer is the archetype of curiosity, experimentation, and lived experience. It learns by doing, by moving, by entering new terrain. This is the part of me that improvises, travels literally and between disciplines, follows creative instincts, and says yes to unfamiliar paths.

These two forces are incredibly generative. They can also, when unconstrained, be prone to shadow. In 2023, these players had very much taken over the show. They were like two divas unwilling to share the stage. The shadow side showed up as too many ideas at once, constant movement, emotional and creative overflow, and difficulty translating vision into sustainable structures. There was momentum, but not always a vessel. Expansion without enough grounding.

The recurring Dreamer and Explorer also tell me that these parts are likely dharmatic, especially as I can pinpoint their signature easily throughout my early childhood. I improvise, sing, travel, work with imagination and experiential learning in my coaching practice, I still think in symbols, sound, and story. I still hold big ideas for the future. The magic of dharma, or work that does not feel like work, cannot come to be if the other archetypes do not mature. They would continue to surface as too much of a good thing...and spin me in circles. But now there is a container for what I create. I can be multifaceted without flailing. Vision has somewhere to land.

The Yin and Yang of It

By the end of 2025, The Dreamer and Explorer were still leading, but they are no longer leading alone. The Sovereign, The Warrior, and The Strategist have come online more fully, providing clarity, boundaries, prioritization, and follow-through. Unsurprisingly, to someone who has lived most of her life in a polarity of Feminine or Yin frequencies, it was the more Masculine or Yang leading archetypes, that needed 'beefing up' in order to support the sometimes chaotic, highly sensitive, and unpredictable nature of my other leading forces.

This was an exciting discovery because I was able to back up a collection of intuitive hunches that led to creating Yin for the Win. The notion behind using this name, and building a Coaching & Facilitation business with this as a guiding principle, was that Yin leads the integration process. It is not more important than Yang, but in a world that has become centered, or rather, polarized by Yang methods for living, we have become enveloped in a container with Too Much Sovereign, Too Much Warrior, Too Much Strategist.

The Sovereign radiates inner authority and vision stewardship, holding the capacity to be seen and heard, as well as inviting others in. The Warrior embodies decisive action over not just business decisions, but the thousands of little yesses and no's on sleeping in a bit longer, eating that thing you probably shouldn't eat, or letting certain someone cross the line "one more time". The Strategist suggests critical thinking, sequencing, and helpful limitations. Witnessing shadows of these parts in the external world can sometimes lead to rejecting or avoiding them within, which means also skipping over the gifts that they bring when they are in equilibrium.

This imbalance has created a moment in society where the opposite is also true: Yin is polarized in Too Much Nurturer, Too Much Lover, and Too Much Dreamer. How does this imbalance show up? Chunks of high-achieving, high-performance competitors who express burnout and/or tyranny, and chunks of people who cannot stand on their own two feet without being told what to do, perceiving that they are ill-equipped to overcome overwhelm. I elaborate on this more in other articles.

When an individual can focus on their subconscious information, their invisible power, their parts, the archetypes that comprise The Self, the shadows, the too much's and too little's of particular characters, THAT is where integration begins to take place. The recognition in making the unconscious conscious is the Power of Yin. Yin power utilizes all multitudes, including Yang, in an infinite number of ways; Yang as sturdy inner and outer support, copying Yang methods to shapeshift where necessary, and emboldening the Anima and Animus (the Yin within Yang and Yang within Yin). Jung said, “the personal development of a human being depends on the level of integration of their inner masculine and feminine pole.”

Start with The Sovereign

For me, strengthening The Sovereign was about cultivating inner governance, and making space for the others to develop and thrive.

When The Sovereign is present, The Dreamer can imagine without overwhelm, The Explorer can roam with purpose, and gut feelings are more aligned like a compass, rather than an impulse to "act or else you'll miss out."

This is the difference between intensity and sustainability. Awareness around The Sovereign in the realm of Order also means accountability for where all of the other archetypes are at. If you can say, "hey, sorry I was too much Storyteller back there, I will be sure to listen more next time", then your Sovereign is helping to regulate with truth, and temper you from both spiritual bypassing and from being egocentric.

The Swing of Sovereignty is a very real, very turbulent process for those with underdeveloped access to The Sovereign archetype. I like to call it Divine Wonkiness: learning through lived experience how to move between polarities, strengthening boundaries when needed, softening them when safe, and recognizing the felt sense of balance in real-time. The Sun rises and sets every day, we can rely on that. But until it finds its rhythm, those with an unconscious and unrehearsed Sovereign may be in deep darkness for longer than is helpful, or emit so much light that they push others away.

There is no skipping the Divine Wonkiness of The Sovereign, or any other archetype as it matures within you and your circumstances. Surrounding yourself with others who can relate to this whether they use Jungian references, spiritual modalities, art, scientific or psychological terms, myth, metaphors, whatever it is, sharing your truth and being witnessed in your growth will be healing during these times.

What Integration Looks Like in Real Life

This shift didn’t happen on paper, it happened in practice.

It looks like:

• improvising and singing freely within chosen, repeatable containers

• creating content and leadership offerings that actually land

• holding multiple projects without flailing between them or overbooking myself

• clearer decision-making and stronger accountability

• a healthier rhythm with food and movement

• work that reflects who I actually am

• more financial stability than I had in 2023

• a living situation that feels safe, and truly suits my lifestyle

• a harmonious partnership rooted in mutual support and understanding

• creative collaborators who have seen me make mistakes and make things right again, and still want to work with me

• consciously choosing quality time with friends and social events that energize me

What’s Next?

What’s next for me is continuing to strengthen my bottom two archetypes: The Transformer and The Strategist. They have grown significantly through intentional rehearsals over the past two years, but still require attention, practice, and conscious engagement.  

This feels especially relevant, wrapping up 2025 with deep karmic clearing and identity shifts. I evaluated and restructured how I run my business, coaching abroad, established rituals that keep me steady, and changed how I think about social media and creative output by working in smaller, more sustainable projects. Consistency now matters more than intensity, even when time and energy seem limited.

There is a common platitude in the wellness world about “no effort” or “just letting go,” but in my experience, alignment is not passive. Resting, receiving, and softening are essential, but disengagement is not the same as integration. Love and attention directed toward the inner world is still a form of effort, just a different one. When applied consciously, it can generate meaningful external results without relying on hustle culture or burnout-driven models of success.

To stay on this trajectory, I will continue regular check-ins and rehearsals with these archetypes, as well as with the quieter, more neutral “middle five” that can easily be taken for granted. This is how I stay in tune with my purpose, maintain coherence across my inner system, and lead from a place that is both integrated and alive.

The Bigger Takeaway

What three years of archetypal tracing taught me is simple, but profound:

Leadership is an inside job.

Before we lead projects, communities, or movements, we’re leading an inner ecosystem. And when that inner ecosystem becomes more integrated, life starts to reflect it practically, relationally, creatively, and albeit, in miraculous ways that are highly specific to you and your journey.

This is why I use the APR and other archetypal methods in my coaching work: not to label people, but to help them see how they’re organizing themselves from the inside out. It ALWAYS reflects back to their business, relationships, desires, and their life at large.

Client APR Snapshots

Tracing leadership archetypes with clients is one of my favourite ways to clarify life's lessons and blessin's. 

Camille: Project Manager, Banking Sector

Top Archetypes: Strategist · Explorer · Sovereign

Lower Archetypes: Renegade · Dreamer

Core Longing: Seeking deeper meaning and inspiration, wants to make a difference.

Liam: DJ, Drama Coach & Teacher

Top 3 Archetypes: Warrior · Lover · Sovereign

Bottom 2 Archetypes: Dreamer · Renegade

Core Longing: Desiring greater clarity and direction around future plans and long-term vision.

Mark: Rock Choir Singer & Environmental Activist

Top 3 Archetypes: Nurturer · Renegade · Transformer

Bottom 2 Archetypes: Warrior · Strategist

Core Longing: Wanting improved health, healing mother wounds, a loving partnership, and more structure to support entrepreneurial ideals.

Curious to see who is running your world from behind the curtain? Book an APR with Coaching Package today!