Human Design Helps You Build Capacity for Change and Ambiguity
There’s no one-size-fits-all system for leadership development. Systems that promise “5 proven steps for high performance” are sexy in their simplicity, an alluring sales pitch. But they don’t work. They don’t account for individual uniqueness, genius, and complexity.
This recipe “worked” in the Information Age, when burnout, conformity and productivity was awarded. But for the first time in modern history, AI is changing all of that. Now, it’s the leaders and companies that focus on uniqueness, creativity and innovation that will thrive.
And innovation requires space to emerge. So, the skillset you need is not a logical one. It’s a nervous system one. It’s about building your capacity to…
… stay poised in the unknown and resist the temptation to fill space with busyness.
… notice auto-pilot patterns of reaction and slow down to choose differently.
… allow new innovations to emerge in that space, trusting the wisdom of your body.
Your nervous system adapted to a world that asked you to conform and earn your value through hard work, developing auto-pilot patterns of self-suppression, busyness, fear, and anxiety that now need to be gently and patiently unraveled. Under those patterns, your body will naturally guide you to innovate and lead in the most rewarding, easeful way.
Human Design is the perfect tool for this. It complements systems like StrengthsFinder, Myers Briggs, and the Enneagram by going a layer deeper.
It maps how your body is uniquely and naturally designed to guide your decisions and how your body uniquely communicates with you. In a time when external authorities are unreliable, it’s an invitation to reconnect to your inner authority: to become a leader that consistently sees through the fog of over-information and follows your clear inner knowing so you’re the one driving change rather than reacting to it.
I’ve supported many C-Suite executives using Human Design to align their energy and role to add the most value, create more ease in their life, and have a bigger impact. But I invite you not to take my word for it but to discover for yourself.
The 7 Energetic Leadership Types:
If you don’t know your Human Design Leadership Type and Style, download your Free Human Design Report here.
| Traditional Human Design Type | Energetic Leadership Style and Type |
| Generator | Systematic Builder |
| Manifesting Generator | Direct Builder |
| Classic Projector | Classic Guide |
| Energy Projector | Energy Guide |
| Mental Projector | Mental Guide |
| Manifestor | Innovator / Initiator |
| Reflector | Evaluator |
Systematic and Direct Builders
Systematic Builders make up about 37% of the population and Direct Builders make up about 33%. So a total of 70% of the population are Builders and are designed to build ideas into reality. That’s why there is such a large proportion of Builders, and a very wide variety of Builders.
If you’re a Builder, you have a consistent source of energy that you can tap into to get things done. It’s a battery that will fully recharge each night as long as you use the energy correctly. It creates a beacon that others can feel as availability to get things done. You probably get a lot of requests on your energy, many of which will be exciting and interesting and things you want to do. Yet many will not be correct for you.
It’s important to discern which opportunities are correct for you and avoid making decisions based on desires, emotions, or external pressures. Your body will communicate to you which opportunities or relationships are correct for you – and you’ll be able to hear that inner wisdom with practice and when you’re emotionally clear and steady.
This is one of the key ways to thrive in your business or career, by only working on what your energy guides you to, vs. the thoughts and emotions that lead you to take on too much and bring you to burnout, urgency, and overwhelm.
You’re here to move projects forward, you’re here to attract opportunities, you’re here to trust which opportunities feel right in your body. And it’s important to notice frustration when it comes up and use it as a signal that you’re on the wrong track. Pause, get curious, and shift direction into a direction where you’re using your energy on work that you love.
If you don’t, you’re going to burn out. Don’t weaken your beacon. If you burn yourself out by spending too much energy on the incorrect things and the incorrect requests on your energy, you’re not going to do anyone in any good.
Direct Builders
If you’re a Direct Builder, one of the two Builder types, it’s natural to miss steps along the way as you typically take the most direct path to bringing something into reality. You’re natural at manifesting ideas into reality quickly with your energy but will need to go back to handle all the steps you missed along the way. Or surround yourself with Systematic Builders that you can collaborate with, as they’re designed to make sure every box is checked along the way.
It’s really important for you to slow down and really listen. while the generators typically do things in stages.
Systematic Builders
If you’re a Systematic Builder, you naturally do things in stages, mapping out the stages and making sure every step is fully complete before moving onto the next. You can collaborate with the Direct Guides, who can help put your actions into context as they see the destination and bigger picture very clearly. Together you can work very well together by meeting “in the middle”.
Classic, Energy, and Mental Guides
As a Guide, you make up about 18-20% of the population. You excel at directing and guiding energy, specifically the energy of the Builders. You naturally absorb the environment around you and gain a wisdom about what is working and isn’t working in how energy is being used in that environment.
So, your role is to help Builders navigate their energy and use it in the most efficient way. You can help them build their capacity to listen to the wisdom of their energy over their mind and body. Yet, they have to be ready to listen and change the way they do things. And not all Builders are. Unfortunately, many have learned to stay busy to earn approval and validation from society. And, that’s a hard pattern to break. As a Builder, I know first hand! But, for the Builders that are ready, you can have an immense impact.
The most important thing for you is to be in environments where the Builders are ready for your guidance, where they invite you to share it, and appreciate you and recognize you for it. So, if you’re not in that environment, let that be your priority. That could look like having conversations with team members or those that you report to. It could look like shifting your team. It could look like requesting a move to a different part of an organization. Or it could look like stepping into a new role.
If you’re running a business and are wondering how to “wait for the invitation” and simultaneously get the word out about your business, I would suggest that you “build your dance floor”. Let people know what you’re up to so they know what dance to invite you into.
Classic Guides
If you’re a Classic Guide, you have a keen ability to sense and discern the purity of energy within a group or environment. You are skilled at asking insightful questions, helping builders evaluate how they are utilizing their energy, and offering guidance based on your observations.
Energy Guides
If you’re an Energy Guide, you have more access to energy than other Guides. While your energy may fluctuate, you’ll have periods where you’ll experience bursts of energy, enabling you to get more tasks done. You still have to be very discerning of where you use that energy. It’s important to resist the temptation to act out of internal or external pressure and instead strategically utilize your energy based on the invitations that feel correct for you.
Mental Guides
If you’re a Mental Guide, you’re able to easily see the big picture of what’s happening in your environment and use your powerful mind to guide others. You are naturally attuned to transient energies within a space or environment. Your role is to observe and understand how energy flows between people, providing valuable insights and guidance. Mental Guides thrive in environments where they are invited to share their wisdom and their perspectives are valued.
Innovators / Initiators
Innovators / Initiators make up only about 8-10% of the population. If you’re an Innovator, your role is to kick-start new ideas and initiatives, often initiating projects and providing the initial momentum. While other types can also innovate, Innovators excel in bringing new ideas into existence. If you are an Innovator, listen to the spark within you, notice the direction it’s pulling you in, and trust it to guide you in the right direction.
The most important priority for you is to find a way into a role that allows you the freedom to innovate and initiate, ensuring your creative energy can flourish. And it’s important to have people around you that can handle the implementation and guidance of the implementation (Builders and Guides) as soon as possible. Or to structure your services so you’re getting paid for your ideas and innovations.
It’s important that you inform any one who will be impacted by your new idea before you just kick it off. You need to prepare others for it so they have an opportunity to decide if and how they want to be involved. And, if they do, so they have a chance to readjust priorities.
This includes informing bosses, employees, team members, etc. There’s a reason there’s less than 10% of you. The ideas you bring forth take a lot of energy from a lot of people to guide and build. And, if you just kick it off without informing everybody and giving them a chance to prioritize, you’ll meet a lot of resistance. Remove that resistance first, instead.
Evaluators
Evaluators make up about 1-2% of the population. If you’re an Evaluator, you have a unique ability to zoom out and see the bigger picture. While the other Energetic Leadership Types see the sentence, you see the paragraph.
You excel in evaluating processes, systems, organizational patterns, and marketplace trends. It is crucial for you to occupy roles within companies where you can provide strategic advice based on your keen observations.
Your opinions and insights should be valued to harness the full potential of your evaluative abilities. And it’s important to prioritize finding the environment where that is true. A strategic advisor is a good role for you.
Key Points for each Energetic Leadership Style:
Understanding your energetic leadership type is the first step toward unlocking your full potential in business and leadership. Here are some key summarized takeaways for each type:
- Builders: Trust your energy, engage in the correct opportunities, and avoid burnout by focusing on what truly aligns with your authentic self. Don’t weaken your beacon.
- Direct Builders: Surround yourself by those that naturally complete the steps that you miss along the way as you bring ideas into reality quickly.
- Systematic Builders: Focus on getting everything done at each stage of a project, systematically moving from step to step and making sure all the foundational steps are complete while the Direct Builders prove the concept quickly.
- Guides: Find the right environment where your guidance is appreciated, desired, and recognized, ask insightful questions, and help builders optimize their energy. Build your dance floor.
- Classic Guides: Trust your inner knowing about the purity of the energy and how it’s being used, either efficiently or inefficiently. For the Builders that are ready and inviting your guidance, support them to use their energy more efficiently
- Energy Guides: use your bursts of energy to move initiatives forward in the correct ways, avoiding acting from internal or external pressure or demands on your energy. Act from invitations that are correct for you, that your energy guides you to.
- Mental Guides: observe the transient energy of the environments you’re in, as people move in and out of it. You can naturally understand the flow of energy in the system at a high level and use your mind to come up with explanations that will help guide that energy.
- Innovators: Follow your inner spark, initiate projects, and surround yourself with a team that supports implementation. Make sure to inform anyone who will be impacted by your idea before kicking it off. Enroll people first and give them the chance to adjust so you remove resistance and empower a team to continue building and guiding the idea when it’s time for you to follow your spark to the next idea.
- Evaluators: Seek roles where you can see the big picture, analyze trends, and provide strategic advice based on the paragraph view that you’re seeing. Evaluate the process that the Builders and Guides are performing over time and suggest improvements.
There’s a reason why there are 1-2 % Evaluators, 8-10% Innovators, 18-20% Guides, and about 70% Builders. When you’re all playing your natural role, the energy of the system is balanced and everyone can be in their lane of genius, you can leverage each others’ genius, and unlock the untapped potential, impact, creativity, innovation, and profits of the team.
Conclusion
I hope that this post supports your journey to align to the way energy naturally flows through you, allowing you to be the leader you’re designed to be, not the one you think you should be. There are a lot of subtleties to each type so please use the information in this post as high-level guidelines.
We’ll explore nuances in future posts. Post any questions or comments below!
This report gives you a map to how to listen to the wisdom of your body, to the 100,000,000 neurons of your gut and 40,000 neurons of your heart.
The Phoenix System is designed to help you bring awareness to unconscious leadership patterns left over from the Industrial and Information Ages. They block true innovation and creativity that can emerge when staying poised instead of reacting to fears and the whims of your mind.