The Butterfly Assignment 🦋
Leading ourselves (and others) through this moment invites us to accept an important assignment: be like the butterfly and lift each other up.
“Do you see that?”
Last summer, that question hung in the thin, bracingly fresh alpine air of Panther Meadows, high on the slopes of Mt. Shasta. I was nearly 8,000 feet above sea level on a Reiki Master retreat with a small group of fellow practitioners seeking a kind of peace and quiet that only the high-altitude wilderness can provide.
As my group moved through the vibrant bouquet of mountain flowers, we encountered a small circle of people singing. Their voices carried a resonant, grounded strength that vibrated right through the thick layer of ancient ash beneath our feet. The leader of the group, a Cherokee woman whose family had been coming to this sacred meadow for generations, stopped and caught my eye. With a welcoming gesture, she invited us to join them. After singing a few songs, the boundaries between our groups dissolved. There was only the breath, the song, and the mountain.
As our last notes faded into the stillness, she turned to me and asked a simple, yet clever question: “Do you see that?” I gazed out at the sweeping vistas and the jagged peaks of the Trinity Alps and the Cascade Mountains. I looked at the mossy rocks and the springs bubbling up from the volcanic rock cascading down the mountain’s slope. I scanned the horizon, appreciating all of the beauty before me, and then I returned my gaze in her direction for an answer.
She smiled, allowing for a long, intentional pause that forced me to really look at the landscape unfolding before me - I dropped my gaze to the patch of meadow ahead. Then she pointed to a swarm of gorgeous butterflies, gently fluttering from flower to flower as they pollinated the grassy meadow. Their wings created a blur of coordinated motion. Holding her hand out, as if she were cupping the air, she said:
They are lifting each other up.
In that alpine moment, I learned an important lesson. Our guide encouraged us to really notice how the butterflies were so committed to lifting each other up while they each labored to pollinate the fragile mountain flowers. This experience with the Panther Meadows butterflies offers an important lesson to help us lead ourselves and others through this moment:
Be like the butterfly. Find ways to lift each other up.
The Cocoon’s Role
Before a dazzling, colorful butterfly emerges with wings strong enough to lift up others to alpine heights, it’s important to remember the role of its cocoon. First, the caterpillar enters a state of total and complete vulnerability. It accepts that it must dissolve its old, heavy, crawling body, turning into a dark slime as the tradeoff before emerging as its truest self. The act of surrendering its old ways of being is exactly what makes space for a new way of being. It doesn’t just “add wings” to its old form; it undergoes a total and complete transformation.
Much like the caterpillar, many leaders I coach say they feel as if certain parts of the way they used to lead are dissolving. They share how the old strategies of relying on rigid tactics, the performance of having it all together, and the discipline of powering through no longer hold up against the weight of today’s reality. Many came to this realization after trying all the old ways and still getting the same results. Frustrated, many ask: What can I do to lead myself and others through this moment?
For the past year, I’ve been quietly working on a new methodology to answer that exact question. It is the foundation of my upcoming book, Roads Less Traveled. The core message: to lead others through today’s chaos, you must first travel within and by becoming the leader you were always meant to be. I wanted to contrast the book with what most leadership advice focuses on: the safe routes. These are the external strategies: how to delegate, how to give feedback, how to manage conflict, and how to logically make decisions. These roads are crowded because they offer the illusion that if we simply follow them, we’ll survive this moment.
Spoiler Alert: You don’t need me to tell you that sticking your head in the sand and doing the same thing you’ve always done isn’t working.
To effectively lead through today’s chaos, you are invited to take roads less traveled. This is the journey inward. It’s the journey of traveling into the cocoon and surrendering, letting go of who you once were, dissolving old identities and ways of being, for the promise of emerging as a stronger, steadier, and more grounded version of the person you already are. To facilitate that kind of transformation, I wanted to develop a container to test the methodology. This was the cocoon, which is what the Roads Less Traveled group coaching program serves as - a container for transformation.
A Season of Transformation
The Roads Less Traveled (RLT) coaching program launched on February 12, 2026. At its heart, it was designed to facilitate real transformation for values-driven leaders who felt the old strategies no longer worked and were concerned about what it really takes to lead through these times. Before the book launches this fall, RLT was designed to test its methodology. I’m proud to share that over the past six weeks, I’ve personally witnessed and tracked the early stages of this kind of transformation.
The participants of the inaugural group didn’t just learn a methodology; they committed to it. They did the hard work of deconstructing the old ways to become present, resourced leaders. The group's feedback offers a powerful testament to the impact of this shift. Two comments focused on:
Cultivate Inner Trust. One participant noted that the somatic practices designed to return her to the body’s felt sensations “create a foundation for depth that simply can’t be manufactured in the moment.” This is the core of somatic leadership practices: building a resourced state so that when the pressure spikes, you can scrap the script and trust your body’s inner wisdom.
Join a Resourced Space. One participant shared how powerful it is to shift from telling to inviting, creating a container in which those we lead are in a place of choice with their options. She also appreciated how starting each session with an inspirational song relevant to the session’s theme set a completely different tone for the work. It wasn’t just “another meeting”; it was a resourced space.
This internal work is what’s keeping these leaders well-resourced and grounded as we navigate a year that feels like a ride where you have to “keep your hands and feet inside at all times and hang on.” As one participant shared:
“The practices you are teaching combined with the somatic practices offered through the coaching portal are what’s keeping me going…”
Enter Your Cocoon
While our calendars tell us we are three months into 2026, nature shares a different story. As the ground thaws, light increases, and new life emerges, the true beginning of the year has arrived. With it comes an important choice:
Do you rely on the old ways to handle the new pressures of leadership, or are you ready to explore new ways of being?
To “be the butterfly and lift each other up” requires two things that old ways of leading often discourage: vulnerability and support.
Vulnerability. To do the inner work of transformation, you must first enter your own cocoon. You must be willing to admit that the old way is broken. Only then can you surrender these old ways and emerge as the leader you were always meant to be: strong, grounded, and capable of lifting up yourself and those you lead.
Support. This is the work of somatic leadership. It is about building the physical and emotional capacity to remain steady when the ground is shifting. It is about realizing that you don’t have to ignore the chaos around you in order to lead through it - instead, you just have to be more grounded than the storm by getting the support you need, so that you can better support those around you.
So, I again ask: will you protect the old ways or choose a new way of being?
Develop Your Wings
Unlike the butterfly, entering a cocoon to facilitate your own leadership transformation doesn’t have to be, nor is it recommended as a solo endeavor. If you’re curious how to begin your own season of transformation, I have a few invitations:
Practice With Us (Complimentary): Next week, join us for our monthly Belonging Practice on March 25th at 9 am Pacific Time. This session will give you a flavor of how one key somatic practice - centering - can help you remain a calm, present, and open leader no matter the pressure.
Join the Spring Cohort. At next week’s session, I’ll be making a formal announcement about special pricing for the spring Roads Less Traveled Coaching Cohort. This is a 6-week intensive for leaders ready to enter their own cocoon to facilitate real transformation. I’ll be sharing how you can apply for one of our 15 Core or 5 VIP spots. Early Bird Code: RLT26 (Valid through April 17th).
Explore 1:1 Support: If you’d like to explore 1:1 somatic leadership coaching with me to navigate a specific organizational crisis, I encourage you to connect with me here, and let me know what you long for as a leader, and what’s getting in the way. You’ll get an invite to set up a complimentary chemistry call to explore more.
The solo climb is over. It’s time to be like the butterfly and lift each other up. Thank you for taking the time to read this message, and for growing the Belonging Movement from the inside out.
What a powerFULL and inspirational article. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your insights in such an interesting, human, and relatable way. Bolstered by offering practical support too. Thank you Rhodes, powerFULL stuff.