Welcome back to the Lead with Heart Podcast. Today I have Sonya Perez-Lauterbach with me and I am so excited to share this conversation with you because she’s an expert in emotions and leadership. She’s sharing how you can use your emotions to make yourself a better leader.
Sonya is the creator of Leadership Atlas, a holistic approach to leadership development that integrates the mental, emotional, and embody aspects of leading. She empowers motivated change agents to move from burnout and self-doubt to leading with competence and clarity.

In this episode:
- [02:58] The stress of fulfilling multiple roles
- [05:56] Understanding fear and calming your nervous system in high-stress situations
- [12:29] Self-care and what that means for a non-profit professional
- [15:45] Navigating change in non-profits
- [19:44] Key emotional intelligence elements for leadership to practice when leading organizations through change
- [29:25] How to coach people through mistakes as a leader
- [3435] Moving from a stressed state to ease and joy
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“Life is about learning and growing.”
“While it might be valid that you’re feeling fear, you actually want to calm your system, so that you can respond more appropriately, respond more creatively, and more effectively.”
“Walking outside and getting your lunch or just sitting down away from your computer, that’s helping your brain tackle all the other things for the rest of your day. So it’s actually a priority to take those breaks.”
“We are humans. We’re actually not machines. But sometimes we actually give more care to machines, like rebooting them or giving them system updates or whatnot, than we do ourselves.”

CONNECT WITH SONYA
Sonya earned her master’s of science in Learning and Organizational Change at Northwestern University where she fell in love with leadership coaching, workshops, and transformational one-on-one coaching. She empowers motivated change agents to move from burnout and self-doubt to leading with competence and clarity. Her practice leverages research-based coaching methods, neuroscience, psychology, and many insights gained from personal breakthroughs and mental shifts to help others lead and live with more joy and ease.
Facebook: @leadershipatlas
Instagram: @iamsonyaperez
LinkedIn: Sonya Perez-Lauterbach
Website: sonyaperez.com
CONNECT WITH HALEY
Haley is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), Certified Stress Management Coach, and Certified EmC train the trainer. She is the Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, a nonprofit consulting and coaching business. She has worked in both small and large nonprofit teams in the human services, homelessness, and youth sectors; and she specializes in the EmC process, nonprofit leadership, board development, and fundraising. Haley is a passionate, impact-driven, experienced nonprofit professional whose mission is to empower, elevate and engage nonprofit leaders to build healthy, thriving organizations.
Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser
LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFRE
Website: thesavvyfundraiser.com
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