Mieke Jacobs
Energy Mastery in Action in Executive Team Facilitation
Facilitating leadership teams from a state of presence is more than a mindset. It requires deep listening to the system, recognizing the aligning forces, and allowing space for what wants to emerge.
For you from Mieke & Corentus
From the First Friday with a Thought Leader event
Key Insights (below) & YouTube (43:01)
Mieke Jacobs
Mieke Jacobs is a global executive team facilitator, coach, author, poet, and speaker with over two decades of industrial experience and a decade of guiding leaders through transformation. Her work integrates systemic intelligence, energy mastery, and core language to help leadership teams shift from doing to being, with clarity and impact.
Energy Mastery in Action in Executive Team Facilitation: (47:22)
KEY INSIGHTS | from our First Friday with a Thought Leader Event
Mieke Jacobs “Relational Awareness and Trauma-Informed Culture ”
Coherence and Energy Flow
The session opened with a poem titled “river”, aligning with the session theme “becoming the river” and introducing a metaphor for energy and presence.
Coherence is described as foundational, at the individual, team, and systemic level.
Individual coherence is tied to presence, self-regulation, and synchronization.
Moment-to-moment awareness is emphasized; full coherence isn’t constant but can be returned to when fragmentation is noticed.
“Coherence within yourself, which has everything to do with the synchronization, the self-regulation, any presence practices currently much supported by the polyvagal theory and the science about it.”
“Real subtle awareness of moment-to-moment coherence.”
“You never have full coherence all the time.”
Larger fields of coherence can support teams and organizations in navigating disruption, these include purpose, nature, and shared calls for good.
Purpose is framed systemically as a force “inviting” the organization.
Land and nature are recognized as coherent, stabilizing fields.
Shared social aims (like sustainability) can unify and reduce disruption.
“An aligning force that removes quite a lot of the disruption.”
Alignment and Leadership
Alignment is deeply connected to coherence and involves reconnecting individuals and systems to their essence and place in a wider context.
Leaders are asked to align with the deeper meaning of their role, this may resemble an archetypal oath to purpose, service, and stakeholders.
“An oath to the higher purpose of the company,” to “passing life forward,” and to “all stakeholders.”
“Call them to alignment to the essence of their role.”
Leaders are invited to step into a lineage of past and future leaders, with a focus on long-term stewardship.
“Take their place in the lineage of leaders that have come before them and that will come after them.”
Ceremony, Intention, and Ancient Practices
Facilitated ceremonial space allows for energetic intention-setting.
Collective declarations can create a charged field of commitment and presence.
Reminders from elder traditions bring grounding and responsibility.
“To connect and learn from one another” and “setting things in order.”
“Take full accountability for the place that they have and the privilege that they have to be in that place.”
Facilitator Stance and Support Systems
Facilitators act as designated energetic support, not problem-solvers.
Right-sizing oneself is essential to avoid over-identification or over-functioning.
Asking for help is possible, from larger coherent fields, with humility and detachment.
“Right-size yourself.”
Avoid “the belief or the pressure to solve things for other people.”
“Ask for help on behalf of the team,” but “without being attached to what that help looks like.”
“In a way for the highest good of all.”
Sources of help can include:
Ceremonial work before engagement
Support from the land (especially sacred places)
Lineage of past leaders
The founding spirit of the organization
Ancestral wisdom
Faith-based structures
“The facilitator is the connector or the bridge builder.”
"When you work with energetic fields there is a larger movement at play beyond what you can see…"
- Mieke Jacobs
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Detachment and Trust in the Process
Including “all possibilities” is essential, drawn from Native American teachings.
Attachment to specific outcomes limits systemic intelligence.
Facilitators must allow space for systems to shift, even if that includes endings or collapse.
“Not excluding possibilities, even when that might mean that... the system in itself in this form or subsystem might not survive.”
“Trusting a larger movement at play beyond what you can see right now.”
“How could this be life orienting, orienting itself for the highest good of myself and of all?”
Embodiment and Practice
The facilitator’s stance is embodied, working with energy requires physical presence and deep listening.
Sometimes, simply being present is enough.
Showing congruence is more authentic than hiding behind neutrality.
The facilitator’s body becomes part of the sensing system, but must stay at the edge, not merged.
“Working with energetic fields is a very embodied experience.”
“Just being present helps.”
“Host the system in me.”
“The facilitator’s instrument is part of the equation.”
Practice Over Theory
While frameworks like Polyvagal Theory may serve as entry points, theory is often left aside.
Subtle experiential learning is often more effective than teaching models.
“There is growing fatigue with frameworks and with models.”
Preparation and Perspective
Preparation is critical, “being the river” does not mean going in blind.
A full understanding of the system supports better attunement and action.
Judgment is avoided; facilitators are asked to view people and organizations through a systemic, compassionate lens.