Sometimes, it takes a series of quiet moments to relearn how to be bold, brash, and take up space.
That’s exactly how it happened for Jesse Israel, founder of The Big Quiet Movement and keynote speaker at Gartner’s IAM summit last December. He shared how, at 14, he was the ringleader of his class, vivacious and unapologetic. But threats of expulsion and mounting external pressure from peers and authority figures growing up forced him to make himself smaller and smaller, until, by college, Israel was terrified of public speaking, let alone commanding a room the way he once had.
Lost in the Noise
The problem, Israel explained, was that he had taken the ringleader, the natural-born leader within himself, and tucked him away because of the noise and pressure of growing up. Many people experience this: losing connection with their natural gifts in the crucible of early adulthood. The trick is reconnecting with that unique talent only you can offer—your own version of the ringleader.
Israel said he knew he “wasn’t living as [his] full self. Maybe some of you can relate to this feeling, of knowing that you’ve got more power inside of you, more potential to live up to,” he explained. “[I had] to ask myself a question: Am I going to keep shrinking, going to keep playing small, or am I willing to fix what’s been blocking me from being the person I know I’m capable of being?”
“Every person has an enormous well of power and potential,” Israel said. “We all have unique gifts, abilities and strengths we are meant to be putting into our work, our families, [and] our communities. But what I’ve seen from working with thousands of leaders is that most of us [have access to] a tiny fraction of what’s available inside, which limits our impact on the world outside.”
Contrary to what one might expect, “the leaders, teams, and organizations that were really thriving were not making more noise,” Israel noted. “They had learned to effectively [be] quiet.”
The Power of Quiet
“What blocks us from being able to access what’s within and live up to our potential is noise,” Israel said. Over the years, he has identified three types of noise: in the world, in our heads, and in our bodies.
Noise in the world is “constant information overload,” said Israel. “It’s the notifications, the doom scrolling, the news media.” Then there’s the noise in our heads, which can be boiled down to “the stories we tell ourselves. It’s the limiting beliefs, self-doubt, and comparisons to other people.” Finally, the noise in our bodies manifests as “what we actually feel inside—the exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, and dysregulation of our nervous systems.”
Israel has developed a three-step process, built on strategies used by top-performing leaders, to quiet the noise and help unlock one’s full potential.
Step One: Make Space
Creating moments of quiet for yourself amidst the chaos can give you a significant advantage. “Getting quiet when everybody else was loud gave me an edge,” Israel said. “Quiet almost became my secret weapon.” Instead of being swept up in the frenetic energy around him, he felt centered, calm, and in control.
Israel offered several strategies to help leaders make space in their lives. A daily mindfulness or meditation practice is a key one—and among the most common habits of high performers. Another is intentional solo time; moments of solitude often help leaders produce their best ideas.
Finally, resist the urge to check notifications the moment you open your eyes. “When we wake up in the mornings, our brains are in these really bright states because all of our neurotransmitters have been rebalanced,” Israel explained. “If we can keep our brains in this bright, reset state for the first 30 minutes of the day, it significantly impacts the rest of the day—how we perform, mood, stabilization, creativity, etc.”
“When you practice making space, you gain the advantage that very few people have,” Israel said. “Most people [let] noise control [their] lives. These simple practices take the control back.”
Step Two: Choose Connection
Israel shared a pivotal moment that eventually led him to start the Cyclone Bike Club in search of connection: looking up during his commute in New York City and seeing thousands of people who were all alone, together. “I realized if I wanted to bring [my inner self] out again, I was going to have to get out of my head,” he said.
What started with a simple email to local bikers and a small meetup has since snowballed into a huge organization. Today, the Cyclone Bike Club has chapters across the country, each filled with members seeking connection in place of the daily noise of modern life.
“People were forming friendships, starting businesses [together], falling in love. Multiple people got married to people they met cycling,” Israel said. On a personal level, he added, “I didn’t feel lonely anymore. The more supported I felt by this community, the more I felt like I could access my power. When we connect with other people, we feel like we belong; when we belong, we feel our best. We give our best, we perform our best.
“But as human beings, when the noise in our heads gets louder and we start overthinking, our tendency is to push away [from others] and isolate ourselves, [keeping] us from the thing we actually need and want most—people. When you notice yourself isolated, the act of courage is to take a step towards connection.”
During a volunteer trip to Tanzania, Israel learned that many of the students at the school he taught at walked nearly 20 miles each day to attend class. The school’s principal told him that if the students had access to bikes, one bike could change an entire classroom, and five could transform their whole community.
When Israel returned to NYC to lead the next Cyclone ride, it was with renewed purpose. The rides began raising money to create bike-share programs for children in rural parts of Africa. “The Cyclones had a new purpose,” Israel said. “It wasn’t about just connecting other people; it was about serving other people.”
“If you really want to cut through the noise in your life and expand what’s possible, you must assign meaning to what you do. It’s got to be about something greater than yourselves,” Israel said. “For me, the highest form of human connection is service. When we’re able to connect our work to serving others, to a deeper meaning, what we’re able to achieve expands. When we’re able to assign meaning to our decisions, we find a strength in ourselves that we didn’t know existed. We become fortified; we become resilient.”
Step Three: Share Your Genius
The Zone of Genius, popularized by Dr. Gay Hendricks in his book, The Genius Zone, is the intersection between what you are uniquely good at and what energizes you. For Israel, that meant reclaiming the very ringleader qualities that had once landed him in trouble in middle school: the “qualities to lead, to gather, to influence, to stand for something I believed in,” he said.
“What I’ve seen consistently is that when leaders, organizations, and teams take the time to get clear about what their own genius is, on an individual basis, and then map out responsibilities based on the own genius of those individuals, [they] become unstoppable,” Israel said. “We perform at our best in our Zone of Genius at work, and we have extra energy for our work if we’re in our Zone of Genius for hobbies and activities in our personal lives.”
That’s not to say you have to be in your Zone of Genius all the time; that’s unrealistic. Everyone has to do things they’re bad at sometimes. The point is to “get clear about what [your] Zone of Genius is; then, to identify, prioritize, [and] support the people we need to do the same.”
“Oftentimes, stepping into the Zone of Genius gets uncomfortable. As a result, we oftentimes shy away. But on the other side of fear and discomfort is our full potential. These small acts of courage are required for us to become the person we’re meant to be,” Israel said. “When we put ourselves out there, when we go for the big ideas, when we take risks, when we pursue the thing that we feel called to go for, the noise can get loud. That fear, that self-doubt is not a sign to stop. It’s a sign to keep going. It’s a sign that a breakthrough is close.”
Israel left attendees with a final thought: “You don’t have to change who you are to become more powerful. You simply have to claim who you’ve always been. Remember that your strength is already inside of you—it’s just waiting for you to get quiet enough to [find it].”
For more insights on unlocking your full potential as a leader, read about the real power of connected thinking, from bestselling author Jay Shetty.
