How the Sacred can Shape How You Lead

Editor’s Note 
 
Explorers on the expedition for women leading in sport met with Katrina Webb, a Paralympic gold medalist and global leadership strategist with over 20 years of experience educating and inspiring individuals and teams. Katrina was also part of the first Women Emerging Expedition and later became an Expedition Leader for women leading with disabilities or chronic conditions. 

This places her in a unique position to reflect on Essence through her lived experience, as both a high-performing athlete and a woman leading in with a disability in complex and often demanding environments. In this conversation, Explorers and Katrina explored Essence (the first of the Women Emerging 4Es). This article captures key insights from that call, particularly how different pieces of Essence shape how we lead and the ways they show up as we lead. 

The Body as a Piece of Essence  

Katrina shared that, of the seven identified pieces of Essence, the body resonates most deeply with her. Born with cerebral palsy, she has always had a heightened awareness of her body, making this connection both significant and constant throughout her life. 

She describes herself as having a highly sensitive body and mind. This sensitivity shows up as an ability to read Energy in rooms and remain deeply aware of her surroundings, something that has been present since childhood. While this awareness is a strength, it also means her nervous system can become overwhelmed more quickly. 

How the Body shapes how Leading Happens 

Katrina has always had a connection with her body as someone born with a disability, cerebral palsy. Her disability has made her connection with her body even more significant. It has made her understand her health type and the sensitivity of her body. Embracing this means being aware of her sensitivity to different things, a great ability that makes her able to pick up Energies in rooms. Itdoesn’t come without its downsides; being more sensitive to stress. With this awareness comes with the importance of taking care of her body even more. 

Katrina explained that she has had to intentionally develop practices to regulate her nervous system and care for her energy. It has come through recognising that sustainable leadership and service require awareness, recovery and presence – not simply endurance. 

Over time, she developed practices that help her stay grounded and connected to herself, particularly while balancing leadership, travel, public life and caring deeply for others. Some of these practices include time in nature, meditation and mindfulness, walking, yoga, conscious breathing, movement, spiritual reflection, keeping her heart open, meaningful connection with people she trusts, and intentionally creating moments of stillness and spaciousness in her day. She has also learned the importance of boundaries, rest and recognising when her nervous system is overwhelmed rather than continually pushing through. For her, caring for her Energy is less about performance optimisation and more about remaining connected to what is true, compassionate and sustainable. 

Listening to her body has become one of her greatest lessons in leading and has helped her avoid burnout. This awareness also shapes how others experience her. By understanding her own limits and Energy, she is able to create environments where others feel safe to grow, learn, and show up fully. 

Motherness as a Piece of Essence  

Motherness as a piece of Essence resonates with Katrina as well. She has birthed 3 sons and recognizes that as women, we are built to grow and invest in others. She recognized that she had always been loving in how she leads but also firm. She has now learnt how to make people feel seen and heard, as well as how to put boundaries in place. She owes this part of her after her experience in the first expedition at Women Emerging, where she owned her motherness and now sees it as a key skill handed down by her mother and grandmother. 

The Sacred and it’s Meaning  

Katrina’s connection to the sacred began to take shape during her travels to Nepal 11 years ago where she encountered spirituality as something present in everyday life. This experience shifted her perspective and helped her recognize a deeper connection she had always felt but had not yet fully explored. 

For Katrina, the sacred as an Essence for her is expressed through service and a deep awareness of our interconnectedness. That her Energy as leaders is contagious and that shapes how she relates to others and the intention she brings into the spaces she leads. Her experiences in Nepal deeply shaped her understanding of interconnectedness and humanity. The sacred, for her, is not confined to religion or a place, but is experienced in moments of presence, compassion, humility and connection with others. 

Service through the sacred means recognising that our lives are deeply intertwined and that leadership is not simply about achievement or status, but about how we reduce suffering, create belonging and contribute to the wellbeing of others. It is seeing dignity and humanity in people regardless of circumstance and understanding that even small acts of kindness, listening or presence can have profound impact. 

Nepal helped Katrina reconnect to simplicity, community and a deeper awareness that we belong to something larger than ourselves. That perspective continues to shape how she leads, how she works and how she hopes to move through the world. 

Rethinking Leadership and Embracing Disability 

Katrina also reflects on beliefs she has had to reframe in her journey through leading. One of these was the idea that motherness does not belong in professional spaces, particularly in male-dominated environments. She now consciously brings this part of herself into how she leads. 

She also shares her journey with disability. For many years, she hid it, not wanting to be seen as different. At the age of 18, after the exhaustion of concealing it, she chose a different path. 

Today, her disability is a defining part of her Essence. It shapes her perspective on inclusion, deepens her empathy, and informs how she leads. Having experienced exclusion, she now actively advocates for environments where difference is recognised as strength. 

About the Author

Katrina Webb is recognised and acknowledged for her success as a Paralympic athlete. She has won gold, silver and bronze medals in athletics at three Paralympic Games.

She was the first torch bearer to enter the Stadium for the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and in 2006 Katrina was selected on behalf of the International Paralympic Committee to speak at the United Nations in New York.

Off the track Katrina is the Director of Silver 2 Gold High Performance Solutions which specializes in powering organisations, teams and individuals best.

Katrina is a global ambassador for the International Paralympic Committee and due to her own experience in dealing with a disability and a deep love of helping others, Katrina is the Founder and Director of Newday Leadership a platform to inspire leadership for the greater good.