YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL. YOU HAVE INFLUENCE.
AND SOMETHING ABOUT IT NO LONGER FEELS RIGHT.
Power is not complete
as long as the feminine aspect is missing from it.
My work begins at the point where a woman first senses
that, despite her success, she is pushing against invisible boundaries.
Stop adapting. Leave the form behind.
Inhabit your own power.
What happens when the form that made you successful
has become too small for the woman you are now?
The system did not just shape you. It made you successful.
You have learned to read political dynamics, hold conflicting interests together, carry responsibility and remain capable of acting under pressure.
These abilities have taken you far.
And at some point, something can begin to shift.
You adapt, even though you no longer want to.
You carry more than you want to carry.
You have influence, but do not feel that you are truly leading from within yourself.
You grow tired of a form that works on the outside while becoming increasingly constricting on the inside.
I call this structure the trellis.
It shapes what a woman considers normal. What she believes is possible. How much she should carry. How visible she is allowed to be. How she secures belonging. How she proves her worth. How she avoids or withstands conflict. What she believes “good leadership” is supposed to look like. And, of course, how power is lived within that structure.
A structure that supported a woman for a long time can eventually become a corset.
Genau dort beginnt meine Arbeit: sichtbar zu machen, was eine Frau noch an das Spalier bindet, und die Bindung an diese Form zu lösen.
Leaving the trellis does not necessarily mean leaving a position or a system. It means no longer allowing its expectations and limitations to define the measure of her own authority.
Only then can the missing female aspect of power become accessible again and fully inhabited.
So that a woman no longer has to achieve more, carry more or adapt more in order to stand in her power while moving ever further away from herself.
The trellis does not bind through external rules alone.
Its invisible threads continue to exert their pull where expectations, loyalties and adaptation have become internal standards.
These are the bonds we bring into view.
What still binds you to the trellis
The trellis consists of more than visible rules and structures. Over time, its expectations can become internal standards that shape your actions, even when no one explicitly demands them anymore.
Which expectations still shape how you lead, show up or take up space?
Which loyalties bind you more strongly than you realise?
Where is your actual responsibility greater than the space you allow yourself to occupy?
Which idea of how a woman is “supposed” to lead still limits your own authority?
What can change
When these expectations, loyalties and internal standards no longer determine how you act, you stop mistaking the system’s limits for your own.
Your authority no longer has to fit within the prescribed form.
You can carry responsibility without holding back your own authority.
You can take up space without constantly having to secure your sense of belonging.
And you can inhabit your own power without moving further and further away from yourself.
Stop adapting. Leave the form. Inhabit your own power.
A first step toward seeing clearly what is actually holding a decision in place.
✨ Complimentary Female Power Briefing
Wenn niemand Ihnen die Entscheidung abnehmen kann
Five questions that reveal
which loyalties, power dynamics and personal consequences
are truly at work under pressure.
👉 Get the German Briefing
“What distinguishes Renate’s work is her ability to get to the heart of complex situations quickly. In our conversations, the focus was not on quick fixes, but on decisions that could truly hold.”
Dr. Tanja Abwa
Owner & CEO
Scheelen Institute for Talent Profiling and Development
18-month collaboration
Power Talk
A confidential conversation for when you sense that something no longer feels right.
For women who realise that the way they have been leading, carrying responsibility or adapting no longer works for them.
In the Power Talk, we look at your current situation and at what is actually operating beneath the surface.
It also becomes clear whether my work is the right next step for you.
Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Format: via Zoom
Terms: complimentary and confidential
Orchard Letters
With the Orchard Letters, I open a space for thought every two weeks for women who no longer want to grow on the trellis.
I write about female power, inner authority, and the forms in which women are allowed to succeed, as long as they remain acceptable to the system and do not fundamentally challenge the existing order.
The Orchard Letters reveal where loyalties, expectations and power structures restrict a woman’s room to act, and what it takes to lead, act and exercise power from her own authority.
They draw on my international leadership experience and my work with women who have influence, carry responsibility and want to redefine their own room to act.
👉 The Orchard Letters are published every two weeks in German on my Blog. and as
a newsletter on LinkedIn Orchard Letters.
#OrchardLetters
