Leading with Love, Anchored in Truth: The Strength Found in Knowing Who You Are

By Sonka Keys Braunova

Adversity doesn’t always come in the form of a dramatic crisis. Sometimes, it shows up in the subtle ways we’re misunderstood, underestimated, or misread. Sometimes, it comes through a sideways comment, a doubting glance, or the quiet tension of not being fully seen.

As a foreigner in the UK and a woman leading in a highly technical field, I’ve known what it feels like to be on the receiving end of unspoken assumptions. I’ve walked into rooms where people expected less of me—or looked surprised when I spoke with certainty. And for a long time, I let that shake me. Not because their opinions had power, but because they touched on parts of me that still questioned my own worth.

I didn’t fully believe I was a great engineer. So when someone implied I wasn’t, I shrank. I doubted. I spiralled into self-questioning, even when my results were excellent. That’s the subtle, corrosive impact of unhealed self-perception—it hands our power over to others without us even realising.

But here’s the thing: when you know who you are, truly, that can’t be shaken by someone else’s projection. And the journey to that knowing—that self-mastery—is the greatest strength a woman can carry into leadership.

When I started doing the real work—not more training, not another certificate, but the inner work of clearing old beliefs, outdated stories, and patterns of doubt—I met a version of myself I hadn’t known before.

 She was steady. Clear. Powerful. Kind. And deeply in tune with her intuition.

That’s when everything changed.

Leading with love isn’t about being endlessly kind or avoiding boundaries. It’s about knowing yourself so well, and trusting yourself so deeply, that you no longer have to armour up to lead. You’re grounded in your truth. You’re centred in your own energy. You move forward not from force, but from certainty of heart.

That’s what I now call The Inner Independence™.

This is the strategy I use and share with women leaders who are building lives and businesses that reflect who they truly are—not who they think they have to be.

Here are a few takeaways for any woman ready to lead with love and strength:

1. Your power isn’t in being unshakable. It’s in being anchored. Strength isn’t about never being affected. It’s about knowing how to come home to yourself, again and again.

2. Criticism only lands if it touches a wound. When you heal the belief underneath, the noise outside quiets. What once felt like an attack becomes a reflection of someone else’s story, not yours.

3. Self-mastery creates stability. When you understand your own energy, emotions, and responses, you lead from clarity, not reaction.

4. Leading with love doesn’t mean softening your voice. It means trusting your truth so fully that you no longer need to shout.

5. You don’t need to become someone new to be impactful. You need to remember who you are underneath the noise.

Every woman I work with already carries a powerful heart and an incredible mind. The shift happens when she accepts that as fact—not something to earn, but something to embody. And from there, she leads.

Let’s stop waiting for permission or perfection. The women who are changing the world are doing it with grace, boldness, and truth.

That strength? It’s already in you.

And when you lead from that place, everyone around you feels it.

Connect With Sonka

 hello@sonkabraunova.co.uk