The language of grounded self-leadership.
This glossary defines the original concepts, frameworks, and practices Liz Jolley uses to help high-achieving women stop reacting on default, create more space, and lead themselves through difficult moments at work and at home.
When you can name the thought, trigger, or pattern shaping your reaction, you can create space to choose what happens next.
The terms are connected parts of one body of work: The Power of Conscious Presence is the philosophy, The Power of Creating Space is the methodology, the Power Question Framework supports clear action, Your Grounded Self is the identity outcome, and The School of Courage is where women practice the work with support.
The Power of Conscious Presence
The Power of Conscious Presence is Liz Jolley’s philosophy for noticing the thoughts, emotions, and automatic patterns operating inside you before they determine your response. It helps high-achieving women move from default reactivity to conscious self-leadership.
In real life, conscious presence is recognizing, “I am triggered, and my mind is telling a story,” before a sharp email, difficult meeting, or tense conversation takes over the rest of your day. It does not deny that the workplace problem is real. It gives you enough awareness to decide what the moment actually requires.
Related: Conscious Presence creates awareness. The Power of Creating Space makes that awareness usable.
The Power of Creating Space
The Power of Creating Space is Liz Jolley’s methodology for shifting from automatic reaction to conscious observation and choice. It helps a woman notice her default response, understand what is happening internally, and choose an intentional next action.
Creating space can look like pausing after tough feedback, during a layoff announcement, or amid chaos at home. The external situation may remain difficult, but the pause allows a woman to respond from clarity instead of immediately acting from fear, anger, urgency, or guilt.
Related: The methodology includes The Emotional Window, Catch the Hook, The Thought Audit, and Create the Shift. These practices support the identity outcome of Your Grounded Self.
Your Grounded Self
Your Grounded Self is the identity outcome of Liz Jolley’s work: the self-led version of a woman who stays connected to her values, voice, and inner authority when work or life becomes difficult.
A Grounded Self is not perfect or calm every minute. She can feel pressure without abandoning herself, receive feedback without collapsing into self-doubt, navigate difficult people without losing her voice, and make career decisions from clarity rather than panic.
Related: Conscious Presence builds awareness, and Creating Space builds the capacity to choose. Your Grounded Self is the woman those practices help her become.
The Power Question Framework
The Power Question Framework is Liz Jolley’s practical framework for replacing vague expectations with a clear definition of success, meaningful signs of progress, and an honest understanding of the barriers.
The framework helps women stop guessing, over-functioning, and reacting to the loudest opinion in the room. It can clarify leadership challenges, team goals, difficult conversations, family decisions, personal priorities, and career crossroads without requiring a woman to disclose or teach the full process publicly.
Related: Creating Space interrupts the automatic reaction. The Power Question Framework helps turn that space into clarity and purposeful action.
The Emotional Window
The Emotional Window is the first practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It is the moment a woman notices an emotional or physical signal and uses it as an invitation to pause before reacting.
A tight chest, clenched jaw, racing mind, or urge to withdraw can signal that a woman has been emotionally hooked. The sensation does not prove that her interpretation is true. It tells her that something deserves conscious attention before she speaks or acts.
Related: The Emotional Window reveals that a reaction is beginning. Catch the Hook helps identify the thought or story intensifying it.
Catch the Hook
Catch the Hook is the second practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It identifies the thought, interpretation, expectation, or unwritten rule adding emotional charge to a circumstance.
The hook may sound like “I am failing,” “She does not respect me,” or “I have to fix this.” Catching it does not make a difficult boss or workplace problem imaginary. It separates what happened from what the mind immediately made it mean, creating room for a clearer response.
Related: The Emotional Window identifies the reaction. Catch the Hook identifies the charged thought. The Thought Audit examines the pattern that thought creates.
The Thought Audit
The Thought Audit is the third practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It examines how one emotionally charged thought influences a woman’s feelings, behavior, and repeated results.
A Thought Audit turns a vague cloud of stress into a visible pattern. It helps a woman recognize how a thought such as “Nothing I do is enough” may drive overworking, defensiveness, avoidance, or second-guessing. This is not forced positive thinking, and it does not excuse toxic behavior or unrealistic demands.
Related: Catch the Hook identifies the thought. The Thought Audit reveals what it is producing. Create the Shift supports the intentional response a woman wants to practice next.
The Power of Conscious Presence
The Power of Conscious Presence is Liz Jolley’s philosophy for noticing the thoughts, emotions, and automatic patterns operating inside you before they determine your response. It helps high-achieving women move from default reactivity to conscious self-leadership.
In real life, conscious presence is recognizing, “I am triggered, and my mind is telling a story,” before a sharp email, difficult meeting, or tense conversation takes over the rest of your day. It does not deny that the workplace problem is real. It gives you enough awareness to decide what the moment actually requires.
Related: Conscious Presence creates awareness. The Power of Creating Space makes that awareness usable.
The Power of Creating Space
The Power of Creating Space is Liz Jolley’s methodology for shifting from automatic reaction to conscious observation and choice. It helps a woman notice her default response, understand what is happening internally, and choose an intentional next action.
Creating space can look like pausing after tough feedback, during a layoff announcement, or amid chaos at home. The external situation may remain difficult, but the pause allows a woman to respond from clarity instead of immediately acting from fear, anger, urgency, or guilt.
Related: The methodology includes The Emotional Window, Catch the Hook, The Thought Audit, and Create the Shift. These practices support the identity outcome of Your Grounded Self.
Your Grounded Self
Your Grounded Self is the identity outcome of Liz Jolley’s work: the self-led version of a woman who stays connected to her values, voice, and inner authority when work or life becomes difficult.
A Grounded Self is not perfect or calm every minute. She can feel pressure without abandoning herself, receive feedback without collapsing into self-doubt, navigate difficult people without losing her voice, and make career decisions from clarity rather than panic.
Related: Conscious Presence builds awareness, and Creating Space builds the capacity to choose. Your Grounded Self is the woman those practices help her become.
The Power Question Framework
The Power Question Framework is Liz Jolley’s practical framework for replacing vague expectations with a clear definition of success, meaningful signs of progress, and an honest understanding of the barriers.
The framework helps women stop guessing, over-functioning, and reacting to the loudest opinion in the room. It can clarify leadership challenges, team goals, difficult conversations, family decisions, personal priorities, and career crossroads without requiring a woman to disclose or teach the full process publicly.
Related: Creating Space interrupts the automatic reaction. The Power Question Framework helps turn that space into clarity and purposeful action.
The Emotional Window
The Emotional Window is the first practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It is the moment a woman notices an emotional or physical signal and uses it as an invitation to pause before reacting.
A tight chest, clenched jaw, racing mind, or urge to withdraw can signal that a woman has been emotionally hooked. The sensation does not prove that her interpretation is true. It tells her that something deserves conscious attention before she speaks or acts.
Related: The Emotional Window reveals that a reaction is beginning. Catch the Hook helps identify the thought or story intensifying it.
Catch the Hook
Catch the Hook is the second practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It identifies the thought, interpretation, expectation, or unwritten rule adding emotional charge to a circumstance.
The hook may sound like “I am failing,” “She does not respect me,” or “I have to fix this.” Catching it does not make a difficult boss or workplace problem imaginary. It separates what happened from what the mind immediately made it mean, creating room for a clearer response.
Related: The Emotional Window identifies the reaction. Catch the Hook identifies the charged thought. The Thought Audit examines the pattern that thought creates.
The Thought Audit
The Thought Audit is the third practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It examines how one emotionally charged thought influences a woman’s feelings, behavior, and repeated results.
A Thought Audit turns a vague cloud of stress into a visible pattern. It helps a woman recognize how a thought such as “Nothing I do is enough” may drive overworking, defensiveness, avoidance, or second-guessing. This is not forced positive thinking, and it does not excuse toxic behavior or unrealistic demands.
Related: Catch the Hook identifies the thought. The Thought Audit reveals what it is producing. Create the Shift supports the intentional response a woman wants to practice next.
Create the Shift
Create the Shift is the fourth practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It is the intentional choice to respond from a more useful thought, grounded value, or desired way of being instead of repeating the automatic reaction.
Creating the shift does not mean pretending that everything is fine. It means choosing what you want to practice next—such as asking a clear question, setting a boundary, pausing before replying, or speaking honestly without acting from the first emotional surge.
Grounded Self-Leadership
Grounded self-leadership is the ability to lead your thoughts, emotions, decisions, and actions consciously when the people or circumstances around you are difficult. In Liz Jolley’s work, it means remaining connected to your values and inner authority without needing to control the room first.
At work, grounded self-leadership can mean receiving feedback without collapsing, addressing conflict without becoming reactive, or deciding whether to stay or leave from clarity instead of panic. At home, it means remaining connected to yourself while other people have emotions of their own.
Grounded Conversations
Grounded Conversations are honest, intentional conversations led from clarity rather than default reactivity. They help a woman communicate what matters, ask for what she needs, and address difficult behavior without abandoning herself or trying to control the other person’s response.
A grounded conversation may involve clarifying an expectation, giving feedback, naming a concern, setting a boundary, documenting a pattern, or discussing a career decision. The goal is not to guarantee a comfortable outcome. It is to communicate in a way that reflects the woman she wants to be.
The School of Courage
The School of Courage is Liz Jolley’s membership and practice environment for high-achieving women who want to stop living on default and develop grounded self-leadership with ongoing teaching, coaching, tools, and community.
The School of Courage is where women learn to apply The Power of Conscious Presence, The Power of Creating Space, and the broader body of work to challenges involving bosses, workload, relationships, decisions, and life outside work. It is a place for continued practice—not a promise that difficult circumstances will disappear.
Living on Default
Living on default is Liz Jolley’s language for moving through life primarily from automatic thoughts, emotional triggers, learned patterns, urgency, guilt, or outside expectations without consciously choosing how you want to respond.
Living on default can look like saying yes before checking your capacity, replaying a boss’s comment all evening, treating every request as an emergency, or waiting for work to improve before allowing yourself to feel better. These reactions are often practiced patterns—not evidence that a woman is weak or incapable.
Create the Shift
Create the Shift is the fourth practice in Liz Jolley’s Power of Creating Space methodology. It is the intentional choice to respond from a more useful thought, grounded value, or desired way of being instead of repeating the automatic reaction.
Creating the shift does not mean pretending that everything is fine. It means choosing what you want to practice next—such as asking a clear question, setting a boundary, pausing before replying, or speaking honestly without acting from the first emotional surge.
Grounded Self-Leadership
Grounded self-leadership is the ability to lead your thoughts, emotions, decisions, and actions consciously when the people or circumstances around you are difficult. In Liz Jolley’s work, it means remaining connected to your values and inner authority without needing to control the room first.
At work, grounded self-leadership can mean receiving feedback without collapsing, addressing conflict without becoming reactive, or deciding whether to stay or leave from clarity instead of panic. At home, it means remaining connected to yourself while other people have emotions of their own.
Grounded Conversations
Grounded Conversations are honest, intentional conversations led from clarity rather than default reactivity. They help a woman communicate what matters, ask for what she needs, and address difficult behavior without abandoning herself or trying to control the other person’s response.
A grounded conversation may involve clarifying an expectation, giving feedback, naming a concern, setting a boundary, documenting a pattern, or discussing a career decision. The goal is not to guarantee a comfortable outcome. It is to communicate in a way that reflects the woman she wants to be.
The School of Courage
The School of Courage is Liz Jolley’s membership and practice environment for high-achieving women who want to stop living on default and develop grounded self-leadership with ongoing teaching, coaching, tools, and community.
The School of Courage is where women learn to apply The Power of Conscious Presence, The Power of Creating Space, and the broader body of work to challenges involving bosses, workload, relationships, decisions, and life outside work. It is a place for continued practice—not a promise that difficult circumstances will disappear.
Living on Default
Living on default is Liz Jolley’s language for moving through life primarily from automatic thoughts, emotional triggers, learned patterns, urgency, guilt, or outside expectations without consciously choosing how you want to respond.
Living on default can look like saying yes before checking your capacity, replaying a boss’s comment all evening, treating every request as an emergency, or waiting for work to improve before allowing yourself to feel better. These reactions are often practiced patterns—not evidence that a woman is weak or incapable.
Start with the moment at work that keeps following you home.
If your boss, workload, coworkers, or company are taking over your thoughts, Liz Jolley’s free weekly webinar will help you understand why work keeps getting under your skin—and how to feel calmer, think more clearly, and decide what to do next.
Stop Hating Your JobContinue exploring Liz Jolley’s body of work:
Start with the moment at work that keeps following you home.
If your boss, workload, coworkers, or company are taking over your thoughts, Liz Jolley’s free weekly webinar will help you understand why work keeps getting under your skin—and how to feel calmer, think more clearly, and decide what to do next.
Stop Hating Your JobContinue exploring Liz Jolley’s body of work: