Leadership That Starts With Self-Regulation, Presence, and Right Relationship with Chang Zhang and Chishan Lin

Summary:

What if the most meaningful measure of leadership success is not speed or scale, but the quality of our relationship with ourselves and others?

In this episode of The UpLevel Podcast, we are joined by Chang Zhang and Chishan Lin, leadership coaches, facilitators, and co-creators of Coaching With Your Whole Body. Together, we explore the practice of right relationship as a foundation for leadership, partnership, coaching, and sustainable impact.

Grounded in embodiment, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and cross-cultural awareness, this conversation invites leaders to reconsider how presence, nervous system regulation, and self-awareness shape the way we work, relate, and lead. We explore what becomes possible when leadership is relational rather than positional and when success is measured by depth, steadiness, and connection.

This episode is part of The UpLevel Podcast’s ongoing Right Relationship series and reflects our growing engagement with leaders and organizations across the Asia Pacific region.

In This Episode:

• What right relationship truly means and why it begins with self-awareness

• How nervous system regulation and mindfulness impact leadership and collaboration

• Why presence and depth of relationship may be a more meaningful measure of success than performance alone

• How to design conscious and healthy business partnerships rooted in trust and communication

• What leaders can learn about right relationship when working across cultures, particularly in Asia

• How introverts can honor their energy, boundaries, and strengths while leading effectively

• Why leadership is relational rather than positional, and how coaching skills support both

Order of Topics:

• Why Right Relationship Is the Foundation of Leadership

• Self-Regulation, Presence, and the Nervous System at Work

• Redefining Success Beyond Faster and More

• Mindfulness and Preparing for a Life Well Lived

• Coaching With Your Whole Body

• Building Right Relationship in Business Partnerships

• Navigating Tension and Designing Conscious Agreements

• Leadership, Coaching, and Right Relationship

• Cross-Cultural Leadership and Right Relationship in Asia

• Curiosity, Culture, and Releasing Assumptions

• Supporting Introverted and Highly Sensitive Leaders

• Leadership as Relational, Not Positional

  
  

Action Items:

• Cultivate Self-Relationship

  • Self-Regulation: Begin with observing your body, feelings, and mind to foster a stable self-relationship.

  • Mindfulness Practice: Regularly engage in mindfulness to enhance self-awareness and emotional regulation.

• Redefine Success Metrics

  • New KPI: Consider how you will feel about your relationships at life’s end as a measure of success.

  • Focus on Quality over Speed: Prioritize depth and quality in interactions rather than just productivity.

• Embrace Somatic Coaching Principles

  • Whole Body Awareness: Integrate somatic practices into coaching for more holistic engagement.

  • Balance Being & Doing: Aim for an equilibrium between action and presence in professional settings.

• Design Intentional Business Partnerships

  • Friendship First Policy: Protect personal relationships by prioritizing them over business outcomes if conflicts arise.

  • Fun is Essential: Ensure that work remains enjoyable; redesign processes when fun diminishes.

• Foster Open Communication

  • Encourage honest dialogue about discomforts promptly within partnerships or teams to maintain trust and alignment.

• Navigate Cross-Cultural Dynamics Thoughtfully

  • Approach cross-cultural environments with curiosity, suspending judgments, and respecting cultural nuances.

• Support Introverts Effectively

  • Recognize introverted preferences for one-on-one communication; allow time for reflection before expecting responses.

About Chang and Chishan:

Chang Zhang is a leadership coach, coaching supervisor, and faculty member with the Co-Active® Training Institute. Her work integrates embodiment, emotional intelligence, somatic awareness, and vertical development to help leaders and coaches navigate uncertainty with clarity, grounded presence, and courageous authenticity.

With a particular gift for supporting introverted and highly sensitive leaders, Chang helps individuals cultivate steadiness, emotional capacity, and sustainable leadership practices. She is also the co-creator and co-facilitator of multiple community-based learning spaces—including Coaching with Your Whole Body Retreats, Craft of Coaching, and Coaches Business Circle—all devoted to deepening embodied wisdom and strengthening relational intelligence.

Known for her warmth, depth, and precision, Chang guides individuals and organizations in cultivating right relationship with self, others, and the systems they lead.

Website: https://www.introvertleaderawakening.com

LinkedIn: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/zhangchang321

Meet Chishan Lin; building on this shared commitment to embodiment and whole-person development, Chishan partners with Chang as co-creator and co-facilitator of the Coaching with Your Whole Body Retreats, bringing her global, artistic, and cross-cultural lens to the work.

Chishan is an executive coach, leadership strategist, and global facilitator with more than two decades of experience supporting leaders across the world. Having lived and worked in countries across many continents—including Taiwan, the U.S., India, Brazil, Myanmar, China, and Japan—she understands the real pressures, cultural complexities, and nuanced dynamics senior leaders face in global environments.

Her worldview is shaped by extensive travel through Central/South America and Southeast Asia, along with deep study in dance and multiple spiritual traditions. Trilingual in English, Mandarin, and Portuguese, she also draws on her artistic roots: her award-winning films have been featured at festivals worldwide, and her poetry has been published in the U.S.

As Coaching Faculty with the Co-Active Training Institute and Team Coaching Faculty with Inpower One, Chishan mentors hundreds of emerging coaches each year. With leaders, she blends strategic insight with an embodied, multicultural approach to help them expand self-awareness, elevate presence, and create purposeful, sustainable impact.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chishan-lin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chishan.lin98/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepresenceroom/

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About UpLevel Productions: Founded by Christie Mann, MA, CPCC, PCC, and Rachel Baldi, CPCC, PCC, UpLevel creates, produces, and delivers Transformative Experiences, Workshops, Training, Events + Media that develop leaders who make our world a healthier, more alive, and connected place to be. As Associate CTI Faculty Partners, UpLevel is licensed to sell, produce, and deliver Co-Active coach training and leadership development programs around the world to support the transformational growth of individuals and culture inside the workplace and organization. www.uplevelproductions.com Instagram @uplevelproductions Facebook & LinkedIn @uplevelproductionscompany