---
title: Power Over, Power Under, Power With
description: ...and an exploration of deeper care during hard times
---

[Soil and Shadow Blog](https://soilandshadow.com/soil-and-shadow-blog)

# [Power Over, Power Under, Power With](https://soilandshadow.com/soil-and-shadow-blog/2024-reflections-yay-video-podcasting-0)

 Written by [Nikki Silvestri](https://soilandshadow.com/soil-and-shadow-blog/author/nikki-silvestri) | Feb 15, 2024 11:00:00 AM

## Nikki Silvestri and Vonda Vaden Bates coming at you with a social fertility check-in.

#### We wanted to start with a personal check-in called a SPIRE, a tool that Vonda taught me way back when she was my executive coach through my hard times as a nonprofit Executive Director.

SPIRE is a holistic way to check in with yourself and others, an acronym for Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Relational and Emotional. When I'm coaching others, if I'm working in a system or with an individual where "spiritual" feels like a heavy lift, we switch to "senses" (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch).

<https://nikkisilvestri.substack.com/p/power-over-power-under-power-with?r=3am8oq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web>

In today's [vlog](https://nikkisilvestri.substack.com/p/power-over-power-under-power-with?r=3am8oq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web), hear:

1. Vonda and I's SPIRE check in, with a sweet story of holding my little boy through the deep grief of losing his grandmother
2. A discussion about ways to engage power with agency, and examples of one of my favorite organizational development tools, The 4th View.
3. What have "power over" my children as a mother taught me about having "power over" others as a manager.

If you'd like to reply with your SPIRE or share reflections about your own relationship with power, Vonda and I would love to hear it.

Take care,

Nikki Silvestri

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