Most leadership conversations revolve around strategy, scale, and success metrics. But behind the scenes, many executives are quietly wondering if the version of themselves that built the role is still the one living inside it. Sheryl Raphael Whitaker, CEO and Founder of EdenAnthony Elite Talent Solutions, believes that question isn’t a weakness—it’s the start of real leadership work. Her approach doesn’t center performance. It centers presence. And joy.
Why Joy Belongs in the C-Suite
Joy in leadership? It sounds soft—until you hear Sheryl talk about it. “Not as a soft skill or a nice-to-have,” she explains, “but as a real, strategic advantage in the way we lead.” For Sheryl, joy isn’t about feeling good for the sake of it. It’s about staying whole in systems that reduce people to output. It’s what keeps leaders human in environments that reward only what’s visible. “I’ve always led from joy,” she says. “Even in pressure. Even at the highest levels. It was how I connected, built trust, and got results that actually meant something.”
Her stance isn’t theoretical—it’s lived. Over decades in corporate leadership, Sheryl refused to leave her humanity at the door. That quiet insistence on showing up fully became the throughline of her career—and eventually, the catalyst for her next chapter.
She Didn’t Burn Out. She Opted Out—with Her Voice Intact
Sheryl’s story doesn’t follow the usual script. There was no dramatic crash. No midlife crisis disguised as reinvention. “People assume I left corporate because something went wrong. That I burned out or hit a wall,” she says. “But that’s not my story.”
She didn’t walk away in crisis. She walked away in alignment. “I knew who I was. I knew how I wanted to lead. And I knew I wasn’t willing to keep adjusting myself to fit into environments that didn’t honor that,” she says. Today, she sees the same quiet erosion in the executives she coaches—leaders who are still hitting targets, still showing up, but slowly fading from themselves. “You don’t fall apart overnight,” she says. “You just start to fade. The signs aren’t dramatic. But when it stops feeling right, that’s not weakness—it’s wisdom calling you back.”
Reclaiming Yourself Inside Your Leadership
Sheryl doesn’t offer leadership hacks. She offers daily practice—deliberate shifts that reconnect you to your voice, your values, and your vision. Here are four places she starts:
Build Your Board of Truth-Tellers
“Most leaders are surrounded by people who reinforce their professional identity,” she says. “But you also need people who reflect you back to yourself—not your title, not your LinkedIn profile. You.” These are the ones who aren’t impressed or intimidated. They’re just honest. “They don’t just remind you what you do,” she adds. “They remind you who you are.”
Rewrite the Story You’ve Outgrown
We all carry stories about what’s allowed for us—about what’s safe, respectable, and possible. But stories have to evolve. “For years, I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneur,” Sheryl admits. “I was a corporate leader. Full stop.” It wasn’t until she reconnected with her family’s entrepreneurial roots that she saw her next step more clearly. “You can’t lead into the future if you’re still living in a past version of yourself,” she says.
Reconnect with Your Why
Success has a strange way of separating us from the reason we started. “Stay in relationship with your why,” she says. “Not just the version you share in a pitch deck—but the real reason this work ever mattered to you.” That return to purpose requires humility. “It’s easy to drift. And it takes courage to admit when you have. But every time you come back to your why, you lead from something deeper than pressure.”
Move Before You Feel Ready
Perfectionism sidelines more brilliant leaders than failure ever will. Sheryl knows this one well.“Don’t wait to feel ready. That feeling might never come,” she says. Her way of handling doubt? She names it. Literally. “I named my inner critic Beatrice. She’s been with me a long time,” she laughs. “I don’t try to eliminate her—I just don’t let her drive.” You don’t have to eliminate fear. You just have to decide that your voice, your vision, and your joy are worth moving toward anyway.
A Leadership Life That Feels Like Yours
At the heart of Sheryl’s message is something rarely named in traditional leadership circles: self-permission. Not permission to be perfect. Not permission to be right. But permission to show up fully. To lead in a way that feels like you. “When your leadership finally feels like you—fully, unapologetically you—everything shifts,” she says. “The performance ends. The chasing stops. And something more powerful takes its place.”
That’s the kind of leadership that lasts. That builds trust. That draws others in. And at the center of it? Joy. Not the fluffy kind. The grounded kind. The kind that says: I belong here. I built this. And I want to keep building. That’s what joy makes possible—when you stop asking for permission and start leading like you love it. Because deep down, you do.
Follow Sheryl Raphael Whitaker on LinkedIn to explore how joy can transform your leadership.
