Dr. Claire Rene, Ed.D., MBA, founder and CEO of ThriveIQ Solutions, an emotionally intelligent development leadership firm, believes sustainable leadership can develop when individuals and organizations make room for human needs alongside performance expectations. Her perspective brings particular attention to women’s leadership, where different life stages, responsibilities, and experiences can influence what sustainable advancement looks like.
Dr. Rene brings more than 15 years of EQ development consultation spanning finance, government, education, organizational leadership, and executive development. Through ThriveIQ Solutions and its EQ Vantage Systems ecosystem, she aims to connect emotional intelligence with leadership development across career stages, including executive coaching, team development, leadership assessment, and AI-supported learning.
That experience, she notes, shapes a broader observation about today’s workplace. “Leadership expectations are evolving alongside technology, changing communication patterns, and shifting employee needs,” Dr. Rene says. “AI is influencing how work gets organized and how people collaborate, while employees are navigating greater uncertainty around roles, career progression, and performance expectations.” She champions organizations to respond by investing in the “human operating system” of leadership, including emotional intelligence, adaptability, communication, well-being, self-awareness, and trust.
In Dr. Rene’s view, that raises a useful question. She says, “Are organizations developing people for the workplace they currently inhabit, or for an earlier version of professional life? That question becomes particularly important when we consider that there is no single blueprint for sustainable leadership.” Different people face different pressures, expectations, and life circumstances, and women’s leadership in particular offers an important lens into how outdated models can create unintended consequences. Traditional advancement models can sometimes reward volume of work as evidence of commitment. Taking on more responsibility, working longer, becoming indispensable, and consistently proving value can become part of an unwritten leadership formula.
Dr. Rene highlights the term “white knuckling,” particularly among ambitious women who may experience imposter syndrome or a persistent need to demonstrate that they belong. Additional emotional responsibilities, organizational expectations, and personal commitments can add further weight. Her perspective is that women may benefit from recognizing that influence can develop through strategic visibility, delegation, intentional communication, boundaries, self-awareness, and executive presence.
A 2025 workplace study offers useful context. It found that women reported similar levels of career commitment to men, while fewer expressed interest in promotion at certain career stages. Among entry-level employees, 69% of women said they wanted a promotion, compared with 80% of men. The study also found that career support and sponsorship were associated with stronger advancement outcomes.
For Dr. Rene, those findings point toward a broader leadership question. “Asking ‘How can I lead more strategically without burning out and losing myself?’ can become more useful than measuring professional worth through how much additional work someone can absorb,” she says. Her She LeadsEQ Strategic Elevation Model, an extension of her RISE framework for women aged 35 and older, reflects this perspective through the five pillars of elevation, which are powerful presence, intentional evolution, feminine power, sustained success, and intentional connection. Dr. Rene states, “These five pillars can only be established by expanding the four capacities and skills: emotional intelligence, behavioral integration and awareness, health and vitality, and executive image and presence.”
She notes that health and vitality receive particular emphasis because sustainable leadership involves a human body as well as a professional role. “Your body whispers before it screams,” Dr. Rene states. “That’s something I learned personally.” She uses that idea to encourage greater awareness of signals associated with prolonged pressure, insufficient rest, and changing physical needs. Her broader message extends beyond women. “People can experience different capacities and priorities across stages of life, making a single pace or leadership model difficult to apply universally,” she adds.
Research on women’s health at work adds another dimension. A 2026 study of 300 working menopausal women found that participants who perceived their organizations as supportive of women’s health reported lower job stress and fewer problematic menopausal symptoms. Participants highlighted interpersonal understanding, open communication, flexibility, resources, and supportive physical environments as important elements of a health-friendly workplace.
These findings give organizational leaders another consideration, according to Dr. Rene. Sustainable leadership can depend partly on the conditions surrounding the individual. Companies may encourage boundaries and well-being while their promotion systems, workload expectations, and recognition practices reward constant availability. Dr. Rene’s perspective invites organizations to examine those signals together.
That examination can also change how advancement is defined. Strategic influence, effective delegation, thoughtful communication, and the ability to develop others can represent meaningful leadership contributions alongside individual productivity. Sponsorship, career conversations, flexible arrangements, and leadership development can give employees additional resources for navigating advancement.
ThriveIQ Solutions aims to provide a practical setting for Dr. Rene’s philosophy through leadership programs designed across the employee journey, including development for emerging managers, established executives, teams, and women leaders. She LeadsEQ Experience, for instance, intends to create a dedicated space for experienced women to discuss professional advancement alongside life experiences that can influence leadership, including changing health needs, family responsibilities, grief, career decisions, and questions about legacy.
The larger lesson, Dr. Rene notes, reaches beyond women’s leadership. Sustainable advancement can become an organizational design question: which behaviors receive recognition, how leaders are developed, how different life stages are supported, and whether emotional intelligence is treated as part of leadership capability. Dr. Rene’s work suggests that effective leadership can leave room for ambition while also respecting the person carrying it.
Her perspective points toward a future where leadership development may place greater value on awareness, influence, health, and human connection alongside performance. For organizations, that can mean investing in people before exhaustion becomes the conversation, and creating conditions where sustainable leadership becomes a practical part of how success is defined. “Organizations have a part to play but an individual must take ownership for strategic elevation,” Dr. Rene says. “You don’t have to pour from an empty cup to prove your worth.”
