Hey Friend,

The reason my work is all based around developing leaders is not because I’m so awesome that I think everyone should be like me. In fact, it was that kind of thinking that caused me to fail as a leader early on in my career.

My work with leaders is to help them develop and refine their skills because there’s a fine line between doing it well and doing it terribly. Let me explain.

Without exception, every leader that I’ve worked with has acted with good intention. They mean well; they want what’s best for everyone. There’s nothing wrong with why they are doing things in a particular way.

The problem is more about these two things:

• Their self-talk - e.g., self-doubt, high expectations, low confidence, limiting beliefs, etc.

• How they go about fulfilling their ‘why’ - e.g., what they say, what they hear, what they do, etc.

So this is what I focus on when working with leaders. These two things were at the centre of my own epic fail story, which I share with leaders to give some perspective around how easy it is to get it wrong and how important it is to stay open to learning and growing, regardless of how awesome you think you are.

I was such a great individual contributor. I had enormous confidence and an unwavering belief in my ability to succeed—to my detriment. My awareness was terrible, both in myself and in others. My ability to empathise with my staff was mediocre at best. I had spent my whole life locking up my emotions (think of a solid 44-gallon drum with a lid welded shut kind of locking up). I wasn’t just emotionally rigid with my staff; I was that way with myself.