INSIGHTS FOR GROWTH

A leader I coached was spending every Friday afternoon sitting down with her underperformers, going through their work, getting it back on track before the end of the week. Hours. Every single Friday. I told her: you’re training them that less effort is okay. They do the minimum. You bail them out. Next week, same thing. The week after that, same thing. The word I used was codependency. That hit different than “delegation problem.” Because delegation sounds like a skill gap

There are three things people consistently underestimate in every professional relationship: self-interest, ego, and competition. This isn’t cynicism. It’s calibration.

Her open door had become an open funnel. Every decision flowed through her — not because her team was incapable, but because she’d trained them that her door was faster than figuring it out themselves.

Every time you say “here’s what I’d do,” you’re solving this problem AND guaranteeing they’ll bring you the next one.

A senior leader was about to launch a political campaign against a peer based entirely on a narrative. Her facts were three items. Her assumptions filled a page. Here’s the five-minute exercise that changed everything.

Leaders love to say “my door is always open.” But an always-open door can create a line, not a team.

You know what happens when you use GPS every day? You follow the blue line but never learn the route. That’s what happens when leaders jump in to fix everything.

A client said something that stopped me: “I think I’ve been afraid that if I stop being needed, I’ll stop mattering.” That’s the truth underneath everything this week. The dentist trap. The fixer identity. The rescue missions. The inability to build the bench. It’s not about delegation or time management. It’s about identity. Being the person who always has the answer is how a lot of leaders know they matter. But the leaders who matter most are the ones whose teams don’t n

You can’t develop your team while you’re on the mound throwing every pitch. The day there’s an obvious answer to who would run your team — that’s the day your cage door opens.

She spent every Friday afternoon rescuing her underperformers’ work. I told her the word wasn’t delegation. It was codependency. That hit different.

He was the person who could fix anything. The firefighter. The fixer. Everyone depended on him. And he could not figure out why he kept getting passed over for VP. The answer was hiding in plain sight.

He was the person everyone depended on. The firefighter. The fixer. And he could not figure out why he kept getting passed over. The answer was hiding in plain sight.

How often do you think about your dentist? You think about them when you need them. Then you put them back on the shelf. That’s what happens when your credibility is anchored in one ability.

When we’re in an emotional reaction, we’re not doing analysis. We’re doing prosecution. Collecting evidence, connecting dots — it feels thorough. But it’s confirmation bias with a suit on.

She’d spent her career in direct, transparent cultures. Then she moved to a company where people agreed in the meeting and disagreed in the hallway. Her lens was calibrated for the wrong environment — and she was missing every signal.

The single most useful question in thirty years of coaching. When things aren’t working, don’t argue about intent. Ask what changed. The answer is almost always more interesting than the complaint.

Take any situation that feels charged. Draw three columns: facts, assumptions, emotions. Most people find their assumptions column is three times longer than their facts column. That’s the gap where bad decisions live.

She had organized real events into a narrative that confirmed what she already suspected. It was compelling. It felt true. But a feeling isn’t a fact, no matter how strongly we feel it.

Smart, capable people waiting for authorization that nobody is thinking about giving them. The imposter convinces you that you need validation before you can act. You don’t.

Imposter syndrome and perfectionism are two masks on the same face. Three practical tools for leaders stuck in the loop: the Identity Update, the 80% Rule, and the Permission Audit.