55SHARESShareTweet One of the most frustrating experiences in leadership development is wanting to change—and then finding yourself resisting the very change you say you want. You may want to delegate more, but keep taking work back. You may want to stop perfectionism, but feel uncomfortable when something is merely “good enough.” You may want to become more direct, but find yourself softening every difficult message. You may want to stop proving...

45SHARESShareTweet Leadership is often measured by what people can accomplish. Can they make decisions? Can they influence others? Can they manage complexity? Can they deliver results? But there is another question that is just as important: How much leadership capacity does a person actually have available to them? Leadership capacity is not the same thing as competence. A leader can be highly competent, experienced, intelligent, and successful while...

35SHARESShareTweet There is a particular kind of leadership struggle that can be difficult to explain. You are successful. Your career looks good on paper. People trust you. You have accomplished things that once seemed impossible. And yet something doesn’t feel right. You may feel exhausted by the very things that made you successful. You may find yourself questioning decisions that once felt obvious. You may feel disconnected from your work,...

50SHARESShareTweet Are We Born This Way—or Made This Way? When we ask where leadership identity comes from, we’re often tempted to choose between two explanations: Nature OR Nurture Are some people simply born confident, driven, sensitive, cautious, or relational? Or, do families, cultures, relationships, and life experiences teach us how to become that way? The more useful answer is: BOTH nature AND nurture interact over time to shape your leadership...

75SHARESShareTweet Where does leadership identity begin? To understand the leadership identity you carry today, we first need to look at the contexts that shaped it. This is a foundational concept within the Leadership Identity Development framework. Before we become leaders, we are children. Before we choose our values, we are surrounded by other people’s values. Before we develop our own philosophy of success, someone else is already teaching us what...

60SHARESShareTweet From the outside, Rebecca looked like the definition of success. She was a seven-figure real estate agent with a thriving business, a family, and an impressive capacity to get things done. But internally, something didn’t quite fit. Despite everything she had accomplished, she still carried a quiet sense that she wasn’t quite good enough. She had become extraordinarily successful. Yet some part of her still experienced herself...

What if your greatest leadership strengths are also creating your greatest costs? You may be exceptionally driven. You may be the person everyone counts on. You may be extraordinarily good at reading people.  You may anticipate problems before anyone else sees them. You may be able to organize complexity and create order out of chaos. You may devote yourself to the success and well-being of everyone around you. These qualities can make you an exceptional leader. But when a strength becomes...

50SHARESShareTweet Most successful leaders have developed ways of navigating the world that work. Really well. You may be the person who gets things done, keeps everyone happy, takes responsibility, anticipates problems, maintains control, or makes sure everyone else is taken care of. These qualities can become the foundation of a successful career. But what if they’re more than leadership habits? What if they’re part of an Adaptive Identity you...

60SHARESShareTweet What if the very qualities that made you successful are also costing you more than you realize? Your drive. Your standards. Your reliability. Your ability to anticipate problems. Your willingness to take care of everyone. Your ability to keep things under control. These qualities may have helped you build an impressive career and become a highly effective leader. But every strength has a potential cost when it becomes something you feel...

45SHARESShareTweet When you think about your leadership style, you may describe yourself as ambitious, responsible, strategic, relational, cautious, or highly capable. But where did those qualities come from? Some may reflect your temperament. Others may have developed through education, professional experience, relationships, culture, or the expectations of the environments in which you grew up. And some may have become especially important because they...