Welcome back to the look and sound of leadership, an ongoing series of executive coaching tips designed

to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henshel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about finding a lighter

path.

Samir was stuck in an unhealthy cycle.

Over the course of several years, I had delivered a number of feedback reports to him and his

partners at their architecture firm.

Every report of Samir's, including this current one, reflected the same good news, bad news

portrait.

On the one hand, people idolized Samir.

They used words like brilliant and genius and visionary.

On the other hand, they were fit to be tied, and they used words like bottleneck and

unresponsive and exasperating.

I asked Samir, what was stopping him from moving the needle on this repeated feedback?

He said, I had this voice in my head that tells me I can't make mistakes.

I've had it forever.

I remember feeling that way when I was in middle school.

Back in those days it motivated the crap out of me, but now the stakes are higher.

I'm a lot more visible.

So that voice, the one that wants to stop me from ever making a mistake, it's going

like gangbusters these days.

And the solution, bury myself deeper so I can get everything right.

...