Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise, a firm

specializing in retaining, engaging, and developing talent. And as part of my work in leadership

development, I run a group coaching program for organizations called Simple Coaching. I call it this

partly because it's an acronym for the concepts that we cover,

but mostly I call it this because I think we have vastly overcomplicated leadership.

And I think we've left too many new leaders feeling like deer in headlights. And what I love

about simple coaching is that it leans just a little bit on teaching concepts, and it focuses

mostly on practicing and challenging and problem solving as leaders actually start using the concepts.

Also, we spend a lot of time on leaders' questions because they have a lot of them.

And this is a safe forum for them to just ask. And I answer.

Today, I want to share a few of my favorite questions that I've gotten from recent participants

in cohorts that I'm running. And I want to share with you the answers I've given them.

Chances are you've struggled with one or more of these questions, and so I'm hoping you find

some value

in the conversation. The first question comes from a leader who's been in their role for about

18 months, and here's what he asked. We've talked a lot in this group about how important empathy is,

and how much we need to listen and show humility and ask great questions and all that

stuff. But also, isn't it my job to show up with confidence to assure my team that it's safe to

follow me? Don't they need to believe I have the answers? I'm struggling with how to balance these

ideas, and I would love any advice. I remember getting this question and hearing that

feeling of tension in his voice. Like he was kind of asking, who am I really supposed to be?

This is such a common conundrum, and so here's what I told him. I said, your job as a leader is not

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