Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

It also provided invaluable insight for the squadron commander and set him on a path to address the right issue: connection and inclusion versus busyness and exhaustion.

Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval.

The stealth intention is a self-protection need that lurks beneath the surface and often drives behavior outside our values. Closely related is the stealth expectation—a desire or expectation that exists outside our awareness and typically includes a dangerous combination of fear and magical thinking.

He writes, “We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves.”

The big shift here is from wanting to “be right” to wanting to “get it right.”

The true underlying obstacle to brave leadership is how we respond to our fear.

we need real courage to recognize when we can’t fully serve the people we lead.

the only endeavors that have required the same level of self-awareness and equally high-level “comms plans” are being married for twenty-four years and parenting.

we need real courage to recognize when we can’t fully serve the people we lead.