Leadership

Imposter Syndrome

Many business owners and creative professionals have moments where they feel something called impostor syndrome. It’s a feeling that your success is an accident and you do not deserve it. You fear people will soon find out “you are a fraud” and that you do not possess an ounce of real talent at all.

Adam Grant states that Imposter Syndrome is not a result of other people overestimating what you can do. Rather, it is a result of you underestimating your own potential and that it’s a normal response to internalizing impossibly high standards.

Imposter Syndrome

“If it’s Not Simple, It’s Bull****”  →

From Ryan Holiday: “A lot of complicated stuff isn’t actually complicated.”

For example: I once paid $6,000 to be part of a business training program. The contents of the program were three 30-minute training videos, a spreadsheet, and two Q&A calls.

From the outside, that may sound like a rip-off. But the content was clear and focused. It was simple. Thanks to the simplicity, the lessons and ideas I took away from that program have continued to stick with me.

“If it’s Not Simple, It’s Bull****”

Fix This Next  →

Another book recommendation for you…

If you liked Profit First, this is another must read from Mike Michalowicz. It acts as like the “hub” so to speak of all his other books. Helping you know what to focus on right now for your business (instead of getting distracted and pulled in a million different directions).

Fix This Next

Loom vs CleanShot X (Screen Recording and Delegating)  →

So…. a few years ago I read Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz. Clockwork is a book about how to turn your business into an organization that can run without any one person having to exist in the center of it.

One of the most important elements of building your business systems is the ability to delegate your tasks and document how things are done.

And so, if you work with a computer, one of the best ways to delegate is to simply record your screen as you do the task — explaining what and why you are doing — and then passing off that process to someone else.

All this to say, I use Loom a lot. I use Loom to record and capture tasks and projects that I want other people to be able to do in the future. For example: Just last week I used Loom to document how I edit our client proposals for corporate trainings.

Loom vs CleanShot X (Screen Recording and Delegating)

Leadership and the competency fallacy  →

Fantastic leadership advice from Claire Lew:

One of our greatest desires we have as leaders is to appear competent to our team. That’s not a bad thing! Being competent is good. But the keyword here is “appear” – we want to “appear” competent as a leader.

(Side Note: I had the privilege of interviewing Claire for our Creative Focus Summit a few years back, and she gave some fantastic advice to leaders, not the least of which was (a) how to handle advice; and (b) what to do with new ideas you have. Her interview is available in the Accelerator Vault.)

Leadership and the competency fallacy

Are you leading with your ego?

I grew up being modeled that the only way to lead by example is to do more, be more, and know more than the folks you are leading. But that model of “leadership” is literally unsustainable.

I very much believe in leading by example, but there are other, more sustainable ways to lead by example.

There are two problems with do more, be more, know more. For one, it causes our ego to get in the way. And, secondly, it is a short-sighted and lazier approach leadership.

In the long run, it is far better to be candid in your communication and have clearly defined expectations of your team. Then, lead by example in terms of your work ethic and your margin and work boundaries.

Are you leading with your ego?