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Personal Development | Leadership | Self-Awareness
When Grit Hurts Your Growth
Many leaders fail not because they lack strength, but because they lack balance
The silence had a tightness like held breath.
“You’re excused,” said Ben.
The team, over the moon to be released from the tension, practically tripped over on the way out.
I walked from my place at the back of the room observing and sat next to Ben at the head of the table.
“You might not feel like it, but that went quite well,” I said.
Ben still hadn’t looked up from staring at the table, off somewhere miles away with his thoughts. Jaw clenched. Eyes tense.
We were at a fork in the road. Would he make the right choice?
“Well they certainly didn’t hold back,” he said.
“Exactly,” I said. “Now it’s up to you to reward that honesty with action.”
This meeting was the culmination of weeks of coaching.
He’d come to me with a simple problem: he wanted to improve some recurring issues in his team. After brainstorming and going back and forth, something became painfully clear.