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5 Mental Obstacles That May Be Hindering Your Leadership

How to overcome them and excel.

Max Klein
The Mightier Pen
Published in
6 min readDec 29, 2022

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Credit: fizkes on Shutterstock

I remember the exact moment.

The moment I knew I needed to step up and lead.

It was a few weeks into Boot Camp in the Marines. I’d gone to Army Basic Training prior so I had some basic military training.

Our Drill instructor was looking for a Guide, someone to lead the other recruits. He’d just fired the other one. I didn’t want to step up. But nobody else did either.

It was that exact moment when I told myself “you are the one that needs to step up. You don’t want to. It will probably hurt. It doesn’t matter. You need to lead, now. Do it!”

“Sir, this recruit will do it!” I shouted, talking about myself as you strangely talk in third person at Boot Camp.

And the rest was history. I stayed Guide until graduation and got promoted for it upon graduation, all because I made the painfully uncomfortable decision to step up.

Leading hurts, like any other growing pain. Getting past the obstacle of pain of more responsibility, more risk for failure, more criticism upon you, is one every leader must overcome.

Since that day in Boot camp almost 25 years ago, I’ve practiced, studied, and written about…

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The Mightier Pen
The Mightier Pen

Published in The Mightier Pen

A place where veterans can share their writing on a wide variety of topics.

Max Klein
Max Klein

Written by Max Klein

I write about the beauty of life

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