I was on vacation when I found out my new marketing director had ignored my instructions. She’d been there less than a week. Before leaving, I explained exactly what I wanted her to do: research our niche, read the background material, and meet with the team. I asked her not to draft the marketing plan

I used to debate my employees and clients about changing our business model. I’d make my case in the shower, refine it in the car, and rehearse it again at two in the morning.  Every time I came up with a better answer, they came back with a better objection. The strange part is that

We’re always selling ideas. Where to go on vacation, how to celebrate a birthday, whether to get a dog. You say “Let’s go to Italy” and see sunlit piazzas and leisurely lunches. They hear “Let’s go to Italy” and see a ten-hour flight and a packed itinerary. It’s the same destination, but you each imagine

I don’t ask for much. That was my first thought when the models and projections I’d asked for still weren’t done. I was working 70-hr weeks with my reputation and all my money on the line. The least they could do was get me a few spreadsheets. Didn’t the team see how stressed I was?

When a key employee started a competing firm and took one of our clients with them, I was furious. They’d signed a non-compete and an NDA, so as far as I was concerned, they were clearly in the wrong. I knew I had to respond. If I didn’t fight it, did that mean my agreements

I heard the same criticism in employee surveys, exit interviews, and even from people on my senior leadership team. I was too critical.Hard to please.Rarely satisfied. And each time I heard it, some version of this thought went through my mind: But am I wrong? Usually, I thought I wasn’t. The proposal could be stronger.