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.

Would people still respect me if I said I didn’t know?  I didn’t think so.So I rarely said it.  I believed my business was growing and profitable because I knew things other people didn’t know. My expertise helped me win clients and earn the respect of my team. Knowing made me feel smart and important.

They’re great.They’re impossible.And you can’t afford to lose them. At least that’s what you keep telling yourself. You have lots of evidence for the “great” part: They’re reliable. Everyone likes them. They know where everything is and they’ve been with you for years.  Then there’s the other part. The part about how their actual job isn’t getting done. Or maybe it’s the other kind of