Safe Space Discussions

Each month we virtually host highly interactive case discussions - taught by award winning faculty from leading business schools - on the most pernicious challenges facing new leaders. A few examples below.

Fear of failure

As a new leader, Seth knew he had to take action and not be afraid of the consequences. Sometimes the fear of failure, he admitted during one of our group discussions, led to inaction in order to avoid even the possibility of failure. Ultimately Seth gained confidence and a new perspective, as he listened to his peers share similar stories.

The imposter syndrome

The fear of looking like an idiot is often called the imposter syndrome by organizational psychologists. Our team of case writers prepared a brand new case study on Lucas - one of our participants - who shared that this syndrome often caused shame and guilt. Somehow, he didn't believe he was good enough or qualified enough to be in his current role, and was afraid to speak up and share his point of view, for fear of being ridiculed.

Making tough decisions

Everyone makes decisions. But Jeanette consistently put off tough decisions. There’s a psychological reason for this procrastination, she realized during personal coaching sessions. Whether we realize it or not, each decision we make has costs. This fear can be paralyzing because it weights on everything else we could have chosen. In a sense, making tough decisions ‘feels’ limiting to most of us, because it excludes all other decisions we could have made.

Learning to be vulnerable

There is no such thing as a perfect leader. For that matter, there’s no such thing as a perfect human being. Like it or not, we all have our flaws, and that’s what makes us more relatable to others. New leaders must figure out how to create authentic connections with a wide variety of constituents and convince them their new vision makes sense. Vulnerability helps the new leader show his or her humanity and create powerful connections. This is the single most valuable lesson new leaders take away from the Imperfections Program.