What Leaders and Managers Can Learn from You Are a Badass
The belief that you're "not the type of person" who can lead confidently in a hard conversation is usually an inherited limiting belief, not an accurate read of your actual capability.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Naming the limiting belief behind your hesitation
A leader's hesitation to have a hard conversation or push back on senior leadership is often rooted in an old, unexamined belief about not having the standing to do so, rather than a reasoned read of the situation.
A leader avoids a necessary hard conversation with an underperforming employee for months, driven by an unexamined belief that confrontation isn't something they're allowed to do well.
Name one leadership decision you're consistently hesitant about, and ask honestly whether it's driven by a reasoned judgment or an old belief about your own standing.
How your self-belief shapes the opportunities you pursue for your team
A leader who doesn't believe their team is capable of a bigger challenge tends to unconsciously shield the team from stretch opportunities, creating a self-fulfilling limitation on the team's growth.
A leader passes on a genuinely promising stretch project for the team, rationalizing it as too risky, when the deeper driver is a belief that the team (or the leader) isn't ready for bigger challenges.
Name one stretch opportunity you've held back from your team, and consider whether an unexamined belief about readiness is part of why.
Taking the bold conversation before you feel fully confident
Waiting to feel fully confident before having a hard conversation keeps most leaders stuck indefinitely, since the confidence typically follows the conversation rather than preceding it.
Identify one hard conversation you've been delaying until you feel more confident, and have it this week regardless of how confident you feel.
Curating who surrounds your leadership
The peers and mentors around you either reinforce your bold leadership moves or quietly discourage them, and choosing that circle deliberately supports the leader you're becoming.
Being realistic about genuine team constraints and pushing past an old limiting belief aren't opposites — the discipline is telling the two apart honestly rather than using "being realistic" to justify permanent hesitation.
Name one thing, honestly
Name one leadership decision you've been avoiding. Is the hesitation reasoned judgment, or an old belief about your own standing?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Identify one hard conversation you've been delaying until you feel more confident, and have it this week regardless of how confident you feel.