I think what I like best is helping people do things they thought were impossible. I think that’s what I find probably the most gratifying, because by and large, people avoid saying what they think is true when they think it’s going to create some bad outcome. And I work with a lot of… I mean, we work at all levels inside of companies, right? From literally CEO top five pharma company in the world to whom I’m the team coach, all the way down to first-line sales reps, first-line sales reps, for example, and their managers. And you look at sales reps, for example, it’s like, I’m so scared of challenging this particular oncologist who I’m trying to get to buy my therapy, because if I do, they may get upset with me. It’ll hurt the relationship. Then they won’t want to see me anymore. Then it’s going to hurt my sales. And I’m under a lot of pressure to get results. And to help people to realize that a lot of things that they’re afraid of won’t actually come true if they know how to handle this very honest conversation in a very effective way. And then they do it.
And then all these bad things don’t happen, and good things happen, often the very opposite of what they expected. The person was very open to me. Our relationship is better. My sales are increasing. So I think that’s probably the essence of it, is helping people do things that they thought were simply impossible. And then how it lights them up, not just in terms of their results, but how much more positive they are about everything. This ability to have honest conversations is like a superpower that I think anybody can access, like in the martial arts world, for people like Brazil and Jujutsu, anybody knows anything about that. If you learn that particular martial art, it’s like having a superpower, and anybody can learn it. I think for leadership, the ability to have honest conversations is basically the same thing.
