Feel like you're just being thorough? Focused on quality? Clear about your expectations? You might call it leadership, but to your team, it might feel like control. So what happens when your high standards start getting in the way of growth?

In this raw coaching episode—part one of a two-part series—Daniel Hill, a high school principal with deep experience across every level of school leadership, wrestles with that exact tension. With help from his Arbinger coach, Daniel uncovers how his desire for consistency and excellence is actually limiting his team’s growth and holding him back from the kind of leader he wants to be.

Ideas we explore:

01:35 — How to lead well when you’re stretched too thin

10:55 — When your efforts to help actually cause delays

14:30 — The difference between shielding your team and stealing their shot

21:05 — How control quietly strains relationships at work and at home

27:10 — What it means to delegate a task without delegating responsibility

Have a leadership challenge or question you’d like us to explore on the show? Submit it here!

Need help developing your leaders or organization? Schedule a complimentary strategy session.

Ever resented someone you were supposed to help? Or felt too exhausted to care, even when you knew you should?

Our guests have. Daren Forbes has dedicated his life to funeral service, and Dr. Steve Jackson serves people as a physician. They know what it’s like to feel called to meaningful, people-centered work—and still feel resentful, drained, or disconnected from the very people they’re trying to serve. They share their messy moments when their mindset became the deciding factor in their ability to show up effectively instead of shut down.

Ideas we explore:

01:20 — How to keep showing up when you’re completely worn out

05:45 — The shift that moves you from resentment back into service

10:30 — Unlocking creativity and care even when exhausted

13:50 — How an inward mindset clouds your judgment

18:05 — Why caring for coworkers reduces burnout and turnover

27:45 — How well-meaning policies can quietly set people up to fail

Have a leadership challenge or question you’d like us to explore on the show? Submit it here!

Need help developing your leaders or organization? Schedule a complimentary strategy session.

Can we let people—especially the ones we care about most—chart their own path? What about when we think they're making a mistake?

In this part 2 episode, Jeanette returns to examine how the same leadership patterns she’s untangling in her role at work are playing out at home—with her son, her daughter-in-law, and her husband. What starts as a family conflict becomes a raw reckoning with expectations, identity, and the cost of clinging to an ideal instead of truly seeing people.

Ideas we explore:

01:15 — When stepping in to help actually gets in the way

04:10 — How the ideal in your head is sabotaging your relationships

07:00 — It isn't love when it's about you

15:00 — Clinging to being right makes connection impossible

21:50 — Your mindset shapes every relationship you touch

28:00 — The courage it takes to truly see and acknowledge others

Have a leadership challenge or question you’d like us to explore on the show? Submit it here!

Need help developing your leaders or organization? Schedule a complimentary strategy session.