Leaders often take advice from well informed, experienced, and/or brilliant people. After all, they can be quite compelling, as they seem to “know better” or “know more.” When following such advice backfires on us, we can find ourselves second-guessing our decision to listen to them in the first place. So when the stakes are high, it’s critical to balance their expertise against your own intuition and sense of a good “fit” with who you are as a leader at your very best. Give yourself permission to reject expertise—no matter how remarkable its pedigree—that doesn’t pass that test. By checking advice for a good fit, and acting accordingly, your integrity remains intact.
Note: Over 100 of these tips appear in my new book: Beyond Effective: Practices in Self-aware Leadership. Click on the image of the book at the top of this blog for more information.
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