4 Statements Leaders Need to Be Saying More Often

A client of mine is going through a catalytic shift in her career where she’s bringing on someone to manage her current business while she’s moving on to manage someone else’s business. It’s going to be a challenge, especially with learning how to shift between founder-CEO in one business and managing director in the other.

After a bit of her tail-spinning trying to figure out things she can’t know yet, I reminded her that this was a completely new journey for her. The goal right now isn’t to have it all figured out, but to learn to practice new ways of being.

Since she’s an extroverted social processor, I told her that she’s going to need to get used to saying the four following phrases:

1. I’m sorry. She’s going to make mistakes, stay in one context when she needs to be in the other, or drop some balls.

2. I don’t know. In this new situation, she won’t know what to do. Having a brand new manager for her business and being a manager for someone else’s business will both be new to her. Rather than stressing about not knowing, she can just be honest that she doesn’t know how to do it at the moment.

3. Let’s figure it out together. This one’s meant to avoid her falling into her old patterns of figuring out everything when she has a manager who’s there to help her and is actively taking her old job from her. She’ll likely be able to use it with her new boss, but in that context, she’ll be the one helping her boss work learn how…