Jedi Leadership: How One Executive Stopped Making Sh*t Up and Found Her Power
I have there great privilege of witnessing peoples' transformation all the time. Every time, it's a profound and moving experience. Recently, I worked with a brilliant client who heads a team of 50—successful, positive, and lightning-fast in her thinking. When we started the coaching journey, her greatest strengths were becoming her limitations. We changed that.
The Overwhelm Trap
She was caught in the "everything is important and urgent" trap. As a high-achiever, she had always wanted to be "the best." But whose definition of "best" was she chasing?
A powerful insight emerged during one of our early session: "Busy people make sh*t up." This hit home when she realized how much of her stress came from stories she created in her head—assumptions about others' expectations, what constituted success, and what would happen if she didn't do it all.
Under pressure, our brains do more than make mistakes. They create entire narratives we believe are true. My client discovered she was writing elaborate stories that were leading her to do way more than what she needed to do.
Her boss had given her clear feedback: "Do less." Yet implementing this advice proved challenging in a culture that celebrated saying "yes" to everything.
A breakthrough came when she managed to carve out an hour and a half of free time in her schedule. "It's amazing," she told me, describing that pocket of freedom. This was her first glimpse of what focusing on what truly matters could create.
Finding Strategic Focus
Her first major transformation came through learning to focus on what she called the "red spaces," the truly important areas deserving her attention. In her "yes culture," she began to:
Think strategically about impact before taking action
Consider potential outcomes and ripple effects before getting involved
Gather data to optimize her impact in meetings
Prune activities that didn't align with her core responsibilities
This shift required challenging her definition of success. Rather than being everywhere and doing everything, she became selective and intentional. She started saying no—thoughtfully, not abruptly—and creating space for what truly mattered. This liberation allowed her to channel her natural superpower of positive energy where it could have the greatest impact, rather than diluting it across too many commitments.
With her newfound ability to focus on what truly matters, she now faced a deeper challenge: how to bring others along at her pace without leaving them behind.
The Jedi Move
The second transformation addressed feedback about being "quick to respond" and sometimes "abrupt." Despite her intelligence and capability, her rapid-fire thinking style sometimes left others feeling unheard.
This is where her Jedi leadership moves truly emerged. She embraced two powerful practices.
For high-stakes meetings, she implemented WOOP:
Wish: Clarifying what she wanted to achieve
Outcomes: Envisioning successful results
Obstacles: Anticipating potential challenges
Plans: Preparing strategies to overcome those obstacles
WOOP, developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen, combines optimistic thinking with realistic obstacle assessment, creating a bridge between dreams and action that pure positive thinking never could.
The magic happened when she paired this structured preparation with "beginner's mind." This meant she entered conversations without presupposing outcomes or reactions. This combination allowed her to be both prepared and genuinely present.
Beginner's mind (Shoshin) from Zen Buddhism creates a space of possibility where expertise often sees limitation—a mindset increasingly valued by innovative business leaders who recognize that certainty is the enemy of discovery.
The results were remarkable. "When I stopped assuming I knew how everyone would react, I actually started hearing what they were saying," she reflected. Her interactions became more open and honest. She developed stronger rapport with team members. Her natural curiosity shone through because she wasn't rushing to conclusions or solutions.
She developed greater emotional awareness of others, becoming conscious of when her fast pace might overwhelm colleagues. She practiced active listening and deliberately created space for others to contribute.
The Leadership Paradox
What fascinates me about her journey is how she navigated a leadership paradox many face: maintaining natural strengths (quick thinking, decisive action, challenging the status quo) while developing complementary skills (patience, active listening, strategic selectivity).
She learned that true leadership isn't about being the loudest or quickest voice in every room. Sometimes it's about creating space for others to shine. It's knowing when to push forward and when to step back.
Her journey shows we all can transform our leadership approach without losing our authentic selves. By questioning whose definition of "best" we're chasing, focusing on what truly matters, and being mindfully present, we achieve more meaningful impact with less frantic effort.
The essence of Jedi leadership lies in channeling energy where it matters most.
What leadership story are you making up right now? Where might one hour of focused attention—without the stories your busy brain creates—transform your impact?