Be willing to disappoint

Be willing to disappoint. That's my wish for any new CEO, especially women.

Before I stepped into the role myself, I took pride in managing stakeholders well. As a consultant, my superpower was understanding everyone's needs and finding solutions that earned buy-in, from clients, teammates, and leadership alike.

So naturally, I assumed this would continue.

At first, it worked. Small team. Few investors. Select clients.

But as we grew, I started finding holes in my magic. And with that came the guilt.

Each time I had to disappoint someone, it felt like a personal failure of leadership. Even if I had conviction in the decision, I'd obsess over how I could have known better.

The hardest part was my self-disappointment, even when the board and the team had my back.

If you are a first-born daughter, you know we don't disappoint. We never worry our parents. We put immense thought and effort into doing things right.

We build our worth on being competent. But holding on to that identity might be limiting.

The self-judgement occupies the mental energy that we could spend on recovering, learning, and recalibrating. The impossible standard can create a toxic environment where the team feels like they are never enough.

Eventually, I started asking: so what if I disappoint? So what if I'm not the CEO every stakeholder dreams of?

The reality is, no one is free of disappointment. And that's not the right measurement of our worth, especially not to ourselves.

We can lead from perseverance, mission, energy, vision, not just competence.

But ultimately, being a leader is not about validating your own worth. It's about continuously doing the right thing, managing yourself well so that you can manage others.

Sometimes that requires making peace with being misunderstood, or even being wrong, as you keep aiming for what truly matters.

What helps you stay grounded when you feel like you haven't done well enough?