An Evolving Man Podcast
An Evolving Man Podcast looks at leadership, peak performance, psychology, healing trauma, boarding school syndrome, spirituality and complexhealing. Every week there will be an interview or a podcast around topics ranging from self-development, leadership, relationships, spirituality, education, and peak performance featuring authors and leaders in these fields.
An Evolving Man Podcast
Why Ex-Boarders Struggle With Decision-Making | Trauma, Leadership & Intuition
Why do so many ex-boarders struggle with decision-making — especially in senior leadership, relationships, and life?
In this reflective solo episode, I explore how boarding school conditioning shapes our ability to think independently, trust intuition, and make decisions without fear of rejection or punishment.
Drawing on the work of Nick Duffell, I unpack the three core survival patterns often seen in ex-boarders — the Complier, the Rebel, and the Crushed — and how each one impacts confidence, intuition, and leadership.
We explore:
- Why decision-making feels easier in middle management but overwhelming at the top
- How humiliation, conformity, and peer policing suppress independent thought
- Why intuition is essential for good decisions — and how boarding school disconnects us from it
- The role of dissociation, overthinking, and perfectionism
- How to rebuild embodied decision-making through nervous system awareness
Referencing insights from Jim Collins, Antonio Damasio, and Alex Ferguson, this episode brings together leadership research, neuroscience, and lived experience.
Decision-making isn’t just cognitive.
It’s emotional, embodied, and relational.
If you grew up being told what to think, when to act, and how to fit in — this episode is an invitation to reconnect with your inner authority and begin deciding from a place of self-trust.
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Piers is an author and a men's transformational coach and therapist who works mainly with trauma, boarding school issues, addictions and relationship problems.
He also runs online men's groups for ex-boarders, retreats and a podcast called An Evolving Man.
He is also the author of How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times. To purchase Piers first book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Survive-Thrive-Challenging-Times/dp/B088T5L251/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piers+cross&qid=1609869608&sr=8-1
For more videos please visit: http://youtube.com/pierscross
For FB: https://www.facebook.com/pierscrosspublic
For Piers' website and a free training How To Find Peace In Everyday Life: https://www.piers-cross.com/community
Many blessings,
Piers Cross
http://piers-cross.com/