Exceptionally Good: Leaders for a Better World
We bring you in-depth interviews with exceptional leaders who drive toward a different bottom line — leaders from health care, philanthropy, non-profits, education and rescue services who are doing exceptional work for the good of the world. Exploring their origin stories, their leadership journey and the lessons they learned on their path -- sometimes the hard way -- we bring you close to understand how exceptional leaders tick.
On Instagram and Threads
@e.g.exceptionallygood.org
Follow us on Instagram and Threads
Exceptionally Good Articles on Substack:
https://substack.com/@exceptionallygood
More from Exceptionally Good:
📧 ryan@exceptionallygood.org
Work with Ryan:
https://www.exceptionallygood.org/services
Exceptionally Good: Leaders for a Better World
Live from Austin! - Leadership Flops - 5¢ for Your Failures
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In Austin last week, I set up a little Lucy-style advice booth with two microphones — offering a nickel for leadership stories of those times when it all went sideways.
Turns out some folks really like to share these stories.
They are reflective.
The stories are full of learning.
And they feel cathartic to tell.
And I love these stories and sharing them — because I know so many leaders striving to lead for good have thrown in the towel because they thought: “I’m clearly not cut out for this work. I’m not up to it… I just don’t have what it takes…”
But the thing is: no one shows up with all it takes.
And it’s not that you are no good, it’s that the conditions are tough, the challenges unending and the struggle is real.
But we can learn.
The hard way from our flops.
Or from listening to others.
🔥 This episode shares just what leaders like you need to hear.
🎧 What you’ll hear in this episode
- Stories of inner struggles
- Times when we plowed forward without asking the folks on the ground
- The time we just let the thing flounder because our heart wasn’t in it
- How we got left in the cold (literally) because we didn’t listen to our gut
- Stories where we learned the hard way
Leadership. Not for the faint of heart.
And something we all can learn.
With gratitude
Huge thanks to the thoughtful humans who sat down and shared some hard-earned wisdom:
- Victoria Andrews
- Rob Harris
- Kippy Smith
- Lisa Lang
- Berenice Pernalete
If this episode resonates with you, share it with a leader might need to hear that all these great and admirable people also struggle with all the same things all us mere mortals striving to lead for good struggle with.
You -- and they -- are not alone in this work.
••••••••••
About Exceptionally Good:
https://www.exceptionallygood.org/about
Follow us:
More from Exceptionally Good:
Work with Ryan:
https://www.exceptionallygood.org/services
Exceptionally Good on Substack:
https://substack.com/@exceptionallygood
Producer, editor and host: Ryan Maxwell
Theme music: Ryan Raddatz
Guitar music: Adeline’s Guitar
Credits/Outro Read by: Adeline, Advice and Jess
The views shared on this podcast are those of my guests and the host and do not necessarily reflect those of any employer past or present.