Leveraging Leadership
Leadership is messy. Most advice isn't built for the reality of competing priorities, difficult stakeholders, limited time, and imperfect information.
Leveraging Leadership is a practical leadership podcast for Chiefs of Staff, executives, founders, and senior operators who want to lead more effectively and navigate complexity with confidence.
Hosted by Emily Sander, former Chief of Staff and executive advisor, each episode delivers real-world lessons, practical frameworks, and candid conversations with leaders across business and beyond.
Topics include executive communication, leadership presence, decision-making, delegation, organizational influence, operating rhythms, team effectiveness, and the often-unspoken challenges leaders face behind the scenes.
If you're looking for thoughtful conversations, practical takeaways, and leadership advice you can actually use on Monday morning, you're in the right place.
Leveraging Leadership
Perfection Is an Illusion: Tips for Giving Better Answers in Meetings
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Emily Sander talks about the pressure to give perfect or "right" answers in interviews and meetings, shares examples like people panicking or rambling, and explains why aiming for a "good" answer is more realistic and helpful. She encourages listeners to drop the idea of perfection and focus on contributing value, even if their delivery isn’t flawless.
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You don't need the perfect answer. You need a clear one. Book a clarity call w/ Emily here.
Who Am I?
If we haven’t met before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want.
Time Stamps:
00:25 The Perfect Answer Trap
01:11 Define What Perfect Means
02:20 Perfection vs Excellence
03:46 There Is No Right Answer
05:20 Aim for a Good Answer
07:05 Turn Rambling Into Clarity
09:54 Speak Up With Confidence
12:50 Final Takeaways and Sponsor
Welcome back to Leveraging Leadership, where we unpack the art of business leadership. I'm your host, Emily Sander, chief of staff to an executive leadership coach. This show is all about finding your points of greatest influence and leveraging them to better serve those around you.
The Perfect Answer Trap
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554People say to me, "Emily, I'm interviewing for this job, and I'm so nervous because, I mean, I have t- it's an interview, and I wanna give the right answer." I have other people going, "I, I have trouble speaking up at meetings. My boss says I need to speak up more, but I, I don't speak up." "Well, why don't you speak up?" "Well, I'm scared that people will think that I have a bad answer, and I, and I don't wanna do that." I'm like, "Well, what kind of answer would, would make you feel comfortable speaking up?" "Well, I just want the perfect answer. I want the perfect one that everyone likes." Okay. So my first question to you is, first question, "Emily, I want people to think well of me." Cool, so do I. "Emily, I'm looking for the perfect answer." Hold please. Hold on.
Define What Perfect Means
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554Define perfect for me. How would you define perfect? How do you know if the answer is perfect or not? What tells you that? Oh, well, their reaction. Like, I can tell, I can read people. Yeah, okay, great. You can read people's facial expressions. If they say, "Oh my gosh, that was the perfect answer," that might be what they consider a perfect answer, and it might not. The word perfect could mean something different to them. The word perfect could mean it's politically perfect for this reason, or I just use the phrase perfect when I mean anything above average. Or if you didn't fall on your face, I'm gonna say it's perfect to encourage people 'cause they're in an interview and they're nervous. So even if they say it's perfect, and even if they have a smile and like, "Oh, my gosh," like, and they're scribbling stuff down writing notes, those are all indicators you should pay attention to and certainly take on board. But you still don't know if something was, quote, unquote, perfect. Perfect is an illusion, okay? So perfect is not real. It's some amorphous
Perfection vs Excellence
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554thing. Now, there's a whole conversation which I've had with people on, like, the spirit of trying to be perfect and the spirit of trying to be exceptional at your craft. And whatever you do, trying to be your very, very best at that. And oftentimes you go for perfection, and you know you'll never get there, but if you strive for it, you land in excellence. I'm aware of these things, and I agree with a lot of that. I agree with a lot of that. Take this in the way it's intended for these scenarios. Trying to find the perfect answer and being so nervous and so constricted and s- s- s- so I, I, I, I don't know what to say because if I say this, what will they think and what people are in the room and how will they take it? And, oh, like the time for my answer and for time for me speaking up in this team meeting has passed, so okay, I guess I'm off the hook. I don't, I didn't have to say anything. And then in your one-on-one with your boss, they're like, "Uh, we need you to speak up more at meetings." That's, that's my performance review feedback to you. "You have great ideas on email, but we need you to speak up more at meetings because you have this information, and we don't, and we need you to help out the team." Oh, okay. So spend, like, two minutes right now. You can pause this or maybe spend two minutes later in your day trying to define perfect. Like, how do you currently tell yourself, "Oh, that was perfect," or, "That was not perfect"?
There Is No Right Answer
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554Similar exercise for the right answer. So, quote-unquote, "the right answer," which implies there could be a wrong answer. Now, don't get me wrong. If you're inter- interview and you, um, panic ramble or you proverbially vomit or, like, actually physically vomit on someone, that's probably not, like, the greatest thing, but you might not be doing anything, quote-unquote, "wrong." Okay? So maybe you got food poisoning, if you actually puked in the interview. That'd be awful, but, uh, let's take the proverbial figurative, like, word vomit that people do, like panic rambling. I've been on the receiving end of this, and while it's a little bit, like, discombobulating, like whoa, okay, hold, this person is nervous. This person is rambling. They're going in circles. Their eyes are big. I don't think they've blinked in about 30 seconds, and I don't think they're conscious of what they're saying anymore, and now they've stopped. Okay. I can still usually get the gist of what they were trying to say. It might not be, like, super specific. It might not be super compelling, but I generally understand, like, okay, they're kind of saying something in this direction. And you know what was interesting? That one thing I think I heard them say about that. Okay, I'm gonna follow-up question and ask about that, and we can get into a conversation and exchange about that one thing they said. So was that a wrong answer if it got to that follow-up question? Or was it a right answer?
Aim for a Good Answer
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554I would argue strongly there is no the right answer Okay, now, here is one similar category that I would throw out to use because I feel it's more applicable and more relevant and more useful and more fitting, which is try to have a good answer. So we're moving away from, like, the definitive article of the, which means implying there's only one and you must have the perfect answer or the right answer to a good answer, which means there's lots of good answers. There's plethora of good answers. There's a sea, an ocean, an universe of good answers. There are hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of ways to provide a good answer That gives you a lot of freedom. That gives you a lot of freedom, it gives you a lot of flexibility, even if like, "I didn't prepare for that one. Oh, shit," like I can't give a perfect answer. Well, you know what? I can probably give a good answer here. Let me pause, let me share some initial thoughts, let me ask a question that I would need to kind of get them to a good answer, and have a little back-and-forth dialogue. Cool, now we're in an actual conversation. That's great, too. But there's loads of good answers. You could come at it from this way, you could tackle it from up here, you could go this, this, this, and then swing it around over here, and that's a good answer. You could ask a good question that produces a good answer, all these different things. The, the probability that you will get to a good answer is far greater, far bigger than trying to find the perfect answer, which doesn't exist. It's not there. You're not gonna get there, 'cause it doesn't exist. Okay.
Turn Rambling Into Clarity
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554So I would say there are general distinctions of quote-unquote good and quote-unquote bad answers. So yeah, if you feel yourself like falling down the pit of bad answers, one, you're probably being too critical of yourself, 'cause we all do that, especially in front of interview people, especially in front of group settings. Just throwing that out there. But if you feel yourself tilting into like, "Ooh, okay, I've started this answer. I'm starting to panic ramble. It's not the best answer I could be giving," you can still pull that bad boy up into a good answer, like in some range of a good answer. Let me just like swizzle this over here and segue this over there and finally get to my point and find my footing and then land, and stick the landing. And that's my answer. And depending on like, unless you tell people like, "I just messed up that answer," most of the time they're like, "Oh, okay. Like I kind of like traced it from here to here to here, but she landed there, and so I think I'm gonna ask a follow-up question on that." Cool. To them, that was a good answer, 'cause you gave them the information they were looking for, and they have a follow-up question. Great. So big takeaway from this episode is stop, stop, stop trying to be perfect. Perfect is boring, perfect is nonexistent, perfect is dumb Similarly, with right, I hear that, "I didn't, I didn't get the answer right." You didn't get the answer right in the interview. There, like, how do you know that? So many factors, so many factors. Someone could say, "Oh, that's a great answer," and they could be sarcastic in their head. Uh, they could say, "That's the perfect answer." Maybe it's perfect for them because they're in a panel interview, and right before, there was an internal argument about if candidates thought about this role as this thing or that thing, and you confirmed their side of the argument. So like, that's a perfect answer, and they're saying it to the person right next to them. It has nothing to do with your actual answer. You don't know i- if, if it's perfect or right. You don't know everything about the person you're speaking to. You don't know what day they're having. You don't know how they use language. All these different things. Again, you're probably the most self-critical of your answers out of anybody. Go for a good answer, and you have lots of options and lots of flexibility, and you can turn a quote unquote bad answer into a good answer relatively easily. And there's lots of different styles of providing a good answer. I often get like, "I have to answer a question like this. Here's like the rubric I was taught, like one, two, three, and a, concluding paragraph or whatever." And I'm like, "That's okay." That's a great answer for this specific scenario, but for these hundred other scenarios, you can change it up. You can use a whole bunch of different templates or rubrics or just ways of thinking.
Speak Up With Confidence
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554So my advice for folks, if they get nervous in interview situations or in, like, big team meetings or in a big conference room, oh my God, there's, like, my boss's boss's boss here, and I don't know these other people and I'm scared. Um, d- in that moment, don't try to further constrict yourself and make yourself more nervous by, like, "In these heightened moments, I have to have a more perfect answer. I have to have a lot of the right answers." Just like, hey, I'm sitting here. I'm in this conversation and at this table for a reason. They like my candidacy so far. They have me on the team for a reason, and I have a certain perspective. I have a unique opinion. I maybe have some unique knowledge on this topic, and so I'm gonna share them. Even if it's bumpy and clumpy and, uh, I didn't quite That was a weird delivery, but someone goes, "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you brought that up because of this, this, and this," your answer could be, like, piss poor in your opinion, but it's like the segue, like, "You opened up a whole new consideration for the team. Guys, we have to think about that. We never thought about that. That's a great idea." Oh, okay. Wasn't, like, pitch perfect delivery, but it was a good answer in that it got the team to a good discussion. So there's lots of ways to do this, yes? So please take some stress off of yourself and put some weight down. So it's like carrying a backpack full of rocks, and you're, like, hiking up the hill trying to be perfect. It's like, just put the b- like, take the bag off. Like, doesn't exist, doesn't help, doesn't help you anyway. It doesn't help you to try to be perfect. And here's the thing that, like, got me to finally think about this differently. Someone goes, "Emily," she went, "Emily, if trying to be perfect actually made you perfect, wouldn't you be there by now?" Oh, man. Oh, I remember exactly where I was sitting when I heard that, and I was like, "Oh, shit. I would be so good and so perfect by now 'cause I've tried so hard. Um, anyway, so just keep that in mind. Like, if something is not helping you, then stop doing it. Sounds simple, and I say it with love. Believe me, I've been there. I say this all with love. It's a good reminder sometimes, We need reminders of some of the basics. If it's not helping you, then stop doing it. Try something else that's more helpful. Okay. Okay. I've stopped trying to be perfect. I've put that down. I'm not trying to find the right answer. Put that down. Let me find one of the hundreds of thousands of good answers that I could provide here. Cool. Okay. I can do that. I can do that That track will serve you far better. It will serve you so much better than going for perfection or the right answer.
Final Takeaways and Sponsor
emily-sander_1_07-02-2026_130554I think you are going to find it easier to speak up when you have that frame of mind, and I think on the whole, teams and people you're speaking with will respond much more positively because you're not so constricted, and you're having more of a free-flowing conversation and actually truly sharing what you think about something. if you're at the table and you're part of the team meeting, they want you to speak up and say your piece. And if you have something important to say and you're not saying it, you're actually hurting your team. So to be helpful and to contribute the most and to provide the most helpful inputs, think about using a range of good answers. A sea of good answers is yours for the taking. The stars in the sky, all of them represent a good answer. Just pick one and go with that. Okay. Hopefully, this has been helpful, and I will catch you next week on Leveraging Leadership.
This episode is brought to you by Next Level Coaching. If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about executive leadership coaching, please visit www.next level Coach.