Stop Proving. Start Connecting in Corporate

How High Performers Break the Cycle of Overwork and Burnout

Week 4 of The Trust Tax Investigation: How We Break the Cycle

For the past three weeks, The Trust Tax Investigation has been asking why capable, successful people burn out.

This week, we stop simply diagnosing the problem.

We ask what we can do differently.

And my conversation with Emmy-winning comedy writer Beth Sherman took us somewhere I didn't entirely expect.

Beth spent decades writing for some of television's biggest shows and personalities. Today, she brings what comedy taught her about connecting with skeptical audiences into leadership and business.

We started with a question about trust:

How do you get people to trust you?

But our conversation eventually led to a different question:

What happens when being trusted becomes part of the problem?

Because being dependable can be a tremendous strength.

Being known as the person who can solve a particular problem can create opportunities.

But there can also be a hidden cost when:

"You're really good at this" becomes...

"So you should always be the one who does it."

That's where Beth and I had to work through the idea together.

And I think the conversation became better because we did.

The problem isn't being trusted.

The problem isn't being dependable.

And the solution certainly isn't to stop being excellent at what you do.

The problem begins when the role everyone trusts you to play starts limiting your ability to choose, grow, communicate what you want, or become something different. 

In this episode, we explore:

•  Why being trusted and dependable isn't inherently a problem 
•  When being the "go-to" person can begin limiting your growth 
•  Why people-pleasing can quietly keep successful people stuck 
•  How to communicate when you want something different 
•  Why leaders need to understand the audience in front of them 
•  How authenticity and vulnerability create connection 
•  Why perfection can actually get in the way of trust 
•  What Beth means by "connection over perfection"
•  How staying connected to yourself can help you recognize when it's time to make a different choice 

The Trust Tax Investigation

One of the things this conversation clarified for me is that trust itself isn't the tax.

The Trust Tax begins to grow when trust continually routes responsibility back to the same dependable people, and those people stop having meaningful choices about what they carry.

There's often a story underneath it:

They need me.

I'm good at this.

It's easier if I just do it.

I don't want to disappoint anyone.

This is what people expect from me.

Those stories can help us become successful.

But eventually, we have to ask whether they're still helping us become the leader—or person—we want to become.

Beth gives us one way to start breaking that cycle:

Connection over perfection.

Connect with the people you're leading.

Communicate what you need.

And don't forget to stay connected with yourself.

Because breaking the Trust Tax doesn't require becoming less dependable.

It requires becoming more intentional about where, why, and how you choose to be depended upon.

Start Your Own Trust Tax™ Investigation

See the pattern. Listen for the story. Decide what you want to carry forward.

🔎 Take the free Trust Tax™ Assessment
Discover the responsibility and leadership patterns most likely to contribute to burnout before burnout becomes the whole story. About 7 minutes, with immediate personalized results.
https://unceilingzone.com/start-trust-tax-assesssment

🎟️ Join us for Rewrite Your Story — October 15
A leadership workshop + live comedy show at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan with Natalie H. Luke, Ph.D. and Merit Kahn.
https://rewriteyourstoryevent.com

Connect with Beth Sherman

Beth Sherman is an Emmy-winning comedy writer, speaker, and communications expert who helps leaders use humor and humanity to create stronger connections with their audiences.

🌐 Website: https://www.bethsherman.com/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-sherman/

Follow The Trust Tax Investigation

Week 1: When Success Becomes a Trap
Week 2: Why Does This Happen?
Week 3: Why Organizations Create It
Week 4: How We Break the Cycle

Subscribe to UnCeiling You on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 1:01

Welcome to the Unsealing You podcast. I'm Dr. Natalie Luke, your host. And since July the 20th, we've been conducting what I've called the trust tax investigation. We started with a question. How can someone who is successful, capable, and trusted end up being so burned out? In week one, we looked at when success becomes the trap. We saw how being dependable, capable, and willing to take responsibility can slowly turn into doing more than your share. You keep delivering, so from the outside, everything looks fine, even when it's costing you. Then in week two, we asked, why does this happen? We looked underneath the behavior at the expectations, the identity, the chronic pressure, and the nervous system. We began to see why high performers don't simply wake up one morning and decide to overwork. The pattern develops over time. Eventually, what is unsustainable can start to feel normal. Then in week three, we widened the lens to look at how the organization supports burnout. Because burnout isn't an individual problem. When dependable people repeatedly step in, solve the problem, absorb unfinished work, or compensate for unclear ownership, the organization can begin to rely on the workaround. The work gets done, but the underlying problem doesn't get fixed. And that is where the trust tax becomes expensive for the people, operations, and the business. So now we've reached the most important part of the investigation. What do we do about it? This week is about breaking the cycle. Because once you see the pattern, you have a choice. You can examine the story underneath it, the story being, I have to get it all done, everybody depends on me. I have to prove myself. I can't disappoint them. This is what leadership requires. Instead, you ask, is this story still serving me? And is it keeping the entire system stuck? This week we're going to explore what happens when we change the story, change the behavior, clarify responsibility, communicate differently, and build systems where trust doesn't mean one dependable person has to do it all. We've investigated the trust text. Now it's time to start replacing it with trust, alignment, and sustainable results. Today we're starting with Beth Sherman, an Emmy-winning comedy writer who spent decades learning how to connect with skeptical audiences. And now brings those lessons into the business world. Beth Sherman helps us to explore something essential to breaking the trust tags. How to stop performing the version of leadership we think people expect and communicate with enough humanity and self-awareness to build real trust. Beth, thank you so much for being on the Unsealing You podcast. I really appreciate you being here. It's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. You're welcome. So you wrote for Letterman, the Tonight Show, Ellen, DeGenerous, the Oscars. You have seven Emmys, and now you're in boardrooms teaching business audiences what comedians know. And I could see the translation, but I want to hear it in your words. What made you believe that what you learned in those writers' rooms belonged in corporate America?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

What it distills down to, what what our skill is in comedy is building trust with skeptical audiences quickly. And and that is a transferable skill. And people think, oh, you do it, yep, but in comedy, you do it with humor. And and yeah, I mean it's humor, but what is humor? Humor is just humanity. And we build trust quickly on stage because we have to. If we don't connect pretty much immediately with our audience, nothing else we do works. And it's the same with business. It's just that the the consequences are a little bit more subtle. No, people are looking at you, but they're just not listening. So what my lane is, is showing people how to communicate in a way that actually makes people want to listen. And I made the transition because I I spent almost 30 years in in comedy and comedy writing. But throughout that time, I would have business leaders come to me when and to people like me when they wanted, when they had talks, uh TED talks, conference talks, things like that, a lot of commencement speeches. But things where they wanted, they they'd say, I don't want to be boring. And they would think that they were coming for jokes. But if you put jokes into the hands of people, well, who are not used to using them, it all just feels awful and false. It it feels it's what dad jokes are. It's fine for the people who love you, but you're not winning hearts and minds. So what I learned to do was add to to make things more engaging in the business world was find a way to do it in the voice of the speaker, in a way that is authentic to them and organic to the material, which means humanity, storytelling, and humor in the sense of helping people understand that what's funny, truth, recognition, those sorts of things, so that you don't need to lean on things that aren't, well, that are just forced in. And those clients invited me to speak at some of their organizations because they were so happy with how it went. And here I am now doing a lot of keynote speaking. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

So comedians have 30 seconds to get the room.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

No, we don't. Really? No. I would glove we have roughly zero seconds. Natalie, that's that's about what we have. Thirty seconds. Think in your head. I mean, if you look at any social media or anything really, and and you count, how long do you look at something before you go to the next thing? A nanosecond. Yeah. That's about what we have. And if you watch any stand-up special, if if you just speak to anyone who's you find interesting, you'll see that they don't it's immediate. It's a feeling, but that there's there's a reason that feeling happens. And it can be a look, a smile. It it is connection. It's it's emotional connection and making people feel seen, heard, and understood. Thirty seconds is just sit there listening to someone one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. Yeah, I'm I'm thinking about what to make for dinner.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah. So what's the one thing every comedian knows in that nanosecond that builds the connection in business?

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Well, we do it, it it's one of those things that becomes an instinct. So the interesting part of what I do is sort of looking back and saying, What do we do? And there are small things, simply smiling, but also acknowledging the elephant in the room. Those sorts of things. What's the first thing people are noticing? What are they thinking about me, about the event, about what's happening, about the the world? We say the unspoken thing and and we acknowledge it because if you don't acknowledge that elephant in the room, it becomes a potential distraction. Even if it's as simple as someone's got a band-aid on. I mean, if I walked up on stage and and I had a band-aid on my cheek until I've s and I mean this as a CEO, let alone a comedian, are you thinking anything other than what happened? Yeah. I mean, even if it's just a, you know, a splint of something like that, it it's just it's simply because if if the voice people are hearing inside their heads is saying, huh, wonder how she got that, she walk into something and what was it? The voice they're not hearing in their head is yours. So I I think that's what we're very good at. And it doesn't have to be done in a disrespectful way. It can be, I mean, I've worked on speeches for people who were I I mean, a change management where they've got to go up in front of an all-staff and some stuff's gone down. So it might not be the time or place to get into the specifics of what's going to happen, but you c it it's distracting if if you don't acknowledge that something has happened. And it's not just a distraction. Instead of building connection and acknowledging that something has happened, you're actually pushing people away. It it actually has diminishing returns. So you're you're people are thinking, oh, I guess we're not gonna talk about that then. No, here things aren't gonna change. I guess we'll just pretend everything's fine and you know, it it it really it it's more essential than it seems. And it's just a small communication choice if you know what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So when you're working with the leaders, have you ever worked with someone who's convinced that they didn't need this type of connection?

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Well, I would say it's it's sort of a self-selecting group. Okay. Most of the time leaders come to me is because they have an event where they they want to look good. I mean, these are successful people who understand that preparation and seeking help is is part of success. And and the willingness to admit the self-awareness and willingness to admit that maybe they don't they they can be coached. Every once in a while, a comms team will suggest someone see me or that we have a session, uh, which has to Because because I can say things they can't. I'm the outsider. And again, because my skill as a comedian is I'm look, I'm gonna make this person laugh anyhow on the call. We're gonna have 90 minutes, we're gonna have a good time. And they're gonna realize, okay, this isn't someone who's saying this isn't a dry academic sort of communication preparation. This is bouncing something off of someone who i i wants you to have fun. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. It makes a lot of sense. Because the the person, the comms team person, their their head of communication or their in you know, whoever's working in internal comms can't say to to the head of the company, to the managing director, yeah, you're gonna put people to sleep. Or or simply, no one likes you. They can't say that. I can't say that, but I can help them come across with more self-awareness than perhaps they usually come across with.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

There you go. I I would find that that communication person would find you very helpful in that situation.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Just blame it on that. Well, it and it isn't always that these people are I mean, uh very often the person who is running the company or the person who is that the expert, the reason they are the expert is because they are technically brilliant. I mean, they are brilliant at the technical things, but sometimes they have to communicate you know, that is not always a skill. That means that you can communicate those technical things with the the the the sort of racing file people in the company. Right. So so giving them a sense of how if they speak this way, how is that heard? What's in that thought bubble above the heads of their team or their audience? Once they get some insight into that, they think, yeah, I I could see that.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

For the past four weeks, the trust tax investigation has been following a pattern. A capable person becomes what others can depend on. More responsibility follows. They adapt, they compensate, they find ways to keep everything moving. And because the work keeps getting done, the pattern can become almost invisible. But this week, we're not just investigating the pattern. We're asking, how do we break it? And what we're hearing from our guests is breaking this cycle, it doesn't mean caring less, achieving less, or becoming less dependable. It means doing something differently. It can mean communicating for connection instead of trying to get everything exactly right. It can mean stopping the need to prove your value by how much you carry and advocating for the value you already create. It can mean separating your identity from being the person everybody needs and developing others instead of continually stepping in. And sometimes it happens in a single moment when you notice yourself about to please, perform, stay silent, or take something on that isn't yours. And choose differently. That's where rewriting your story begins. Because the story may say, I have to do it. They need me. It's easier if I just take care of it. But when we change the story, we change the behavior. And when enough behaviors change, we begin changing the system. So see the story, change the belief, set the boundary, build trust, lead differently. That's how we begin replacing the trust tax with trust alignment and sustained impact. Now, let's get back to the conversation. Yeah. That's nice. So the two of us are sitting in two different frameworks. You're building trust, helping people build trust quickly. And mine is about what happens when trust becomes a trap. And here's the image I keep coming back to. I was at a party there, and it was a party where there were several different physicians in the room. It sounds like a joke, but it it actually literally really happened. Three physicians walk into a living room. Yeah. Exactly. A urologist, an ED doc. And someone knocked a full bottle of red wine off the table and on to the floor. And before any of us could process what had happened, the ED doc was already on the floor with the paper towels. Like, I don't even know how he got the paper towels so fast. I was like stunned that the wine even fell, let alone like processing what to do with it. And what and my question is, what if that became his job to go to parties and clean up the wine after it spilt on the floor because he's so good at it? Because he can handle it so fast. And so I guess the question is from where you sit on the communication side, what do you see that happened in the room the moment that wine went on the floor?

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Well, I calling out the elephant in the room, I have to take one step back and say, I thought you were joking when you said it was a urologist and and an ED doc at the party. What kind of parties are you going to, Natalie?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Actually, they were it was a euchre party. And uh my friend is a um pharmaceutical salesperson. Okay. You know, she's been in the business for a long time, so Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

The word uplifting springs to mind, but that sounds very off-color in this context. So I would say, so so the doctor who who so so you're as I'm understanding it, it's that this is the person who jumps into action. Do you mean it as that that is an appreciated thing or sort of a thankless job, or people thought less of him? I I think I'm not following. Yeah. So I'm follow I'm following as much as I could until I went, oh, she wasn't joking. That was my inner monologue.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Natalie has goes to good parties where they drop wine bottles on the floor.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

I I would see it as a great thing. And so, like, where I'm I'm coming from on the trusted tax is that sometimes uh the same just because someone's really good at it means they always do it. And what where my uh focus is lying is hey, you don't have to keep doing the things that you're good at. You can stretch yourself. And so both the thing that they have in common is trust. We trust you to get this done always. So we constantly go to you. And then as the person who's trusted is like, well, I guess that's my job instead of stretching myself and saying no.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Sure. So people is sort of a a matter of being taken for granted or or I guess golden handcuffs. I mean, it can be, I guess it can work either way. They can be great handcuffs or they can just simply be handcuffs. Gotta be honest, a lot of things, erectile dysfunction, handcuffs, things coming up on this podcast. I did not anticipate. That's what ED Doctor stands for for anyone listening. So Yeah, I think it's it's we we I know for sure from my own experience. I worked in a very particular niche of television, and it was made clear to me by agents and managers that, gosh, there's no way anyone could ever think of you doing something different. And I don't mean what I'm doing now. I mean I worked in comedy variety, which is is what the the late night shows were considered, late night and award shows and things like that. That's what they're considered in TV. And I had this wild and crazy idea that I might like to do what is considered scripted, so sitcoms. So not a world of difference. And everyone said, Whoa, slow your roll, Sherman. How could anyone imagine you doing something like that? Which, you know, is absurd when you think about it, but it's it's certainly something that happens.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah. I appreciate that. And so going back to what you're doing today, you're teaching people to read the room and to respond to it instantly, skillfully. But then um there's a version of that skill that can become a compulsion where the person who can always manage the emotion or temperature of the room just gets to be in the room instead of, you know, never gets to be in the room instead of always having to perform.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah, I I think what I'm hearing is that it it slows our own growth if if we are too amenable and if we are I guess people pleasing. Right. So it's important to be able to, while trust is important, we are the trusted person to do that thing. The communication skill is saying is is having the self-awareness and the willingness to communicate something in a way that doesn't frighten other people and say, I love doing this, I know I'm good at it, but I'd also love to stretch and do a bit of this and and do a bit of something else.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

So when you were um wanting to make that shift from the late night comedian, how did you how did you get how did you get people to recognize that you can do that and in a way say no and redirect or decline without feeling like, I don't know, you were losing the last part of yourself where you were uh successful?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Well, it would be a better story if I actually had succeeded in scripted sitcom writing. I I was able to I get the meetings and I pitched a lot of shows, but the opportunities that kept coming to me were similar to the opportunities that had been coming to me, because that's where I'd built my reputation, and that's also just simply where I knew where I knew people.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

So so people that I'd worked with before would start working on a new show, and they knew my work because we're all you know, we're all tempted to hire people that we've worked with before because it's a known quantity, and you're putting that baseball team together. You need someone who's good at this, and someone who's good at that, and someone that's good at the other thing. I also don't I certainly agree that being trusted for one thing can become a sticking point, but there's also something to be said. I I tried to hear in that process the half-glass, half full side of it, I guess, which is hey, I'm really good at this thing and a lot of people want me for it.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

And and the this what I have realized now looking back into the transition of what I do now, which was all me, that had nothing to do with anyone in entertainment. Those were choices I made and and and opportunities that I saw. But when I sort of sat down with myself and said, What's the part of my job that I am really good at? In fact, I'm so good at it, it doesn't feel like work. And that was punch up, which is essentially what I do and and a lot of what I teach. In comedy, that's looking at things and spotting comedic opportunities. How can we make this more engaging? And in in comedy it's a little bit more written and intentional, but in the business world it's simply what you have now is simply dry information. How can we put more you in it?

SPEAKER_00 24:49

Right. So I think I feel that is very enlightening and I really love it because it's like, hey wait, I am good at this. Let me embrace it and go from there.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah. I mean we're I'd also reached an age where you know I'm I'm fifty three now. I've been doing this for a few years, but I'd I'd sort of I'd been doing I'd been in T V comedy writing and and stand-up. Stand up was uh TV comedy writing was always the the day job and writing for TV shows. I did a stand-up for a lot of years, but that was nights and weekends and and hiatus weeks. So it was looking at that and and thinking about I you know I I've done I I've I've done a lot of the things that I set out to do and doing more of it just it felt like my career was going laterally. I see. And I could get into my options were going into a management position and becoming head writer, which I did a few times, but I didn't enjoy it because you don't get to do the thing. Right. You have to do the other thing which is management. And having experienced a lot of people who were who did take those opportunities and didn't make any effort to get better at management, I didn't want to be one of those people. You know, I've worked under those people. Management is a skill. Not everyone has and I I'm not sure I do. So so I was looking for other places to go with what I was good at. So I I tried to read the room I guess in the sense of I'm being told this on the one hand it sounds like a negative but if I turn it around where is the positive to it?

SPEAKER_00 26:30

I love that I think that's vitally important to see that positive. And you've been in the rooms where power and pressure you've had power and pressure your whole career was there ever a moment on the stage in the writer's room in the boardroom where the skill you spent decades building suddenly felt like it was being used against you at all?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Well I think the skill that worked for me works for me. I'll make that present tense the skill that works for me professionally is that I can acknowledge the elephant in the room. It's I find that when it did not work for me was when I was younger and I was a kid and it came across as just mouthing off. Teachers don't appreciate when you point out the elephant in the room or when you're the junior person on staff or parents often don't appreciate when you point out the elephant in the room. So the the sometimes the the the the I won't say lack of filter, because this is a business podcast and I'm trying to get work out of it. So it's not that I lack a filter, but there was some refinement to the filter and and also now I have credibility. Now I walk into a room and people I'm not inappropriate, but people expect there's going to be some sort of directness and the the way I do it and the way I try to show other people how to do it is is in a way that where you're using humor and and those sorts of things as a love language. You're using these things very intentionally to build connection and people can see that you're using them intentionally to build connection rather than to to well to hurt people.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah. That's fantastic. So do you have like one story where uh you had someone that was you were working with and it really turned things around where you sh they were able to showcase their ability to notice the room when they didn't before?

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Sure. Well a lot of my most the clearest examples would be working with people who were who are on stage or who are giving a talk. Because about half my work is is one-to-one and the other half is speaking at conferences and events and law firm retreats. A lot of lawyers who are very again technically brilliant but technical expertise does not convert. Emotion converts. So so sort of giving them the skills to to build the two well honestly it's it's I hear it's the feedback that I get it's preparing someone for a talk and and then they come back to me. And I work with I mean I have a client a lot of clients who are they'll come to me for a personal speech. Because a lot of the professional clients I work with are C-suite board level it's a lot of older guys and they appreciate what I do for them in the business world. But then they'll come to me and they'll say my daughter's getting married and I need a father the bride speech. And so I can help them I ghostwrite it for them and then we work together to I use their own words, I use their own stories, but but it's something so that it's got it really it's it's authentically funny and it and it also shares what they're feeling. And these are typically people who are not used to well experiencing feelings often but certainly expressing them. The feedback I get from them is my wife loved it. My daughter loved it. Everyone in the room came up to me and said this is the best speech I've ever heard. But that is less due to me it's due to them showing a side of themselves. It's the work with me where we were able to put so much of them into it being able to put that self-awareness into it being able to put that authenticity and the storytelling and specificity and all sorts of things these are all comedic devices but used to further a very serious and sentimental goal. So those are the ones that stand out the most to me. I mean they give a board they give a conference speech or something like that and they'll say yeah it went great people told me it went well but yeah you're the boss everyone's gonna tell you it went well I mean we know it was better than what it was before we worked together for sure and they certainly recognize that but it's when their wife says to them crying that was incredible. That's the person who look after 30 years together is not going to lie to them and and those are the transformations that where it's just it's so tangible that that I've made a difference and and that is that's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

So it's not only connecting with the audience and seeing like the thoughts that are possibly going over their head but it's also connecting with themselves.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

That's a great way to say it yes I'll be stealing that for the website. Yay Well it but it is it really is because they they are I think one of the most common mistakes people in business make when they are expressing themselves in any way, whether they're speaking to an audience or a client, prospective client or their team or colleagues, they think of themselves well I'm at work. This has to be work self. And well yes you you have to be a professional and you have to take the work seriously you don't always have to take yourself seriously. You can be a little bit authentic a little bit vulnerable and one of the things that we really understand in as comedians and what helps us connect so quickly is that we always prioritize we always prioritize connection over perfection. That's human. Humans aren't perfect it it's not about being vulnerable and weeping all the time but it's sort of confiding to someone or sharing with someone well the first time I tried this this is how it went or a little bit of the story that took you that that got you to where you are now because for people in power they often think well I I have to be credible and I I can't be vulnerable. It's it it's their humanity simply it it it's just being able to show your humanity and by the way as we move towards a more automated world your humanity the ability to display your humanity and connect with other humans is a skill that's only going to become even more important. I mean it was important before but even more important because we can have AI doing wonderful things and speeding up the process but ultimately whoever's buying is a person. Our customers are human our colleagues are human. Hum humans are still in the equation. Many of us still date and marry humans.

SPEAKER_00 33:14

So those human skills are are still very important. So the for the person who's listening right now who is really wanting to connect to that humanity and use it in a way that's going to, you know, help their communication with others to be more effective in their communication, how can they connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 33:38

They can find me on LinkedIn my name is Beth Sherman or they can go to my website which is the very cleverly named Bethsherman.com. You don't get daytime Emmys for nothing, Natalie love it. Thank you so much for being on the Unsealing You podcast. My pleasure thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

About four weeks ago we started this investigation with the question how does success become a trap? And after these conversations I don't think the answer is that high performers simply need to become more resilient. The trust text showed us something more complicated. It can begin when a person proves dependable people trust them with more extra responsibilities become normal. And because the person keeps getting the work done the organization may never see what their success is concealing unclear ownership, unfinished work, broken processes, poor communication or responsibilities that keep routing to the same people. Eventually the workaround becomes the way the organization operates. The person pays through overwork, lost energy, disengagement or burnout. The organization pays through rework, higher cost, turnover, lost capacity, and the problems that remain hidden because someone keeps compensating for them. But throughout this investigation we discovered something underneath all of it. There is often a story keeping the pattern alive. I have to get it done everybody depends on me. If I don't step in, who will I need to prove that I belong here leadership means caring more. These stories have helped us to become successful but they can also keep us and the people around us stuck. And that is why the trust tax investigation leads directly to the Rewrite Your Story event. On October 15th at Walsh College in Troy, Michigan, Merritt Kahn and I are bringing this work into the room for a full day leadership experience followed by Merritt's live one-woman theatrical comedy show optimistic personality disorder. Makes me smile every time I say it. Because understanding the pattern is only the beginning at Rewrite Your Story we're gonna see the story that's driving your patterns changing the beliefs that keep it going and setting boundaries to clarify ownership. Building systems of trust instead of systems that depend on someone continually rescuing them and ultimately learning how to create results without burning out the people responsible for producing them. The workshop helps you see the story. The comedy helps you let it go. And maybe that's the most important thing this investigation has shown us. You don't have to abandon your ambition. You don't have to stop being dependable and you don't have to care less. You can rewrite the story that says your value comes from how much you carry. You can develop other people you can share responsibility you can build trust without becoming trapped by it and you can lead in a way that lifts others and releases you. Rewrite your story break the cycle lead differently I'd love to see you and your team on October the 15th at Walsh College in Troy Michigan