Lead

This is an uncomfortable truth that rarely gets spoken.

Formal training doesn’t really get you ready for what leadership truly requires.

After years of working with executives, I keep seeing the same expression. It’s as if their job description left out the toughest parts. Experience teaches these lessons, but it does so slowly and often at an unspoken cost.

Here’s what that preparation often misses:

1/ Your body will react before you have a chance to decide.

When you are under pressure, your body responds before your mind can catch up. By the time you have thought it through, you have already acted. Most leaders realise this only after the fact, if they notice it at all.

2/ The higher your position, the less truth you hear.

Your role creates distance. Honest feedback that could help you most is the hardest to get. Often, you do not even realize what you are missing.

3/ The isolation comes from the structure, not from you.

You can’t talk through every decision with your team. That’s not a failure to connect; it’s just part of the job. Still, your body sees isolation as a threat, and that shapes every decision you make after.

4/ Your mood sets the tone before you even say anything.

The way you handle stress sets the example for your team, often without realising it. They sense your stress before you speak. This is almost always underestimated, and most leaders hesitate to admit it.

5/ Making the right decision can sometimes cost you people’s approval.

You will have information others don’t. You will still have to decide. Some part of you will feel their disapproval as a threat, even when you know you made the right call.

6/ Recovery is not just self-care; it’s essential for how things run.

When your mental energy drops, your decision-making suffers, and this affects everyone and every choice in your organisation. When a leader is worn out, it doesn’t just impact them, it spreads through the whole organization.

These aren’t problems you can fix. They are realities you have to lead through.

Even the best leaders face all of this. They have just stopped pretending they should not, and that’s where real preparation starts.

Which of these have you never actually spoken about?