04 Nov Who Decides If You Exceed Expectations? How Performance Review Calibration Works
Your rating is often decided in calibration, weeks before your review. Why exceeds expectations is capped, and what your manager needs from you....
Blog
Notes for Directors and VPs at a turning point
Real patterns from senior leaders deciding whether to stay, step up, or step out, and what it takes to make the move well.
Get the Exceptional & Exhausted newsletterWelcome to my leadership coaching blog on the overdelivering pattern in corporate life. Here I write about what actually gets in the way of senior leaders advancing and what to do about it. Each post draws on real patterns I see in my coaching work with Directors and VPs across tech, finance and consulting. These are not generic leadership tips. They are observations from over 3,100 executive coaching sessions — the kind of honest, specific insights that rarely make it into leadership books but come up in almost every coaching session. If you have ever said yes when you meant no, softened feedback to keep the peace, or wondered why doing everything right still does not feel like enough, you are in the right place.
The patterns I write about here — over-explaining, avoiding conflict, absorbing what others should carry, shrinking in rooms where you should be leading — are not personal failings. They are learned strategies that worked brilliantly at one level and now quietly work against you at the next. Understanding them is the beginning of having a genuine choice about them. For more personal reflections on the overdelivering pattern, leadership identity, and what lies underneath, I also write in my newsletter, Exceptional & Exhausted, and on Medium.
Browse the articles below and take what is useful. If any of this resonates more deeply and you recognise yourself in what you read and are ready to do something about it, you are welcome to explore my coaching approach or book a free Turning Point Call.
26 Oct Putting Off a Career Decision? Why a Tired Mind Avoids the Future
Exceptional & Exhausted #14 The COO in you keeps the to-do list running, while the CFO quietly decides there is no budget for your future. If you keep putting off a career...
22 Oct Layoff Anxiety: What Should You Do When Job Cuts Hit the Headlines?
Exceptional & Exhausted #13 When job cuts hit the headlines, be gentle with yourself and let the people who love you carry some of it with you, whether you are still...
16 Oct Career Crossroads at 40: Do You Want the Next Ten Years to Look Like This?
Exceptional & Exhausted #12 At a career crossroads around 40, most Directors and VPs have been carrying the question for a year or two before they say it out loud. What...
25 Sep Successful but Unhappy at Work? Whose Desire Were You Chasing?
If you are successful but unhappy at work, the success you chased may never have been your own desire. So often it comes from conditioning, our shadows, our patterns that...
18 Sep Astrology in Executive Coaching: Does It Actually Work for Senior Leaders?
Yes, used well, astrology is a practical tool in executive coaching. It's not fortune telling and I'm not predicting your future: a proper reading surfaces blind spots, limiting beliefs and...