What’s Holding You Back from Being a Great Leader?

Turn breakthrough ideas into real results at the virtual HBR Innovation Summit this November with top CEOs and masterclasses on AI and growth. Register by September 30th and save 25%. Learn more at hbr.org slash innovation summit. I'm Alison Beard. And I'm Adi Ignatius, and this is the HBR Idea cast.

So Adi, we've all worked with bosses or colleagues who are smart and successful and fine leaders, but everyone else can see that there's something holding them back from really getting the best out of their people or getting to the next level in their career. And they might get feedback on that, but they're not really sure how to fix it or sometimes they don't even want to. Have you run into people like that who struggle to change or had problems with I'm sure I've had problems with it myself, but it's easier to talk about other people.

So I I've worked for a lot of very smart, very talented people who did have something that would hold them back. So maybe they were micromanagers, maybe they were perfectionists and just couldn't get stuff done quickly enough, uh, people who were protecting legacy and forgetting about innovation, people who didn't really care about process. So yeah, I've worked with some very smart people who there was something blocking their ability to move forward. Well blocking is the right word.

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