Author: superadmin

This statement by a very successful lawyer has always stuck with me. The reason? It creates tension. It expresses boundless ambition, wanting to be better than the rest, always being available, always being able to deliver. It creates tension because at the time it seamlessly connected to my reality, which on the one hand gave me the feeling of being part of a ‘winning team’ – and who doesn’t want that – but also caused a kind of discomfort. What is it that actually makes a good lawyer better or more successful than the rest? No pain, no gain? Being available, always and completely? Is that really it? And who decides that? This statement contains an interesting area of tension […]

In the podcast ‘Leading Professional People’, Laura Empson and Tony Hall explore crucial leadership questions facing professional organisations and their leaders.[1] At the end of the episode ‘Coming out of the psychological closet’, Laura Empson talks about the relationship between elite firms and so-called insecure overachievers. The following remark really stood out for me: “in psychoanalytical terms, the professional services firm becomes the ultimate critical parent”.[2] The reason why this statement struck a chord with me, being an insecure overachiever myself, is that it deals with the million dollar question: why? Why is it that many capable, ambitious and successful professionals continue carry around a sense of ‘not enough’, no matter what they achieve?  Laura Empson argues that this type […]