I know it’s a paradox, but if you were forced to choose—are you Team Chicken or Team Egg in the proverbial “which came first, the chicken or the egg”?
Wait, what the heck do chickens and eggs have to do with self and people leadership?
It’s really a trick question—but not in the way you think. Regardless of which you think came first, when it comes to leadership, you’ve likely got it wrong. Your team probably does too. And as a leader, it’s part of your job to help set them straight.
Common Leadership Myths
Here are four common chicken and egg leadership myths likely impacting you and your team(s), and tips for how you can help yourself, and those you serve, put them in the right order.
- I Need Confidence in Order to Do the Scary Thing
- I Need Motivation to Start Making Progress
- I Need to Be Certain of My Decision Before Making It
- I Need to Be Perfect Before I Can Start
Myth: I Need Confidence in Order to Do the Scary Thing
Truth: Confidence Comes from Doing
Your team might be saying:
- “I need to feel more confident before I speak up in meetings.”
- “I need to build my confidence before taking on client presentations.”
You might be saying:
- “I need to be more confident in my skills as a leader before I consider a bigger leadership role.”
- “I need to build my confidence before presenting to the board.”
To support your team:
- Encourage your team members to take small, manageable risks. Create a safe environment where they feel supported in their efforts. By celebrating small victories, you help them build confidence and prepare for larger challenges.
- Remind your team of past successes. Often the pace of work doesn’t leave much room for reflection, so as a leader you need to create room for reflection, celebration, and encouragement. This will help fan the sparks of action into flames of confidence.
To challenge yourself:
- Reframe Confidence. It isn’t a prerequisite for effective leadership; it’s a result. Waiting for confidence stalls progress, while taking action first can help build confidence.
- Focus on cultivating courage. Confidence comes from taking action, so what do you need to build to take big risks? A mindset of courage and resilience is a flexible skill set that fits any situation where you lack confidence. Remember, “Courage is being scared and doing it anyway.”
Myth: I Need Motivation to Start Making Progress
Truth: Progress Sparks Motivation
Your team might be saying:
- “I don’t know why I’m not making progress; I just feel so unmotivated.”
- “I need to find some motivation to complete this project.”
You might be saying:
- “I need to muster up some motivation to have this difficult conversation”
- “If I don’t find some motivation soon, there’s no way we’re meeting our deadlines”
To support your team:
- Help your team set clear, attainable milestones. And make sure, at least to start, that those milestones are frequent, so that achieving them comes early.
- Build in time to reflect on progress to date. Often teams (and their leaders) are so focused on the path ahead that it’s easy to forget how far you’ve already come. While progress sparks motivation, it can have the opposite effect if there isn’t time set aside to even see the progress to date—no matter how small.
To challenge yourself:
- Take your own medicine: Those clear attainable milestones, and reflections on progress, don’t just work for your team—they work for you too. In fact, if you forget these vital steps to motivation, you’re less likely to remember to encourage them for your team.
- Embrace discomfort: Progress requires getting uncomfortable. Challenging yourself to tackle tasks that make you uncomfortable builds resilience and sets a powerful example for your team. And you don’t need motivation to get uncomfortable.
Myth: I Need to Be Certain of My Decision Before Making It
Truth: Certainty Comes Through Making Decisions
Your team might be saying:
- “I need to know exactly what I’m aiming for before I start this project.”
- “I need a detailed plan before I can take the first step.”
You might be saying:
- “There’s too much risk, I need to be 100% certain before I can make this decision”
- “Unless I can see all the possible paths, I can’t choose the right one”
To help your team:
- Encourage your team to focus on what they can control. Often it isn’t realistic for them to know the complete context before moving forward. So help them build the critical thinking and reliance skills needed to move forward even in uncertainty.
- Promote flexibility and adaptability: Rigid environments breed fear of making wrong decisions. Demonstrating and teaching skills of adjusting on the go helps your teams both make decisions faster AND deal with the unexpected that will most certainly arise.
To challenge yourself:
- Normalize uncertainty: Spoilers, the leaders you respect who seem to make confident decisions also don’t have all the information. The increased rate of change in organizations means uncertainty and lack of information is now normal. Embrace it. Normalize it.
- Focus on delivery, not the decision. There’s rarely such a thing as a perfect decision. And in fact, an uncertain decision, masterfully delivered, is better than a decision stalled waiting for certainty. Work on your decision delivery mastery with adaptability, creative problem solving, emotional intelligence, and innovation.
Myth: I Need to Be (Almost) Perfect Before I Can Start
Truth: Starting Imperfectly Leads to Excellence
Your team might be saying:
- “I need more time to perfect this deck before we can present to leadership”
- “I can’t submit my work until it’s flawless.”
You might be saying:
- “We can’t start this project until I have every detail perfectly planned.”
- “I need to make sure my team gets this 100% right.”
To help your team:
- Encourage your team to embrace a growth mindset. Let them know that it’s okay to start with a draft or a pilot version. Provide constructive feedback and support their efforts to refine and improve their work over time.
- Model imperfection. Show your team that it’s okay to make mistakes. Share your own experiences of starting imperfectly and improving over time. This not only humanizes you as a leader but also sets a powerful example of resilience and growth.
To challenge yourself:
- Start with what you have and improve along the way. Taking action, even imperfectly, leads to learning and growth. This approach helps you realize that excellence is achieved through continuous improvement and practice, not as a starting point.
- Understand what’s behind the need to be perfect. Brene Brown’s research tells us that “when perfectionism is driving, shame is riding shotgun”. If you’re finding an increased need for something to be perfect, or almost perfect, before you can act—take a pause and ask yourself why. Once you know why, you can address it.
When you’re staring at a chicken coop full of chickens and eggs, it can be really hard to see the ‘feathers from the yolks’—but that’s part of leading people. To help them challenge limiting beliefs (misordered chickens and eggs) and reframe them into enabling ones.
And who knows—while supporting your team, you might even recognize your coop is in need of some reorganization too.
This blog was written by Tiffany Baker, an accomplished HR professional, Certified Coach, and MBA Career Coach and Educator. Her 15-year HR journey crosses multiple sectors – including private, public, not-for-profit, and academic – and encompasses a broad scope of leadership roles in operations, HR communications management, and advising on diverse people and leadership topics. Tiffany leverages this comprehensive background to drive her thriving coaching practice, which centers on empowering individuals on their professional journey to discover, lean-in, and own what makes them unique.
Overcome the leadership myths and unlock the potential of your leadership team with tailored one-on-one coaching from Upskill Consulting. Our coaching addresses the specific challenges your team faces in their roles, enhancing employee retention and performance. Coaching isn’t just for executives – it’s equally vital for entry and mid-level leaders who need supportive environments to share vulnerabilities. By developing self-awareness and emotional intelligence, leaders can build stronger connections with their teams, boosting retention and engagement.
Curious about the transformative power of coaching and leadership development? Contact Upskill Consulting today for a complimentary consultation.
Throughout Sofia's career she has engaged in various functions of HR, always with a mindset of translating business strategy into systematic HR initiatives. Her HR experience has involved overseeing day-to-day operations, developing HR strategies, leading organizational changes and partnering with leadership to drive and deliver on HR principles and business strategies.
Her specialization in HR includes training and capability development, performance management, employee engagement, change management and organizational development.
Sofia has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from Simon Fraser University,a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Human Resources Management from Kwantlen Polytechnic University and holds her Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR) designation.
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