doing the hard stuff is your edge

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Welcome back to House of Leadership. We explore what it really takes to grow and lead successfully in a fast-paced, high-performance environment. We go beyond metrics to talk about influence, visibility, mindset, and the habits that separate good from great. Whether you're climbing the ladder or helping others do the same, you'll find practical insights to elevate your impact.

🔎 What We’ll Learn in Today’s Newsletter

• ✅ Why “hard things” are the cornerstone of leadership
  ✅ How avoidance quietly undermines your influence
  ✅ How to model courage for your team
  🔒 In the premium section: a practical 3-part system to make tough actions automatic, including scripts, habits, and daily/weekly practices that I personally use

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Hey folks,

Let’s be honest for a minute: Most of us know what needs to be done, we just don’t want to do it.

We’re not lazy. We’re not unskilled. But we’re human. And hard things come with friction.

It’s not hard to reply to a vendor.
It’s hard to tell your senior manager they’ve lost the room.
It’s hard to look at your calendar and say:

And the higher up you go? The less anyone tells you that you’re avoiding the hard stuff.

🧱 The leadership differentiator nobody talks about

In teams, we talk about goals, strategy, values and the mission. But underneath it all, the real edge, is the ability to consistently do the hard thing before it becomes the big thing.

Most leaders wait until the problem is undeniable. That’s not leadership. That’s containment.

The real leaders, the ones who move teams, shape culture, earn trust. They tackle the issue while it’s still small. While it’s just a misalignment, a drift, a vibe. They lean into discomfort before the quarterly review makes it unavoidable.

Here’s what I’ve learned the hard way:

🧠 A moment of reflection

Think about your last two weeks.
What did you do that felt heavy?
What did you quietly avoid because it was too complex, too political, too risky?

I’ve done it too.

There’s a senior analyst I kept “circling back to”, great at comms, low on ownership.
Every time I went to give feedback, I softened it. I delayed. I told myself, “She’ll grow with time.”

She didn’t.
Six months later, the manager had to step in. The trust gap widened. The exit was messy.

It wasn’t her fault. It was mine.

Doing the hard thing earlier, in a calm, kind, clear way, would have changed the outcome completely.

👀 Your team is watching

The real reason this matters isn’t just performance.
It’s what your behaviour teaches everyone around you.

When your team sees you:

• Avoid hard decisions → they learn to wait

• Let poor performance slide → they lower their bar

• Dance around truth → they stop speaking up

But when they see you:

• Take a hard call with clarity

• Deliver feedback that’s firm but fair

• Stay calm when things get tense

They follow.
Not because you told them to, but because you showed them how.

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🔒 PREMIUM: Tactics for Doing the Hard Stuff When You Don't Want To

If the free section resonated, here’s the part that makes it stick.
This is the exact system I’ve built to overcome avoidance and consistently do the uncomfortable things, without burning out or relying on willpower.

You’ll get:

• A 3-part operating system to rewire how you tackle discomfort

• Templates/scripts for hard conversations with underperformers, peers, and execs

• A Monday planning routine I use to intentionally tackle friction early in the week

• Reflection prompts that expose your avoidance patterns before they snowball

• Bonus: How to build a team culture that normalizes tough feedback and fast accountability

  👉 [Upgrade to Premium to Unlock This Section]

You’ve read the free stuff—now unlock the tools that actually move the needle. From plug-and-play talk tracks to proven leadership templates, this is the edge your peers wish they had. Upgrade now and lead with confidence, clarity, and calm—every single week.

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A subscription gets you:

• • Plug-and-play talk tracks - Get word-for-word scripts for handling tough conversations, performance reviews, and escalation calls—so you never freeze or fumble.
• • Confidence boosters before key moments - Quick-read mindset resets and one-liners to ground you before team meetings, 1:1s, or presentations.
• • Proven leadership templates - Use battle-tested coaching plans, escalation frameworks, and team comms templates that save you hours and build trust fast.
• • Messaging that lands - Learn how to say what you mean with clarity and confidence—whether you’re giving tough feedback or rallying a demotivated team.
• • Creative engagement ideas - Inject energy into your team with easy-to-steal ideas for engagement, recognition, and alignment—even when morale is low.