Here’s a leadership tip for pros: Shut up and listen.
It’s remarkable how often I interact with (usually young) founders who talk a thousand miles and hour, jumping from one of their achievements to another, expressing strong opinions (often in the “that’s the way the world is”-fashion) and engage in a fun game of name dropping (“at last nights barbecue with Peter Thiel I met Tim Cook and spent an hour telling him how shitty the new MacBook Pro is”).
Tell you what: You lost me. I have no interest to engage in a game of “my d*** is bigger than yours”. I don’t care all that much how awesome you think you are. I judge you by your actions, not your words. And while you talk — you can’t listen. Which makes me question why you want to talk to me in the first place.
Luckily Heretics are different. I haven’t had a single negative interaction with someone from our tribe. Which makes me hopeful… :)