The voice in your head has a name

"I'm a Type A personality. High energy, impatient, ready to move. It's just who I am."

I said it proudly. At Google, at every company I sold for, that identity got rewarded. Deals closed. Promotions came. Leadership loved it. So I kept turning up the volume.

And going.

And going.

Until I sat across from a framework that asked me to look at that "Type A personality" differently.

Not as a strength. Not as a trait.

As a saboteur.

A pattern I had been running so long I'd built my entire professional identity around it. I hadn't developed it. I'd normalized it. I called it drive. I called it ambition. I told myself it was the reason I was successful.

It was armor. And armor is heavy.

A saboteur is a mental pattern that helped you survive something early. Pressure, instability, high expectations, the need to prove yourself. Then it kept running long after you needed it.

The problem isn't that it showed up. The problem is that it got rewarded. So it grew. And it got called a personality.

The Positive Intelligence framework identifies 10 saboteurs. After working with leaders across industries, I see the same three showing up again and again in high performers:

The Hyper-Achiever ties worth to results. Every win is immediately replaced by the next target. There's no arrival, just a longer list. They look successful from the outside and feel hollow on the inside. Their justification lie: this is just what it takes to succeed at this level.

The Controller can't delegate. Not because they don't trust their team, but because handing something off feels genuinely dangerous. They'll redo your work at 11pm and call it standards. Their justification lie: if I don't do it, it won't get done right.

The Hyper-Vigilant is always scanning. For problems. For what could go wrong. For the thing nobody else sees coming. They call it being thorough. It's anxiety wearing a suit. Their justification lie: someone has to pay attention around here.

Here's the thing about all three. They were right once.

The Controller who stayed late got promoted. The Hyper-Achiever who closed the quarter got the bonus. The Hyper-Vigilant who caught the error became indispensable.

The saboteur didn't show up as a problem. It showed up as a personality.

When I named mine, something shifted that I didn't expect.

I didn't suddenly become calm or stop caring about results. But I could see the pattern moving. And when you can see it, you stop fusing with it.

Instead of I am impatient, I could watch impatience show up and ask: what is this protecting me from right now?

That's the difference between a trait and a tool. A trait runs you. A tool you can pick up or set down.

One of my clients, a senior leader navigating a major career decision, took the assessment and immediately recognized her Hyper-Vigilant. She'd been spending more time anticipating problems than communicating upward. She thought she was being responsible. What she was actually doing was making herself invisible to leadership while burning herself out.

Naming it didn't fix everything. But it gave her something to work with instead of just something to feel.

Where in your work are you performing a pattern you've never actually chosen?

Sit with that. The answer is usually the thing you're most proud of.

Randy came in as an entrepreneur ready to build. Here's what he said after we worked together.

I share his story on LinkedIn.

You can watch it here.

I don't share this assessment publicly. It's something I walk clients through intentionally, because what comes up deserves context, not just a score.

But if you're ready to find out, just reply to this email with the word ASSESS and I'll send you the link directly.

That's it. No form. Just reply.

It takes about 10 minutes to complete. What it shows you will take longer to unsee.

If this felt less like a newsletter and more like a mirror, that's not an accident.

The Activated Leader Transition Program is a 6-week engagement built for the high performer who is doing everything right and still feeling stuck. We go deep on the internal patterns, rebuild your visibility strategy, and get you moving toward the right room.

If you're building a business and recognize these patterns in how you show up as an entrepreneur, the Activated Business Builder is where we start.

Reply to this email if either of those sounds like your next move. I read every reply.