The Self Aware Leader with Jason Rigby

How do you train employees so they actually get better? Marine Corps veteran Jason Rigby shares the method the Marine Corps uses to develop people and shows how managers can use it with their own teams. Jason draws on Sustaining the Transformation (MCTP 6-10A), the Marine Corps leadership manual updated in 2024. You can download it free from the Marine Corps website: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCTP%206-10A%20(SECURED).pdf In this episode: The five-step teaching method Marine corporals use: explain, demonstrate, practice, correct, repeat Why reviewing performance numbers is different from coaching a skill How Silver Star recipient Lance Corporal Kasey Krock credited repetitive training in Desert Storm Marine Corps "hip pocket classes" and training people before the moment demands it How leaders create dependent employees by always giving the answer Why going back to the basics helps someone who is struggling A fifteen-minute practice exercise to run with your team this week The question for you: when was the last time somebody watched you lead and gave you honest feedback?

Why do you keep not doing the thing you already know would help? Ross Ellenhorn's answer in How We Change is that staying the same makes sense: part of you is protecting you from something real. In this episode: the Ten Reasons Not to Change, the fear of hope that sits under all of them, why starting a change feels worse than ignoring the problem, and the one question to ask a team member who keeps not changing. Timestamps (estimated at 150 wpm — adjust after your edit) 00:00 — Why staying the same makes sense 01:06 — "Why don't you just…" and why advice doesn't work 02:54 — Christy, the director who's been "about to delegate" for three years 05:10 — Ellenhorn's Ten Reasons Not to Change 08:02 — Fear of hope and playing possum 09:28 — Five things to do (four for you, one for your team) 11:11 — The question to ask yourself tonight Get the book: How We Change (And Ten Reasons Why We Don't) by Ross Ellenhorn — https://amzn.to/47myrcv As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases — no extra cost to you. Go deeper: jasonrigby.substack.com — free.

You've moved on to the next meeting, but your mind is still on the last problem. That's attention residue: thoughts about previous work competing with what needs your attention now. Jason Rigby explains research by Sophie Leroy and Theresa Glomb on task switching, unfinished work, and a simple "ready-to-resume" plan. Before switching tasks, briefly write down where you stopped and how you'll return. Hear how to use this practice before a conversation, why checking email right before a meeting can leave you distracted, and how leaders can interrupt their teams more thoughtfully. If you manage people, make decisions throughout the day, or struggle to listen while thinking about unfinished work, this episode gives you something practical to try. More from Jason Rigby: https://jasonrigby.substack.com

Most managers think they're coaching. What they're actually doing is  announcing numbers — and it's why the same person is behind again this  month. You've had the conversation. Maybe three times. You told them to step  up, to be more accountable, to take more ownership. They said they'd  work on it. Nothing changed. So either they don't want it, or you're  coaching a mood instead of a skill. In this episode I break down what coaching an employee actually looks  like when it works: how to find the one step in someone's work that's  breaking, why "be more accountable" is unfixable feedback, and the six  reasons people underperform — only one of which is a character problem. You'll walk away with the four questions that do more work than any  advice you have, a weekly coaching cadence that takes 20 minutes per  person, and a three-question test to run on your team this week. WHAT WE COVER (1:15) Why coaching to the final number is coaching a corpse (3:30) Dana and Kevin — the manager who "handled it" three times (7:00) The six causes of underperformance, and which one is actually rare (9:15) Ask first, tell second: the four questions (10:30) One skill, thirty days — why fixing six things fixes none (11:15) Practice off the customer: role-play done small (12:00) The weekly, monthly, daily coaching rhythm (13:00) Somebody has to coach the coaches THE MONDAY MORNING TEST 1. Name your weakest performer's actual gap — the specific step where  their work breaks. Not "they need to step up." 2. What did you ask someone last week that you didn't already know the  answer to? 3. Pick anyone on your team. Can they tell you the one thing they're  working on this month? Their answer is your grade, not theirs. Scripts, tools, and the deeper version of everything here:  https://jasonrigby.substack.com — free to subscribe. The Self Aware Leader is for managers who feel like they're performing  the job instead of doing it. Burnout, imposter syndrome, the loneliness  of leadership, and the conversations nobody trained you for.

You've got a hard conversation coming. And last night you ran it in your head forty times — every version ending with you losing the room. You called it preparing. It wasn't. Here's the thing nobody tells you: you're already visualizing. Every leader does. You just do it backwards — rehearsing the disaster and then sitting in it, instead of rehearsing your way out of it. The short answer: Mental rehearsal is not a vision board. It's the same practice elite performers use before high-pressure moments, and it works on one condition — you rehearse the thing going wrong, then rehearse exactly what you do next. Ten minutes, five steps: set the real scene, run it from your own eyes to handle the nerves, step back and watch yourself to map the branches, pre-load an if-then for every way it could go sideways, and walk in with three points instead of ten. In this episode I get into why Michael Phelps swam an Olympic final blind and still set a world record, what happens in your brain when someone cuts you off mid-sentence, and why none of this works if you're running on four hours of sleep. What's covered: Why the midnight loop feels like preparation but trains you to fail Bob Bowman making Phelps rehearse his goggles filling with water — years before it happened in Beijing A first-time manager's hard conversation with a senior report, start to finish The alarm and the adult: what's actually happening in your head under pressure Why sleep decides whether any of your prep survives the room The 10-minute protocol you can run tonight Chapters (00:00) Why "visualization" makes you cringe — and why you already do it (01:00) The midnight loop: rehearsing the disaster on repeat (02:10) Michael Phelps, Beijing 2008, and the goggles that failed (03:40) Scenario: Dana, and your first hard conversation as a new manager (05:30) The alarm and the adult — your brain under pressure (07:00) Why sleep decides whether this works at all (08:00) The 10-minute protocol: five steps (10:30) What to do before your next hard conversation Questions this episode answers Does visualization actually work for leaders? Yes — but not the way it's usually sold. Vividly imagining an action activates much of the same wiring as doing it, which is why rehearsal builds real composure. What doesn't work is only picturing success. That sets you up to come apart the moment reality goes off-script. How do I prepare for a difficult conversation with an employee? Put yourself in the actual room — the chair, the lighting, the time of day. Run it once from your own eyes to practice staying calm. Run it again watching yourself from outside to map where it could fork. Then decide in advance what you do if they interrupt, get emotional, or shut down. Walk in with three points, not ten. Why does my prep fall apart in the moment? Usually exhaustion. The part of your brain that keeps the threat response in check is state-dependent — it runs on sleep and recovery. Rehearse all you want; if you're depleted, the alarm wins. You can't out-technique exhaustion. Should I visualize first-person or third-person? Both, for different jobs. First-person — through your own eyes — is for regulating nerves and emotion. Third-person — watching yourself like game film — is for sequencing, spatial mapping, and strategy. Most people only ever use one. Go deeper: The full scripts and the high-stakes version of this — board meetings, negotiations, the conversations you can't afford to fumble — are on the newsletter. Free. jasonrigby.substack.com Not sure what's actually driving your reactions? Take the free 2-minute quiz: What's Running You? About the host: Jason Rigby is the host of The Self Aware Leader, a weekly show on the inner game of leadership for people tired of surface-level advice. Marine. Trader. Philosopher. Self-awareness is the only leadership skill that compounds. New episodes weekly. If this one landed, follow the show and leave a review — it's how other leaders find it.