🎥 Sunday Reset with Steven - 22 June 2025
Even Sheryl Sandberg.
Even Jonny Wilkinson.
Even Rick Rubin.

They’ve all said the same thing:
Sometimes… they crack.
Not because they’re weak - 
But because they care. Deeply.

And this week? I cracked too.
Not dramatically.
Just enough to remind me: Leadership isn’t a performance. It’s pressure.

🎥 This Sunday Reset is personal.

Yesterday 21 June was the Summer Solstice - the longest day of the year.
It also marked a quiet, meaningful milestone in my life.
And it made me reflect on something I turn to often:
The Stockdale Paradox.

“Never lose faith in the end of the story...
But confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.” - Admiral James Stockdale

“I had to face facts, not just dreams. But never let go of hope.” - Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Both men lived the same truth:
Real leadership lives in the tension between brutal reality and unwavering belief.

That’s it.
The core of real leadership.
Hope and truth. Together.

Jim Collins found it in every company that made the leap from Good to Great.
And I see it in every transformation I help lead eg with boards, with AI, with people.

Here’s what happened this week.

I lost composure in a discussion with someone - let’s say : robotically wired.
All logic. No empathy. No awareness of tone.

But after reflecting, I realised:
They weren’t being difficult.
They were being them. Through their lens.

That’s when Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map came to mind.

“What sounds rude in one culture sounds clear in another.”
This doesn’t just apply to nations.
It applies to teams. To boards. To every room you walk into.

ReLearn with me:

So here are 3 shifts I use when conversations feel like collisions:
1️⃣ Pre-frame curiosity.
Say: “Help me understand how you’re seeing this.”

2️⃣ Default to context.
Ask: “Is this delivery… or design?”
Culture isn’t personal - it’s patterned.

3️⃣ Don’t take a scalpel to a screwdriver job.
Where logic fails, use story.
Where bluntness cuts, translate, don’t retreat.

📌 Quote I’m sitting with this week:

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail…
with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality.” By Stockdale

My prompt for your week:

🧭 Where are you leading with only one lens- is it logic or emotion, performance or presence?
And what would happen if you held both?

This is your Sunday Reset.
I’m Steven.
Keep growing. Keep leading.
Until next Sunday.
Let’s get it! 

Steven PAUL, CDir FIoD – Reshaping boards and CEOs to lead decisively – with AI transformation and strategic corporate governance at the core.
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