Dave Schrader is a Senior Partner at Full Circle Group with over 30 years of experience in leadership development with some of the biggest companies in the world. With a PhD in Organisational Behavior, Dave is an expert at helping leaders make lasting changes by mastering the external and internal game of leadership. More importantly, he came highly recommended by several people in my circle including my dad, so of course I had to reach out and get him on the show!

Max Out Insights:

The Inner Game of leadership is about choosing our purpose and perspective and living from it every day in every interaction

Great leaders play to win through service and creativity. Bad leaders play not to lose to protect their ego

Setting intentions for how we want to show up changes our brains on a neurochemical level, which has been shown by science to be contagious. If we want to lift up other people`s emotions, we first need to lift our own

In the past, scientists thought that by the time he hit 20-25 years, our brains and personalities were matured and fixed. Now we know that`s not the case and that there`s several stages of adult development we can pass through if we choose to do the work:

Egocentric: The world exists to please me, and if it doesn`t, I`ll get angry

Socialized self: Instead of believing the world centers around us, in this stage we put ourselves in the natural boundaries of society to better fit in and be effective

Self-authoring stage: I write my own story now by declaring my values, goals, and interests, and then living by them unapologetically

Self-transforming self: We start to acknowledge all the dark and negative aspects to bring together light and darkness. We move from “me” to “we”

Unitive self: The sense of “self” disappears and we become one with the thing we are doing

Trauma, pain, and even nearing death can be a spark of growth and accelerate our pace of development

Reflection and quiet time are necessary for our 1000s of thoughts to settle into 100 and then 10 and then perhaps even into no thoughts

Just 2 minutes of mindful breathing can be a total gamechanger and create the space for creative ideas to come in

Forest bathing and getting out in nature goes a long way in helping us feel calm and relaxed

Coming from a place of “Learn how” rather than “Know how” allows us to gain new insights and become better

What are you willing to die for? To stand for? To live for?

Max Out Quotes:

“Most of us don`t know, but we won`t tell each other for fear of the ego embarrassment that it causes.”