Edited highlights of our full conversation.

Are you selfish?

Kerry Sulkowicz is the President of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 

He’s also a leadership advisor in his own right. It’s a role that requires the ability to look beyond the public-facing image that most leaders feel they need to present, so that we can see the person within.

Leaders often have a difficult time making themselves a priority.

It’s not hard to understand why, given the pressure that leaders face on an hour-by-hour basis.

There’s the pressure from above. Because, as Marc Pritchard, the CMO of P&G, said to me on an earlier episode, leadership is a weight-bearing position and demands that you help lift the people that work for you.

There’s the pressure from all the people in front of you, those in the many audiences you face, who expect you to show up as a thoughtful, confident leader - perhaps even as a thought leader.

And there’s the pressure from the people behind you, the board and the shareholders, who expect you to drive business performance forward, regardless of the circumstances.

And that’s without mentioning the pressure that you place on yourself. The pressure to succeed. To not fail. To overcome the imposter syndrome and the self-doubts.

In the middle of all that, it’s easy to convince yourself that it would be selfish to take care of yourself first.

Except, as Kerry explains, it’s not.

Taking care of yourself first is a requirement. A necessity if you are to become a leader capable not only of withstanding the pressure, but using it as a catalyst to drive the business upwards, into the future.

Only once you have taken care of yourself can you then, confidently and at scale, take care of everyone else.