Leadership Fitness in 5 Minutes with Gary Slyman

Podcast Show Notes: Why Great Leaders Ask for Help

Many leaders carry the belief that asking for help is a weakness—but that mindset may actually be limiting their growth and effectiveness. In this episode, we unpack why leaders often resist asking for help and how shifting that perspective can strengthen both leadership and team culture.

Key Discussion Points:

• Why some leaders believe they should "have it all together"
• The misconception that asking for help shows weakness
• How self-awareness and humility actually build credibility
• Why your team expects collaboration—not perfection
• The danger of disconnecting from your team's expertise
• How vulnerability strengthens trust and relationships
• The leadership benefits of asking for help:
  • Better information
  • Stronger decision-making
  • More engaged teams
  • Time savings and efficiency

Key Takeaway:

Great leaders don't lead alone. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness—it's a sign of wisdom, trust, and emotional intelligence. The strongest teams are built when leaders create space for others to contribute their expertise and strengths.

Remember that one leader who made an impact on you? What if you could do the same for those you lead?

So where are you on your leadership journey this year?

You already know what good leadership looks and feels like. The question is—are you living it?

Take a moment to evaluate:

1. Your ideal self What's your vision? What impact do you want to make—and by when?

2. Your real self Where are you today? Give yourself an honest score.

3. Your actions What's the one area that, if improved, would elevate everything else?

Pick it. Make it a behavior change. Define the impact. Decide how you'll measure it. Then evaluate it consistently.

Leadership growth isn't about doing everything— it's about doing the right thing, intentionally.

Been a frustrating year? Not progressing the way you expected? It might not be your environment… it might be you. In this week's video, I pulled a few insights from Leadership Unblocked by Muriel Wilkins and focused on 7 ways we unintentionally get in our own way:

"I need to be involved in everything."

"I need it now—everything is a priority."

"I'm always right."

"No defects—no mistakes allowed."

"If I can do it, you can do it."

"I can't say no."

"I don't belong here."

If any of those hit a little too close to home—you're not alone.

But here's the key:

👉 These aren't personality traits. They're mindsets.

👉 And mindsets can be reframed.

Challenge for the week: Take 10 minutes and do a quick leadership inventory. Where are you getting in your own way? What belief is driving that behavior? How can you reframe it? Growth doesn't always come from doing more. Sometimes it comes from getting out of your own way

Sometimes the biggest barrier to our growth as leaders… is ourselves.

So how do you know if you're the problem?

The reality is—you're getting signals all the time. You just have to pay attention.

A simple framework to identify it:

1. Anxiety Where do you feel it? Certain people, meetings, or situations? Anxiety is often a signal that something deeper is off.

2. Actions How do you respond in those moments? Do you control more, avoid, rush decisions, or shut down?

3. Reflections & Reactions Afterward, what do you think and feel? Do you justify your behavior, second-guess yourself, or feel frustrated with others?

The key questions:

• Where am I anxious?
• What actions do I take in those moments?
• How do I reflect and react afterward?

Awareness is the starting point. Once you can identify the pattern, you can begin to change it.

"What If You're the Bottleneck?"

Feeling frustrated at work? Before blaming external factors, take a hard look in the mirror—you might be part of the problem.

Start by identifying where the frustration is showing up. Where are you not making the impact you expect?

Then break it down:

Emotions: Name exactly what you're feeling—be specific. Frustration, resentment, impatience?

Perspective of Others: How are people actually experiencing your leadership? Not how you think—how they feel working with you.

Time & Triggers: When does this show up? Pinpoint the exact situations or interactions that spark it.

Growth starts with awareness. The more precise you are, the faster you can adjust—and lead better.

You've been in the role for a couple of months. You thought you'd feel confident by now—but you don't. That nagging feeling? It's imposter syndrome, and it's holding you back more than you realize.

At its core, imposter syndrome isn't just a feeling—it's a mindset that drives behaviors that limit your leadership growth.

To overcome it, focus on three areas:

• Define Your Role: Get crystal clear on what success looks like. What are you actually responsible for?
• Own It: Stop waiting for permission. You were put in the role for a reason—start leading like it.
• Make Adjustments: You won't get everything right. Learn, adapt, and keep moving forward.

As Muriel Wilkins emphasizes in Leadership Unblocked, leadership isn't about eliminating doubt—it's about working through it.

So ask yourself: What mindset are you operating with—and is it helping or holding you back?

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Score Your Leadership

Podcast Notes: At the end of each week, give yourself a leadership score from 1–10. 1 means it wasn't your best week. 10 means you showed up as the leader you want to be.

That score usually comes down to one or two specific moments that shaped how you felt about your leadership.

To learn from those moments, focus on three concepts:

• Reflection – This is where the real learning happens. Take time daily to think about your actions and decisions.

• Defining Moments – Small moments happen every day that trigger a reaction or require a leadership decision.

• Trajectory – In those moments, did your response move your leadership in a positive direction or a negative one?

Reflection Questions:

• What was my leadership score today?

• What was the defining moment?

• Did my response move my leadership trajectory forward or backward?

Preparing for Your Next Performance Review

Imagine walking out of your annual review feeling confident—like you received the exact feedback you needed and have complete clarity on where you're going and what to do next.

That outcome doesn't happen by accident. You can prepare for it.

How to take control of your next performance review:

1. Identify your top two areas for feedback Choose the two areas where you most want honest input and growth.

2. Build your own self-assessment Evaluate your performance in those areas and define what "excellent" or "perfect" performance would look like.

3. Define success with measurable metrics Have a conversation with your evaluator about what great actually looks like—and translate that into clear, measurable metrics. Agree on how progress will be measured so expectations are transparent and objective.

When you approach your review this way, it becomes a collaborative conversation about growth, not just an evaluation.

Final challenge: Ask yourself—where are you actually getting the feedback you need to grow? Spend some time this week figuring that out.

And if you lead a team, do the same exercise for them. Make sure your people are getting the feedback they need to improve, grow, and succeed.

The Sunday Night Test — Are You (or Your Team) Burning Out?

What does Sunday night feel like for you?

• A wave of negativity?

• Exhausted before Monday even starts?

• Cynical or detached?

• Feeling ineffective?

Those aren't just "bad moods." They're classic symptoms of burnout.

The Three Core Signs of Burnout:

1. Exhaustion – Physical, emotional, mental depletion

2. Negative Feelings – Cynicism, detachment, irritability

3. Lack of Efficacy – Feeling like what you do doesn't matter

The Causes (Leadership-Influenced):

Burnout isn't random. It's usually connected to:

• Workload – Too much, too long, without margin

• Control – Lack of autonomy or voice

• Meaning – Disconnect from purpose

• Recognition – Effort not acknowledged

Here's the hard truth: All of these are influenced by leadership.

If you're a leader, you have impact. If you're not the senior leader, you still have influence.

Action Steps:

• Identify which symptom is present.

• Diagnose which cause is driving it.

• Take one deliberate action to change the environment.

Now you know what burnout looks like. You know what causes it. You know where to start fixing it.

Evaluate yourself. Evaluate your team.

Don't ignore Sunday night.

History of George Washington's Birthday

• The official federal holiday is George Washington's Birthday — not "Presidents Day."

• George Washington was born on February 22, 1732.

• The U.S. began celebrating his birthday as a national holiday more than 80 years after his death.

• February 22 became a federal holiday in 1879.

• In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved several federal holidays to Mondays to create three-day weekends.

• Washington's Birthday was shifted to the third Monday in February — but the name remained the same.

So where did "Presidents Day" come from?

• After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, many states created holidays to honor him (February 12).

• Commercial interests and some members of Congress pushed to combine celebrations and market it as "Presidents Day."

• However, the federal government has never officially renamed the holiday.

Today, at the federal level, we celebrate George Washington's Birthday — even if many call it Presidents Day.