There was a time that I believed leadership meant having all the answers. I assumed straight A's, technical expertise, and an iron grip on control made for stellar leadership. Then one day, while working with horse trainer Bruce Anderson, he delivered a truth that would shatter my carefully constructed worldview: "If you can't give over control to the rope, I'm not going to let you work with my horse." It was a weird sounding statement that exposed a profound flaw in my approach to not just horsemanship, but to leadership itself. What I thought was masterful control was actually getting in my way - and not just with horses, but in every aspect of my life where I was trying to lead. I detail the story of my frustration with the rope in my book Dancing the Tightrope. We were working on my "control issues", which at one time, I preferred to think of as stellar leadership skills. Stop for a minute and think about YOUR definition of leadership. What is the hallmark of a truly stellar leader? What would people who watch you in action say that your definition of leadership is? I would venture to guess that most of us would espouse a different definition of leadership than those around us actually experience. Bridging that gap between knowing something and actually being able to DO that something, especially under pressure, is where the growth lies. By the time Bruce and I were working on my control issues, I ...