The Journey of Self-aware Leadership with Gene Hammett, Founder Coach

In this episode, we discuss self-awareness in leadership and why it becomes important when old ways of leading no longer work. We talk about how founders can get stuck doing too much themselves and how that can affect alignment, focus, and team performance. We also look at the question of "Who am I being?" as a way to notice reactive or unfocused behaviors that may hold a leader back. We share a personal example from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to show how recognizing unhelpful traits can lead to more consistency, discipline, and intention, and we close by encouraging listeners to think about the kind of leader they need to become. Episode Highlights & Timestamps 0:11 Self-Awareness in Leadership 2:18 The Hero Complex Trap 4:07 Who Are You Being? 5:47 Lessons From Jiu Jitsu 7:58 Becoming a Better Leader What You'll Learn ✅Why self-awareness is essential for effective leadership and business growth. ✅How the habits that helped you succeed can eventually hold you back. ✅How the "hero complex" can keep founders too involved in the day-to-day. ✅The importance of asking, "Who am I being that is getting in the way of what I want?" ✅How to identify the qualities you need to develop to become the leader your company needs. Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at training.coreelevation.com and getfounderfreedom.com to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. 🌐 Explore More: training.coreelevation.com 🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: Growth Think Tank Podcast

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Today, we're going to talk about self-awareness. That may not be the strongest hook I've come up with, but when you're a leader, one thing I've noticed over and over again, it's very hard to be self-aware about what's holding you back. So today, we're going to unpack what that is and help you become a stronger leader, a more effective one, and one that can lead through the chaos. And more importantly, become the leader that your team needs. My name is Gene Hammett. I am a founder coach, CEO coach. We help all kinds of companies, mostly companies that are in the 30 to 50 employees range, help them become better leaders and help them create leadership at all levels of the company. So if your company is growing and you want to make sure that you are no longer the founder-dependent

• 0:43Speaker 00

  structure that has gotten you to where you are, then you want to download our latest book called Get Founder Freedom, absolutely free. Inside it, you will find the eight freedoms that will unlock that next level of growth and it will give you some insight on not only where you are, but what's next for you and how you build true freedom for your business. And I'm not talking about the freedom to go play golf on Tuesdays and the freedom to spend a month in Europe. You can do it that way, but it's also sometimes the freedom to create the business of your dreams or the freedom to create another business so you can build the empire that you want to. Or maybe it's just to create the freedom that allows you to sell your business down the road for maximum value. So all that can be downloaded for free for now at getfounderfreedom.com.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  So I opened up this whole podcast on self-awareness. When I think about that and I think about all the conversations I've had with my leaders, many of them are very successful. They're ambitious and they are driven in such a way. They have gotten there because of who they are, how they see things. And that works until it doesn't. I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about divorce and the frame around this was it dies slowly and then all at once. And what I've noticed with leaders is a very similar thing. It's slowly dying the way you used to lead and then it crashes in on you. Maybe not at the level of a divorce, but hopefully you get the analogy here.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  And so what we want to be able to do is be aware when it's slowly dying, when what you used to do and how you used to lead no longer works. Here's some examples to think about. When I have been working with clients, they have come to me and said, you know, I love when my team was much smaller and they were much more aligned with what we're doing. They were hungry and driven and now they're not so hungry. They're not so aligned and we can blame those employees. That's easy, but I ask them to step back and say, well, how do you show up to keep this moving the way you want it to? And usually the reality is they don't know what they need to do. They don't know who they need to be as a leader.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  And so I've talked to a lot of founders over the last 16 years of being an executive coach who get lost in the work, they get lost in the goals and the results and they forget that they're here to actually build a team. They forget that they are here to lead others. There's something called a hero complex that often comes up where leaders feel like they must carry the load of decision-making, of firefighting, of selling the next big deal, creating the next big innovation. And it feels good to be a valuable player in your business, but you need to be self-aware enough to realize that there has a limit to that. And if you want to create a small business where you're the hero, go for it. But many of the people that are in entrepreneurship and really trying to scale a business don't

• 3:39Speaker 00

  want to be tied to their business. They want to have the freedom to actually live and do other things. Maybe it's other businesses. Maybe it is retire someday. Maybe it is hand it down to the next succession plan that they have in mind. And I've worked with all different cases of that. I've had clients that have exited for millions of dollars. I've had clients that are building a legacy who never want to sell. And I've had clients who want to hand it down to their children, their successors. All that being said, in order for you to transform, you have to be willing to look back and be self-aware leader. Self-aware leadership requires you to ask yourself questions like, who am I being that gets in the way of what I want? Who am I being that keeps me from being the leader that I know I need to be?

• 4:24Speaker 00

  Who am I being is a very powerful question and you've got to be able to answer that. The answers you have should not be the good parts of your leadership. It's meant to highlight into the shadows what's really going on, putting a spotlight on the things like you're reactive, you're hot-headed, you're unfocused, frustrated, angry. I hear these all the time when I'm talking to my clients about what's really going on inside them. And I share this with you, when you know how to answer that question, who are you being? It can be a catalyst to showing up differently because the companion question that goes with this is who do you need to become to lead your company? Who do you need to become to receive the goal that you've set for yourself?

• 5:08Speaker 00

  Who do you need to become to be a hundred million dollar company? Now, those questions go together, but I focus on the self-awareness of who are you being? Because when you know what's holding you back, you have a much better chance to move forward. If you're listening to this show, chances are you're a founder who's built something significant, but you're still too deep in the day-to-day to see the path forward. That's exactly what the Founder Freedom Strategy call is for. It's free. It's 30 minutes with me personally and we'll pinpoint exactly what's keeping you stuck and what you need to do about it. Book your time with me at my personal URL, schedulewithgene.com. Now, back to the podcast. One of the examples I share with my clients, I'll share with you.

• 5:50Speaker 00

  I have been on a journey to improve my hobby. My hobby is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I have been doing this for 15 years on the mats, 20 years if you count it by the calendar, because I took off for some, for life hitting me hard for five years. And I came back to it and I've been in this for about five, for 10 years actually. And I got my black belt two years ago and many people think that's the goal. But what we hear in Jiu-Jitsu quite often is that's when the journey really begins because you find out who you are. And I didn't begin competing until about two, three years ago and I've only competed seven times and I've done pretty good. I know I can do better and I know I've got a long way to go to be the best I can be.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  And that's the reason I share this story with you because if I want to be better at something, I want to go to the world championship in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which is December this year, 2026, if you're listening to this, that's my plan. And if I really honest with you, I set this goal in January. I wasn't sure I could get there. In fact, my real intention was to show up and be healthy and be prepared. Now my intention is different because I know I can do more. And the self-awareness part of this is very important for you to understand. When I decided I wanted to get better, I had to look at myself and say, who am I being that keeps me from getting better? And when I was really honest, the words that came out of it in my reflection of myself

• 7:19Speaker 00

  was inconsistent, undisciplined, not intentional. That was who I was and I had to get real with that. And then as I set in the ugliness of those words, I decided in order for me to be better, I've got to change. It's very simple explanation for this. I needed to be consistent, disciplined and intentional if I wanted to really improve and to be a world champion. And so I share all of this with you because that's one way to use it. And you can turn these questions on to yourself. Who do you need to be to become the leader you want? And who are you being that keeps you from being the leader you want? You can change the questions to fit your world, but the point is being self-aware,

• 8:03Speaker 00

  being a self-aware leader allows you to look at the ugliness that's holding you back, the part that has a grip on you. A lot of the work I do with founders is really understanding these specific things. So I share this with you, knowing that it's just opening up a new opportunity for you to think about what's next for you. If I can help you in any way, if you need some more clarity beyond this, reach out to me. I'd love to hear from you. [email protected], that's my email. If for some reason it doesn't come through, keep trying because maybe it went to spam, maybe it went to promotions folder, but I'm happy to help you. And if you want to download our latest book, Get Founder Freedom, go to getfounderfreedom.com and you can do that. My hope for you is that you will be a self-aware leader and that you will use these questions

• 8:46Speaker 00

  and to look back on who you are and who you're being so that you can become a better leader, one that's more focused, one that's more proactive, one that's stoic, one that's more calm, whatever the words are for you. That's my hope. Well, when you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think tank. As always, leave a courage. We'll see you next time.