The Full Stack Leader

A thought experiment. No right or wrong answers.

What grounds you?

As you ride the currents of your day-to-day work — entering in and out of conversations with your team and with customers — or with your family and friends as your navigate your way through the world?

What’s the “surfboard” made of that you ride from wave to wave? The ups and downs.

What drives you?

For me, the surfboard is a perfect metaphor for describing the core value or the key ability that grounds me. What helps me stay consistent, open, and aware as I navigate my day and underlines my conversations and my relationships.

Another way of phrasing this is, “Coming from a place of _____ (fill in the blank) and then listening for the rough and smooth spots.”

Starting from that place, I’m open. Open to continue finding out what grounds me, drives me, and is the one thing that I fall back on as I navigate change.