A client shared an entire leadership philosophy in one word a few months back.

FITFO.

Figure it the bleep out.

Not said with pride, just honesty. That’s what got modeled early on, so that’s what got passed down. And if I’m honest, most of us are probably running some version of FITFO without ever calling it that.

Dawn and I got into this on episode 72 of the podcast, and it opened up something bigger than expected.

Here’s the stat that kicked it off: by 2030, 10,000 people will retire every single day. And right now, only 30% of the workforce even wants to become a manager. Not CEO…a manager. The first rung.

That’s not an ambition problem. That’s a vacuum.

And here’s the reframe that stuck the most; courtesy of Dawn: the fix isn’t finding braver young leaders. Its current leaders becoming the type of leader once needed and never had.

Not performing it. Actually doing the work.

The episode also gets into why “imposter syndrome” might be the wrong diagnosis for a lot of what people are feeling and what it actually takes to make leadership feel worth stepping into again.

Curious to hear from this list on one thing:

Where did your leadership philosophy come from? Did someone actually teach how to lead or did the title just show up with an unspoken “figure it out” attached?

Hit reply and share. Every response gets read, and it’s genuinely interesting how many people are carrying around a FITFO philosophy that was never actually chosen.

Full episode linked below for the whole conversation.