Latest news with #highachievers
Associated Press
17 hours ago
- Health
- Associated Press
Dr. Cheryl Jack Nominated for Major Leadership Award as She Names the Silent Epidemic of 'Nulling Out'
Veblen Directors honours Dr Jack's groundbreaking work identifying and solving the crisis of high-functioning emptiness gutting our most accomplished leaders. 'Burnout is a crisis of energy. Nulling out is a crisis of the self.'— Dr. Cheryl Jack LANSING, MI, UNITED STATES, July 28, 2025 / / -- Cheryl Jack, MD, a physician with over forty years of experience in the human condition, has been nominated for the prestigious 2025 Veblen Directors Programme Leadership Award. The nomination recognizes her pioneering work in defining 'nulling out"—a silent, insidious epidemic she identifies as the true crisis facing today's high-achievers. 'There is a crisis happening in plain sight, and it isn't burnout,' says Dr. Jack. 'Burnout is a crisis of energy. Nulling out is a crisis of the self. It's the erasure of the person you are, leaving behind only a high-functioning machine. It's the reason a leader can hit every target, exceed every expectation, and feel absolutely nothing.' Dr. Jack argues that for decades, we have been using the wrong language for this condition, leading to ineffective solutions. The consequences of this misdiagnosis are catastrophic, as the internal emptiness of 'nulling out' often leads to destructive acts—shattered marriages, reckless financial decisions, and professional self-sabotage—in a desperate attempt to feel something real again. In her forthcoming book, 'Nulling Out: How High Achievers Lose Themselves in Success (And How to Find Your Way Back),' Dr. Jack provides the first-ever framework for understanding and reversing this process. The book details her proprietary, integrative approach: a radical act of reclamation without destruction, guiding leaders to reconnect with their internal fire without having to burn down the lives they've painstakingly built. 'The tragedy isn't that these men are suffering,' Dr. Jack states. 'It's that they've been conditioned to believe their emptiness is the inevitable price of success. My work proves they're wrong.' The Veblen Directors Programme recognized Dr. Jack's work as a critical, timely, and necessary contribution to the future of sustainable leadership. Her focus on reintegrating the authentic self with the competent professional addresses a core challenge facing every modern organization. About Dr. Cheryl Jack: Dr. Jack is a physician, author, and the pioneering thought leader on 'nulling out.' Her 40- year journey has taken her from the ER to the boardroom, giving her a unique vantage point on the human condition. Her book, 'Nulling Out,' is the culmination of her life's work. Learn more at Megan Stow Prominence Global +61 412766649 email us here Visit us on social media: LinkedIn Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Forbes
17-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Cost Of Real Alignment: Why Letting Go Is The Leadership Skill We Don't Talk About
Alignment sounds beautiful. Until it asks you to let something go. And not something toxic. Not a mistake or an outdated belief. But something you love. Something you've invested in. Something you've been told you should want. Something that once served you well. That's the inconvenient truth about real congruence: it requires sacrifice. And for high-achieving leaders who pride themselves on clarity, strategy, and success, that truth can be hard to face - let alone act on. Alignment sounds beautiful. Until it asks you to let something Isn't About Saying Yes. It's About Enlightened No's. In our culture of optimization and overload, alignment gets talked about like it's a state of flow or a productivity hack. But real alignment is a filter. And like any filter worth using, it's defined not by what it lets in, but by what it keeps out. A value isn't a value if it costs you nothing. A priority isn't a priority if everything gets in line. And alignment isn't alignment if it doesn't require you to say no. No to the good-for-someone-else opportunity. No to the shiny object. No to the identity that no longer fits. Because when you're truly aligned, you stop chasing what works in general—and start choosing what works for Grief of Letting Go Several years ago, I made a decision that changed everything. I closed the company I had built and led for a decade. It wasn't a failed startup. We had impact, recognition, paying clients, and investor support. The programs were timely. The approach was bold. I was invited to founder meetups, B Corp gatherings, and CEO fellowships. I was in it, and it was in me. But here's the part I hadn't been honest about: I was great at parts of it, but exhausted by others. I loved the mission. I loved our clients. But the operational realities of being a CEO (managing team dynamics, financial modeling, board meetings, budgeting) weren't aligned with my actual gifts, energy, or lifestyle. Being a CEO wasn't my highest and best use. I had spent so long proving I could do it that I hadn't ... More stopped to ask if I naming that misalignment took years. I had spent so long proving I could do it that I hadn't stopped to ask if I should. And when I finally did, the truth was humbling: Being a CEO wasn't my highest and best use. It wasn't my fullest expression of leadership. It wasn't mine anymore, if it ever had Took Time (And Grief) From the first whisper of that insight to the day I closed the company, nearly two years passed. Not because I was indecisive, but because letting go of an identity that once fit is grieving. There's no offboarding form for that. No standard operating procedure for unraveling your own narrative. Even after the logistics were complete - contracts ended, bank accounts closed, team notified - I had to sit with the discomfort of absence. The absence of a title. Of a rhythm. Of a familiar story I'd been telling about who I was and why I mattered. But grief turned into mourning. Mourning made space for reflection. And reflection became growth. Recognizing the grief of letting go of my company allowed for growth to New Alignment? It Feels Like Breathing. Today, I'm more aligned than ever. I'm not managing a team. I'm not updating investor decks. I'm not pretending that financial projections energize me. Instead, I'm writing, speaking, coaching leaders, and facilitating equine-assisted leadership work that pulls wisdom not from spreadsheets, but from nature. I'm in the saddle a few times a week - not as a luxuriant hobby, but because it keeps me grounded, present, and creative. At first, I told myself that wasn't 'real' work. Now I know it's the most real thing I do. Because the insights I gain in those quiet, wordless spaces - the insights I then metabolize and bring into keynotes, client sessions, and research - are what help other leaders become more human, more effective, and more whole. That's my true alignment. That's my Missing 1%.Discomfort Isn't Always a Red Flag. Sometimes, It's a Door. Here's what I've learned, and what I share with every leader I coach: You can't make that distinction unless you slow down enough to feel the difference. That's why body awareness matters. That's why I teach leaders to tune into their physical intuition, not just performance data or quarterly OKRs. Because the body often knows before the brain admits Is a Luxury, and a Responsibility Let's be clear: not everyone can afford to walk away from a role or rewrite their career narrative. That's real. But many senior leaders can. And don't. They stay out of habit. Out of identity. Out of loyalty to a version of themselves that no longer exists. And that quiet dissonance? It's costly. Because energy spent on misaligned tasks isn't neutral. It drains. It distracts. It diminishes. If you're in a position of power, leadership, or privilege, then you owe it to yourself (and your team) to lead from your most congruent This: The One-Thing Filter If this resonates, start simple. Ask yourself: Maybe it's a client whose values don't align with yours. A meeting you dread that could be delegated or dropped. A leadership responsibility you've outgrown. You don't have to burn it all down. But you do have to clear space. Because if your alignment doesn't cost you anything, it's probably not real. And if your leadership isn't filtered, it's probably not Yours to Keep - and What's Yours to Release? Congruent leadership isn't a buzzword. It's an act of courage. It means telling the truth about who you are now, not just who you've been. It means sacrificing what's 'almost right' to make room for what's actually aligned. And it means trusting that the space you clear will be filled, not with noise or pressure, but with presence. So: Curious where your leadership might be delivering diminishing returns? This 3-minute diagnostic reveals simple shifts that can unlock deeper fulfillment—without doing more. Trust that the space you clear will be filled, not with noise or pressure, but with presence.
Fast Company
11-07-2025
- General
- Fast Company
The edge of uncertainty: What leaders miss when they move too fast
It is easy to presume the responsibility of leadership is clarity, direction, vision… and yet, sometimes the greatest 'challenge' we face as leaders is our capacity to sit in and be with all that is uncertain. But what if uncertainty isn't the problem? What if the defining edge, the real opportunity for transformation, is in our capacity to stay still and present in the space between? For many high achievers, this hits differently. Everything looks perfect on paper—the team, the metrics, the trajectory. Yet something feels off. That baseline energy that used to fuel you? Gone. Success feels increasingly flat, even as you check every box. Uncertainty lives in the in-between. It's that stretch where we've let go of the familiar but haven't yet found footing in the new. It's liminality the moment after the leap and before the landing. It's the part where we don't know, can't control and can't force our way forward with logic or brute force. It can be deeply disconcerting, and yet, as leaders, this space is where our deepest evolution begins. Too often, we believe that the work of leading is about decision-making: make the call, take the step, move forward. And that's often a clever disguise for something deeper. Our bias toward action can be our greatest defense, not always because it's right, but because it's easier. And all too often, this is unconscious. Movement gives us the illusion of progress. Busyness helps mask the discomfort of not knowing. Subscribe to the Daily newsletter. Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters This drive forward, towards doing, is often disguised as self-advocacy or agency. And sometimes, it's our own inner resistance to be still. Activation masks avoidance: Intense activity, bordering on hyperactivity, is not always agency; it's avoidance. Doing, stress-related, addicted to stress. We crave clarity, certainty, and a path to follow. We crave fewer options because too many degrees of freedom can be terrifying. And so, we contract. We make quick decisions. We force an answer rather than waiting for the truth to emerge. Recently, I had a work stretch that pushed me to confront this head-on. In the lead-up to a high-stakes book launch, I hired a collaborator, a deeply intuitive, highly recommended expert. We had two meaningful conversations, and I knew we needed to work together. I hadn't seen a single portfolio item. I had no clear work plan. And yet, something in me said yes. This partnership disrupted my usual way of working. I didn't want another round of busyness or frantic marketing sprints. I wanted aligned, strategic clarity. I wanted to reposition not just the book, but myself. To work with him, I had to bring forward old scar tissue from past collaborations—share the bruises and the hopes, the mistakes and the vision. There was vulnerability and transparency unlike anything I'd experienced in prior engagements. Our mutual connection, someone I trust deeply, acted as a guide and grounding force. He read my transcripts, explored two decades of my work, and surfaced patterns I had never seen myself. But here's what caught me off guard: I didn't anticipate how uncomfortable it would be to slow down. To step into and sit in the uncertainty. Once I stepped away from the old, activated (hyperactive!) way of being—but hadn't yet landed in the new—I found myself stuck in the messy middle. It was deeply disorienting. I was no longer doing what I knew, but I wasn't yet sure what would replace it. I was immersed in uncertainty. And I realized just how conditioned I had become to equate movement with progress. We laughed, because of course, I was living exactly what I ask of my clients: to surrender, to slow down, to sit in discomfort and not rush through it. In preparing to launch the book, I had to walk the path. I was embodying the message: Let go. Sit with it. Wait. Breathe. Trust. The irony wasn't lost on me. As a business psychologist, I've spent decades helping leaders navigate this exact territory. I have frameworks, tools, and methodologies that create real shifts—the Altitude work, the Priority Maps, the strategic planning instruments. What I've learned: tools only work when we've done the deeper work first. When we've learned to embrace the both/and of being successful and struggling, achieving and uncertain, leading and learning. The problem isn't uncertainty itself. The problem is waiting for uncertainty to go away before we act. What if we could hold both the not-knowing and the moving forward? What if presence and progress weren't opposites, but partners? What emerged from my own messy middle was unexpected: a systematic approach born from surrender. By sitting in the discomfort long enough, patterns revealed themselves. A unique positioning crystallized. The very uncertainty I'd been avoiding became the crucible for clarity, the kind that rises when you stop pushing. advertisement So here's what I'm still learning—and perhaps what you need to hear too: • Uncertainty isn't a problem to solve. It's a space to occupy with grace. • Slowness isn't weakness. It's where wisdom has space to speak. • Not knowing isn't failing. It's the gateway to deeper alignment. • The transformation happens in the tension—in holding the 'both/and' of stillness and action, uncertainty and clarity, being and doing. If you're in the in-between right now, don't run. Don't numb. Don't busy yourself with low-leverage motion. The fear beneath all that activation? It's often this: 'What if I'm not there for the moments that matter most?' But rushing guarantees you'll miss them. Presence ensures you won't. Instead, ask yourself: • Can I be still long enough to hear what wants to emerge? • Can I trust without evidence? • Can I let this moment refine me rather than define me? • Can I act from this place of not-knowing, rather than waiting for false certainty? The edge isn't in the action. The edge is in the presence. What awaits on the other side isn't just new strategies or better outcomes. It's you—changed. The same tools, the same challenges, the same opportunities. That's what it means to live and lead real.
The National
06-07-2025
- General
- The National
High achievers in UAE praised for stellar IB performance
UAE pupils have secured outstanding scores placing them among the International Baccalaureate global high achievers. Top pupils from schools around the UAE earned scores well over 40 points in the International Baccalaureate exams reaching exceptional academic success. The pupils will now head out to prestigious universities after the IB exam results were announced this weekend. Several star pupils including at least three from Gems Modern Academy and two from Dubai International Academy Emirates Hills hit the maximum score of 45 and were celebrated by their friends and family for an achievement earned by less than 0.5 per cent candidates worldwide. Satvik Gupta, among the Gems Modern Academy pupils to score a perfect 45, said he learnt to handle stress over the past two years of intense studying and has gained skills that will support him through college. 'As I go on to study electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon, I hope to enhance the skills I learnt and apply them towards meaningful projects and experiences,' said the Dubai pupil who benefitted from adhering to discipline and time management. His classmate Aanya Khandelwal, who also got a perfect score, will study international law in a New York college. ' The IB experience was both challenging and fascinating,' she said. 'It helped me grow and push boundaries. Moving forward, I'll be studying in New York city with my eyes set on law school to study human rights and international law.' The Gems Education group said pupils from seven schools in the UAE who took the IB diploma exams this year secured an average point score of 34 and a pass rate of 95 per cent that exceeded the global average last year of 30 points and 80 per cent. Support from teachers Alia Abdel Hamid, from Dubai International Academy Emirates Hills, said she owed her perfect score of 45 in the IB exams to the 'incredible support' and commitment of her teachers and the school community. 'The commitment of my teachers and the broader school community created an environment where I could truly thrive,' she said in an Instagram post. 'I'm proud of what we've achieved together.' Melis Yilmaz, also from Dubai International Academy Emirates Hills, was overjoyed with her perfect score and said her school journey had been transformative. 'The demanding academic environment, combined with unwavering support, has fostered both intellectual and personal growth,' she said. 'The strong sense of community and the constant encouragement to think critically and embrace a global perspective have equipped me for the future in ways I could never have imagined.' The UAE IB Association congratulated all pupils who completed the IB programme. 'We commend the extraordinary dedication of every student, especially those who achieved the maximum 45 points, a truly remarkable accomplishment reached by only a small percentage of IB graduates worldwide. Their success is a testament to the rigorous academic discipline and holistic development fostered by the IB,' said Richard Drew, chair of the UAE IB Association. 'Equally, we celebrate the achievements of all students who have earned access to universities and pathways of their choice, whether in the UAE or abroad. Each journey is unique, and every outcome is the result of months, and often years of hard work, perseverance and curiosity.' He said the support of families, teachers and school communities had empowered the young pupils to thrive, adding that their commitment 'continues to shape the UAE's future as a hub for educational excellence and international-minded leadership'. Confidence instilled UAE school operator Taalem celebrated the exceptional performance of pupils with schools across the group achieving 100 per cent pass rates. Officials said pupils scored high scores and had obtained offers from leading universities in the US, UK, Europe and the UAE. 'School leaders have praised this year's graduates as thoughtful, well-rounded individuals, ready to thrive in a complex, global society,' said Nicki Williams, director of education Taaleem. 'These results are a testament to the determination of Taaleem's learners, the dedication of their teachers, and the unwavering support of their families. Across the group, the Class of 2025 has set a new benchmark for excellence and leaves inspired to make a positive impact in the world.' Heads of education said they were proud of the pupils and praised teachers for the conviction they had instilled in the teenagers that would see them through higher studies and their chosen career paths. 'Our students have once again shown what's possible with ambition, perseverance, and the right support,' said Lisa Crausbym group chief education officer at Gems Education. 'These outstanding results reflect their tireless effort and the dedication of our world-class educators. As our students take the next steps into higher education and beyond, they carry with them the confidence and capability to lead, to innovate, and to shape a better world.' Repton Dubai said 87 per cent of their pupils scored above the global average of 30 points with an average score of 35 points and their top pupils had earned spots in their first university of choice. ' These results reflect not only academic rigour but also the resilience, creativity and critical thinking our students embody,' said Michael Bloy, principal of Repton Dubai School. 'I congratulate every graduate and thank our dedicated staff and supportive families who have guided them on this journey.'
Fast Company
25-06-2025
- General
- Fast Company
The value of ‘almost.' Why near misses can make or break you
Whether we like it or not, we live in a world that is ruthlessly optimized to reward results. Nonetheless, failure is a part of everyone's life—and an essential part of achievement in fields ranging from sports to science. In fact, high achievers are those who fail more often —not less—than the average person. They take more risks, go outside their comfort zone, set more challenging goals, and engage more frequently and vigorously in improving their performance—and this is how they succeed. You can't lose if you never play—you also can't win. Runner-up But what about coming in second? Is there value to the 'near miss'—to being so close to a win, but falling short? In education, being salutatorian is impressive. But it still means you miss out on the valedictory speech and its attendant scholarship. A high spot on the university waitig list rarely becomes an enrollment offer. In careers, the runner-up performer might earn a congratulatory email but not the promotion or hefty salary increase; the second-best job interview candidate gets little consolation from knowing they almost received a job offer but are still unemployed. Salespeople who hit 99% of their quota still forfeit the Hawaiian-vacation incentive and bonus. In research, the lab that publishes second loses the patent, the grant, and the headlines. And if you are the runner-up in a presidential election, there's at best a slim chance you can run again in the future, and your popularity may actually decrease after losing (in politics, this loser effect leads to a dip in confidence from voters, and there's often no time for a second chance). Near misses as opportunity And yet, near misses are not as disastrous as the above thought experiments suggest. Indeed, finishing a hair's breadth behind the winner still means you've outperformed almost everyone else—be they hundreds of classmates, thousands of job applicants, or an entire electorate. Moreover, the person who edges you out isn't necessarily better on merit alone —factors like political currents, privilege, or just plain luck can tip the scales. Perhaps most importantly, coming up just short can serve as a springboard for growth, offering the chance to learn, adapt, and come back stronger—provided you choose to seize it. Here's why: Lessons learned First, while everyone prefers success to failure, it is often easier to learn from failure than from success. Success tells you that you are great; it is the socially accepted way to provide you with positive feedback on your talents, reinforcing your self-belief, and inflating your ego. While this sounds great—and without much in the way of downside—success is also likely to generate complacency, overconfidence, and arrogance (it's much easier to stay humble in defeat). Conversely, failures are opportunities to learn, especially when you see them as learning experiments that provide you with critical feedback on your skills, choices, and behaviors. As Niels Bohr wisely noted, 'An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.' In short, a near miss can act as an inherently, if brutally honest audit of your assumptions and strategies—uncovering blind spots that success tends to conceal. By forcing you—or at least inviting you—to diagnose exactly why you fell short, a near miss suggests you refine your mental models; rethink and tweak your tactics; and build new, better tested, decision-making muscles. Failing enthusiastically Second, failure increases the gap between your aspirational self (who you want to be) and your actual self (who you are, at least from a reputational standpoint). This uncomfortable psychological gap is only reduced through hard work, grit, and persistence, which together strengthen your chances of succeeding in the future. At the very least, they help you become a better version of yourself, even if you don't succeed in achieving a sought-after prize or goal. As Winston Churchill famously noted, 'Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.' Importantly, near misses can be a powerful form of failure precisely because they hurt the most. Being so close to a success can reaffirm your determination and reignite your ambition. Every extraordinary achiever (across fields) differs from others in one important way: they are less likely to be satisfied with their achievements. Indeed, the most common reason people fail to learn from failure is that they are too wounded or hurt by their lack of success, to the point that it extinguishes their drive. In contrast, extraordinary achievers will not give up or let go—even when their failures are hard to digest. This ambitious mindset helps them seek to understand the factors leading to their near misses without getting deflated or depressed by them. Instead, it makes them even hungrier for victory, resilient, and focused on bouncing back stronger. Emotionally resilient Third, the way you respond to any form of defeat or failure, and especially the painful near misses, sends a powerful signal to everyone around you—investors, bosses, or teammates—that you're emotionally mature, resilient, and coachable. Humans have a general tendency to attribute their successes to their own talents and merit, while blaming others, or situations, for their failures and misses. Avoiding this tendency makes you an exception to the norm. This will be noticed and will impress others. While resilience is largely a function of your personality (the more emotionally stable, extroverted, curious, agreeable, and especially conscientious you are, the more resilience you will show), we can all work to increase our resilience if we truly care about achieving our end goal, by becoming grittier and harnessing whatever mental toughness we have. When you dissect a near miss with curiosity and humility, you demonstrate a growth mindset that invites collaboration and sparks confidence in your potential. Visible resilience often earns more credibility (and resources) than a flawless run, because it shows you're willing to learn in public. Over time, people who witness your thoughtful rebound become your strongest advocates, eager to back the next iteration of your vision. Life, despite how it feels in disappointing moments, is not a final exam but a continuous assessment; what matters most is not brilliant one-off successes but reliable, steady, determined excellence. As Aristotle pointed out, 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.' Greater legacies To be sure, there's no shortage of prominent historical figures who confirm how near misses and other kinds of failures in their early career stages were poor indicators of their actual talent and potential but instead unfortunate or unlucky episodes, uncharacteristic of their brilliance. Consider Roger Federer: after six runner-up finishes on tour, he finally lifted Wimbledon's trophy in 2003 and would go on to amass 20 Grand Slam titles. The Netherlands of 1974, whose Total Football lost the final, rewrote soccer's playbook. J.K. Rowling, turned down by 12 publishers, went on to sell over 600 million Harry Potter copies. Barbara McClintock, whose 'jumping genes' work was ignored for decades, earned a 1983 Nobel Prize for the discovery. Meryl Streep, whose first Oscar nod in 1979 went unrewarded, has since racked up 21 nominations and 3 wins. The Beatles were rejected by Decca as 'yesterday's sound' before selling some 1.6 billion records. And Alibaba, once dwarfed by eBay in China, now serves over a billion annual active consumers. Each of these (and many other) examples provide evidence that near misses can herald even greater legacies. Ultimately, the sting of 'almost' is less a verdict on your potential than an invitation to hone it. Near misses aren't life sentences—they're signposts pointing to gaps in your strategy, fuel for your ambition, and a live demonstration of your character to the world. While it is tempting to ruminate about what could have or should have happened, the truth is we never know. We all indulge in counterfactual fantasies—those 'what if' spirals where we picture an alternate universe in which we married someone else, took the other job, or moved to that city. Psychologists call them sliding doors moments: innocuous-seeming forks in the road that, in hindsight, feel like cosmic turning points. But while it's human to ruminate, it's wiser to remember that we're not omniscient authors of our own lives. The illusion of total control is just that—an illusion. More often than not, the best way to recover from regret or disappointment is not by obsessing over the road not taken, but by taking a different road. Que será, será. Life is less about scripting your destiny than adapting to its plot twists. In other words, how you react to failure matters, but failure is too brutal and negative a word for simply not getting what you think you preferred or wanted, especially when it may not even be what you actually needed or ought to have preferred. When we embrace each narrow defeat as data, not destiny, we are able to build the very habits and resilience that turn 'almost' into subsequent undeniable success. As the saying goes, experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. We add that experience can be more valuable than the objective success of getting what you wanted. In fact, enjoyment of objectives successes including of awards and victories, tends to be more short-lived than we expect. We need not define ourselves by our past and present achievements. Who we are also comprises our future self, including our possible selves—the parts of our character and identity that are actually the only ones we can influence.
