I was this guy with a degree in English who thought he was gonna be a teacher. The last place in the world I ever saw myself was national leadership roles in fortune 500 companies. But there I was, and I looked around the table and a lot of times I couldn’t figure out what I was even doing there. I am Craig Anderson.
I’m the president of ClearPath Coaching and Consulting. And I am the accident and the leader. My story is the story of growth into that role. And that’s the story of all the people we’re going to be interviewing on the podcast. My goal with the accident and the leader podcast. Is to help people get through that period and not have to suffer through all the anxiety that I did.
If we can teach them some of the lessons of what others have learned that made them successful, and maybe they can get there faster with a lot less pain. The biggest leadership lesson I learned was really around imposter syndrome when I was working for a large national financial services firm without an MBA from an Ivy league school, like all the other people around the table.
I would sit there and not understand why I was there. And I was afraid of being found out and asked to leave because who the heck was this guy with the English degree? And what I learned though, was there was a value that I brought to that table. And there was a perspective I brought of our clients and of our customers and of the history of the industry that other people at that table didn’t have.
And once I learned. The value that I brought to the table, that imposter syndrome started to melt away. Unfortunately, for me, that was several years of struggle before I came to that. And I don’t want other people to struggle through that if they don’t have to. The people who want to listen to the accidental leader podcast are really those people who are struggling in that leadership role.
So often I find business owners who had a successful idea and it was great, but then they surrounded themselves with some helpers and then they had too many helpers and they had to get some other leaders sitting in between them. And before they look around, they, they were the person who got things done and now they have to get things done through other people and they don’t know how to do it.
And they struggle with that leadership. Is the weirdest thing in the world where you are surrounded by people all day long, but you will never feel as isolated and as alone when you are sitting in that chair and making decisions, when they all come down to you, the people who are gonna be on the accidental leader podcast are going to be people who sit in the C-suite today are business owners who are leading larger teams every day because of their success.
And we’re gonna have a conversation with them to understand what their first leadership role was like, what the key lessons were that they learned. And then move forward to their current leadership role and find out how they’ve applied those lessons and how that’s helped them be more successful and feel more confident in what they’re doing every day.
Leaders are not born. They grow into the roles, they evolve over time into leadership. And even if you’re struggling with it early on, it does not mean that you’re going to struggle with it throughout your entire career. And that’s what I think is so important. You have this myth of the board. And I don’t think that exists.
We all have to grow into that role and find that path. You will be able to find The Accidental Leader podcast on all your favorite podcasting platforms, launching in fall of 2022.