237: Avoid Leadership Derailers and Common Traps of Living

In your role as a leader and in other areas of your life, what kinds of habits have prevented you from being as effective as you’d like to be? My guest Gregg Vanourek has studied and written about these leadership derailers and common traps of living, and we cover several of them in this conversation.

Gregg runs Gregg Vanourek LLC, a training and development firm, and teaches at the University of Denver and Stockholm Business School. He helps people with leadership, personal growth, and life design through his books, courses, workshops, speaking, and coaching.

Gregg has been an entrepreneur for most of his career. He was a tech startup executive at K12 Inc., which is now a market leader with $1 billion in sales. He also co-founded New Mountain Ventures, focused on developing entrepreneurial leaders.

Gregg is co-author of three influential books, including LIFE Entrepreneurs about infusing your life with passion and purpose, and Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations. He’s working on a new book about the common traps of living.

You can take the two assessments Gregg refers to in this interview, “Leadership Derailers” and “Traps Test,” for free on his website.

You’ll discover:

What Gregg considers the superpowers of leaders
Why both Head and Heart are necessary to lead effectively
The #1 leadership derailer that causes problems for leaders and their teams
The most common traps of living that prevent people from experiencing the success and happiness they desire
Specific suggestions for changing these into positive habits