Becoming aware of yourself allows you to build on your great strengths. And with an awareness of your weaknesses comes the ability to turn them around and use those weaknesses to your advantage.

Within minutes of getting to the hospital, the nurses and the doctors could see I was in serious distress and they acted quickly. They tried talking to me, but I couldn’t speak clearly. My mouth was dry and my teeth were clenching so hard. Within seconds, I was lying on the hospital bed with all these scary and weird looking machines around me, veraciously staring at me as if they were saying goodbye.

When I was a young professional a few years ago and struggling to get hired and achieve my career goals, I used to wonder why other young professionals in my industry seemed to have better control of their careers than I did.

I used to be a goal setting junkie for a very long, long time. I used to equate goal setting with success. Some would say I was addicted to setting goals. I lived under the impression that setting goals meant you have succeeded until I discovered this uncomfortable truth.

The biggest mistake you can make in your career and in your life as a young leader is to try and protect yourself from failure. If you want to become who you want to be, you must be willing to fail. If you want to get hired, you must be willing to get fired.

Are you feeling frustrated and stuck at work and with your team? It could be because you are too fixated on performance. You may be ignoring the learning and growth opportunities that are in front of you. The uncomfortable things in front of you might be what you actually need to get to the next level of your leadership.

Goal setting is a common prescription most young leaders use when they’re looking to perform at a higher level and grow their careers. There is nothing evil about that. I believe goal setting is how you become who you want to be. Using goals to unlock massive growth in your team seems like a noble thing to do.

I believe every young leader today needs personal coaching more than ever. For me, it was the fastest way to becoming who I wanted to be. Personal coaching helped me learn the most important skill every young leader needs to learn sooner rather than later – Authentic Leadership.