About this episode

Keith Wyche shares his journey of realizing that effective leadership goes beyond just achieving results.

Keith Wyche has had the kind of career that looks clean from the outside. Bell. IBM. Pitney Bowes. Grocery. Walmart. Board seats. Books. Big jobs. Big teams. The sort of resume that makes people assume there was always a plan and that the climb was smooth. It was not. Wyche told me something on Keep Going that I think a lot of ambitious people need to hear. Early in his career, he was getting results, but he was not getting promoted. He was young, talented, and frustrated. So he gave his boss an ultimatum. Promote me in three months, or I will promote myself. Three months later, he left. Then someone told him the truth. He was a bull in a china shop. He got results, but he abused his people. He fought with finance. He fought with other teams. It was all about him, his team, and winning. That stung. But it also changed him. Wyche realized that he had been copying the leadership models he had seen before him. Hard, military-style management. Beat your chest. Push harder. Win. He was younger than many of the people he led, so he overcompensated. He thought leadership meant force. It did not. That was the beginning of a different kind of career. He worked with an executive coach. He…

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