Time to read: 7 minutes
What we are unpacking today:
Hi {{first_name | default: 'there'}}, have you ever broken a mirror?
You may remember, I wrote about Thorsten's (name changed) story of creating a mirror of himself earlier - how the loneliest leaders build teams that only agree with them. But there's another side to this story that shows something deeper about leadership.
Some months after Thorsten started bringing challenging voices into his team, something unexpected happened. The junior engineer who questioned his strategy left the company.
"I thought I was finally building the team I needed," Thorsten told me. "But now I think maybe II broke something that was working."
This is what happens when you break the mirror. You don't automatically get helpful disagreement.
Sometimes you get chaos.
Sometimes you lose people because things change in their lives..
Thorsten learned: Creating space for people to disagree is only half the work.
The other half is learning how to handle different opinions yourself.
For months, Thorsten was still reacting with his old habits.
The real change came when he realized he needed to hear feedback differently too. Not just asking for it.
"I had to learn to say 'You're right, I hadn't thought of that' instead of 'Yes, but here's why that won't work,'" he said.
The junior engineer leaving wasn't a failure. It was a road to a new system.
Thorsten's story made me also think about how we handle the discomfort of being wrong. How do you handle being wrong?
The Myth
"I'll get a coach once I've figured out my direction." I heard this from a department head recently. Again.
It reminded me of Thorsten's early resistance to outside help. Both come from the same wrong idea: that we can think our way to big insights all by ourselves.
I truly believe that what helps more is conversation, not contemplation. Here is my proof:
→ Take C., a head of product management who came to coaching feeling lost. She didn't have a clear development plan or specific goals mapped out. What she had was a sense that something fundamental needed to shift.
"What once felt like mountains, became clear, achievable paths," C. later reflected. Instead of waiting until she had perfect clarity about what she wanted to work on, she started with what she was feeling right then.
The breakthrough came not from having answers at the beginning, but from the coaching process itself. Through our sessions, C. discovered new perspectives and actionable insights.
→ Or consider B., a talent acquisition executive who began coaching without a detailed roadmap of what he wanted to achieve. He simply knew he needed support navigating some professional challenges. "From the very first session, I felt truly seen and heard," he shared.
The magic wasn't that B. arrived with perfect clarity about his direction. It was that the coaching process helped him recognize his intrinsic worth and unique strengths. "By the end of our sessions, I felt a renewed sense of purpose and direction," he said.
Read more of these thoughts on our homepage.
This is what I see again and again:
you start → you get clarity. You wait → you don’t.
What Do You Even Use An AI Coach For??
One of our early users did not have the time to wait for a human coach, so he tried CoachTĂĽnde.ai. Marcus (name changed) had been struggling with his professional story for years. His career looked like a mix of candies: finance controller, then project manager, then operations, now strategy.
"I couldn't figure out how to tell my story," he said. "Each job felt random. I was worried I looked unfocused."
Working with the AI coach, Marcus started to see connections he didn't spot before. She (the AI coach) helped him realize that his different job experiences wasn't a problem - it was his strength. He'd built a rare mix of financial knowledge, operational understanding, and strategic thinking.
Together with CoachTĂĽnde.ai, Marcus created a story that showed his diverse background as jumping board for complex leadership challenges. They even updated parts of his LinkedIn profile!
What impressed me was how fast it happened.
Within two focused sessions, he'd gone from uncertainty about his professional identity to confidence in his unique value. He didn't need to wait - the AI coaching process helped him find direction.
This coach is available for you - if you have at least one challenge, you want to discuss, try the free LIGHT version. Pop your name and email address here and you will get your access per email.
And let me know, how it went ;-)
Did you miss our last newsletters?
Inboxes can get a little crazy, right? Just in case you missed them, here are the links to our previous newsletters:
- Newsletter #16: I’m introducing my AI twin coach! How AI coaching can transform those 11 PM “stuck moments” into breakthroughs, and why the real magic comes when AI and human coaching work together.→ LINK HERE
- Newsletter #15: Why the best leaders become unnecessary, how OpenAI's GPT-5 changes everything (again), and the AI privacy settings nobody talks about. Practical insights inside. → LINK HERE
- Newsletter #14: I’m sharing how to make your return from vacation less overwhelming, why fitting into the wrong culture can erase who you are, and how AI storytelling tools can make work feel more human again. → LINK HERE
Thanks for reading. Just drop a quick reply if you have any feedback.
Wishing you a great weekend ahead.
Warm regards,
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