I have recently attended a session on Steve Kerr’s coaching philosophy - and that left me thinking about what real leadership looks like when you strip away the buzzwords and focus on what actually grows people. Guided by the brilliant teaching of Frances Frei , we explored Kerr’s “secret sauces” - and they’re anything but secret. They’re choices. Daily, deliberate choices. 🔹 A learning mindset Treating every moment as data. Staying curious. Staying humble. Staying open. Steve Kerr’s leadership begins with a simple truth: you can’t grow if you think you already know. He treats every practice, every conversation, every mistake as information , not judgment. That’s why his teams evolve faster - they’re not defending their egos; they’re refining their craft. A learning mindset means: Curiosity over certainty Questions over assumptions Exploration over defensiveness When leaders adopt this stance, teams stop hiding problems. They bring them forward. They experiment. The...
Every person who has achieved something meaningful - whether in business, leadership, or personal life - has one thing in common: they’ve learned to transform pain into progress. John C. Maxwell calls this The Law of Pain in his book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth , and it’s one of the most honest, empowering truths about human development. Pain doesn’t feel like a gift. But it is often the only thing strong enough to break our old patterns, force reflection, and push us into a new level of clarity. Pain as a Catalyst for Awareness Maxwell writes that “Good management of bad experiences leads to great growth.” The key phrase here is management . Pain alone doesn’t produce growth - reflection does . Psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s research on cognitive biases supports this. We tend to repeat behaviors that feel comfortable, even when they’re ineffective. Pain disrupts that autopilot. It forces us to stop, examine, and choose differently. In other words: Pain is often the only ...