Permission to Speak Freely

Foreword

One Saturday at the kitchen table, one of my early leadership mentors sat down with me, and what he said changed me for good. I’d been having difficulties understanding why I kept getting into relational conflicts that seemed to go from bad to worse, from calm to chaos, and from what I saw as logic to what I and others experienced as shame. He had watched me work, he’d seen me in my most beloved relationships, he had witnessed me on the continuum from my best to my worst. I knew he loved me and cared for me, and as I look back on that time, I remember how fortified I was with regard to others. I wanted to ward off all circumstances in which someone might speak of my faults. When it came to my own weaknesses, I was a fortress. I let no ...