Great hides in the shadow of good

Sitting next to my dear friend David last Sunday, looking out over White Bear Lake, something lost was returned to me.

It came over me like a wave.

My mojo.I found my mojo.

If you’ve been following along, you know that 2025 has been absolute garbage. My dad died. I took a role that turned out to be a bad move. My uncle died. Through all of it, I kept trying to write, to market, to coach, but everything fell flat.

Nothing new was coming out of me. I could barely say the word leadership without gagging. Every bit of business wisdom I preached felt off, even trite.

I joked with friends that maybe I was having a midlife crisis.

But I’m not. My husband is wonderful. My kids are doing well. I have great friends. I’ve just been slow to find my rhythm and shift back into work mode.

And then, this week, something started to move.

I coached a former co-worker through an unexpected job transition, and it felt good. I caught up with a former Vistage peer who lit me up. And then Dave, sitting on that bench beside me, said something that felt right: “I miss your writing,” he said.“I miss those lines that make me stop and think… maybe I’m not looking at this right.”

I told him I’ve been feeling too far away from the work to give anyone leadership advice. I’m definitely off the horse. But he said, “It’s not about being right. It’s about putting questions out there for your clients to ponder.”

He’s correct. A great coach doesn’t have the answers. They hold sacred space for people to think at a high level.

I’ll never be your expert. But I’ll be here, with you.

I think this is the inflection point that good coaches eventually face. When you realize you’re out of your depth (and you will get there because business, technology and vibes change.)

That’s when you stop consulting and start truly coaching people.

Coaching has always lived in the overlap of a messy little Venn diagram: part coach, part mentor, part consultant. Good coaches share knowledge and lean on consulting and mentoring.

Great coaches go deeper.

That’s the shift Dave reminded me of on that bench.

It’s uncomfortable coaching right now but because I am trying to be a good coach instead of a great one. Good coach me leans on expertise and structure. That version of me needed to be right and have answers.

Expertise requires rigidity and ego, and I just don’t have that anymore. Middle age, motherhood, and grief have softened me.

I’ve spent the last two months at arm’s length from my coaching practice. Now I see why. It’s been gestating, rebuilding and preparing.

It feels good to see the scaffolding of what’s next.

Great coaching.

When’s the last time you took a pause on your career to let something emerge? Where might good be getting the way of great for you?

~E