On the importance of blending humility with confidence.

David Novak: “Humility is just the recognition that you can’t do it by yourself.” IN his book, How Leaders Learn, Novak shares, in Chapter 14, “Stay Right-Sized” that the best leaders he has worked with had “an uncanny combination of confidence and humility.” That for leaders, confidence is “the expectation that you’ll find a way to win-somehow.”

Dr. Ali Parsa: I love what Dr. Parsa says on confidence: “My confidence doesn’t come from believing we have the answers. My confidence comes from believing we have the tenacity to search for the answers.”

Speaking of great questions, I love what Albert Einstein contributes to the idea of asking the questions to solve the big problems: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty-five minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.”

So where to look? Who to ask? Novak shares: every company is filled with experts. No matter the question, the answer is almost always in the building.” He also emphasizes learning from everyone involved in your work: the front-line workers, the warehouse team, the executives and the team member working the air fryer. The best ideas are usually in-house.

Enjoy and learn from winning. Analyze a win like you analyze a loss. Tom Brady shares, “I never go into a game where I don’t think I’m going to win. That “not a false confidence. It’s a real confidence.” He shares, “One of the best things you can learn from your own wins is not all that different from what you learn from crisis: that you can make it.”