Imposter Syndrome

Sometimes I feel like an imposter in the business world. My experience comes from a classroom. And not a business school classroom — a middle school and high school classroom.

But here's the thing: teaching a rambunctious group of middle-schoolers and facilitating a room of high-powered executives isn't that different.

If you feel safe enough to be a little silly, it lowers your affective filter — the emotional wall that makes you butcher Spanish when you're sober but somehow become fluent after a couple of beers.

A man came up to me after my session at MO Summit and said: "I've done a million of these things and don't usually get much out of them. You are the most 'connecty' person I've ever worked with. That was awesome."

Twenty-five years of connecting adolescents to each other, to a foreign language, and to the edge of their comfort zones will do that. If I can keep seventh grade boys speaking only Spanish for an hour, a room full of CEOs is a piece of cake.