"I have always felt that I've needed to prove myself." That's Stephanie Unwin, who became the CEO of Veronica Beard this year after thirteen years as its president. Most of the leaders I coach feel the same way. They get the title or build the company, and a few weeks later they're already chasing the next thing. I did it too. I spent most of my career trying to show my parents, and then everyone else, that I was worth something, and I still catch myself doing it.

I see it in capable people who've spent a decade moving from one good job to the next, each taken in real hope it's finally the one that fits. For a while it is, and then the interest drains out of it again, and with it the fear that maybe the problem is you.