The Voice in Your Head at 5am

Episode 4: The voice in your head at 4amMost senior leaders have had a morning like this. You wake before the alarm. The voice is already running. It builds a case, sometimes a reasonable sounding one, for why you should pull back, hand something off, step away from the work you've been leading. By the time the sun is up, you've nearly made a decision that would have changed the trajectory of your career.In this episode of The Threshold, Amanda tells the story of one specific morning during her time as a senior leader at ANZ. She was leading a major piece of work and the 4am voice had been running for months. And what she learned from that morning, and the practices she developed in the months afterwards, are the ones she now draws on in her coaching work.Episode 4 includes:The story of one morning at ANZ that almost cost Amanda a project she'd been leading for six monthsThe three recurring themes the 4am voice runs on for most senior leaders (pressure, impact on people, am I doing the right thing)The neuroscience of why the voice activates in the early hours, and why its catastrophes feel so convincing at that timeThe three practices Amanda uses to work through it (naming what's happening, not acting before mid-morning, giving the brain something else to do and coming back to it later)Why vulnerability still gets read as the opposite of leadership, and what real leadership actually requiresA reflection prompt for leaders who's own 4am voice keeps returning to something specificThe Threshold is hosted by Amanda Ramplin, founder of EOS Coaching and a former senior leader at ANZ.Episodes drop fortnightly. Reflective. Honest. Unhurried.If this episode landed, the most helpful thing you can do is share it with one person you know who wakes too early with the voice running, who hasn't quite had language for what's happening. And if you have time, leave a review. Your review genuinely helps other leaders find this work.Find Amanda at eoscoaching.com.au or on LinkedIn at Amanda Ramplin.