Leadership Insights
If I work harder, prepare more and stay in control the self doubt will go
Friday 8th May 2026
Mike Mullins
This is one of the most common assumptions I see in leaders in professional services firms.
But it doesn’t.
You’re successful. But internally, you’re running a quiet calculation:
“If I keep performing at this level, I’ll stay credible.”
And when you succeed? You don’t feel confident.
You feel relieved.
Here’s the pattern:
1. You feel stretched
2. You increase effort, or control
3. You succeed
4. You attribute success to hard work and self criticism, Which reinforces the belief:
“I need to keep doing this.”
This pattern is reinforced in professional services firms that reward:
• Client responsiveness
• Handling detailed analysis
• Going above and beyond
• Reliability
• Constant competition and comparison with peers
So, the behaviours that sustain self-doubt are often the same ones that drive progression. Over time, the cost shows up with you:
• Working harder than necessary
• Spending too much time in detail
• Under-delegating
• Having limited strategic impact
• Struggling to get out from under the shadow of partners.
And crucially you never build confidence in your judgement without over relying on hard work.
A practical experiment:
Choose one area this week where you tend to over deliver.
• Deliver at 80–90% of your usual standard
• Don’t add the final layer of finessing
• Observe what happens, notice how clients, peers, partners respond.
This is not about lowering standards. It’s about gathering evidence.
A second experiment:
Speak earlier in meetings. Share your thinking before it feels fully formed. Trust yourself. Notice the response of others.
Final thought:
At senior levels in professional services firms, progression depends less on how hard you work…
…and more on how well you think, decide, communicate, connect to others and lead through ambiguity.
If you’re noticing that your effort is out of proportion to what’s actually required, it can be helpful to explore that in a more structured way with a coach.
Often small changes can have a big impact.
Where might you be over delivering more than is actually required?