ASKING FOR HELP ISN'T WEAKNESS
IT'S A LEADERSHIP STRENGTH
And one of the most overlooked and underused sources of resilience
Worked with
The Challenge
TOO MANY LEADERS BELIEVE THEY HAVE TO CARRY THE PRESSURE ALONE.
And don't realise this belief is part of the problem.
In a world of relentless change, increasing demands and growing complexity, high-performers tell themselves they should have all the answers, solve the problems and keep delivering.
The greater the pressure, the more likely they are to default to carrying the load themselves alone. And this self-reliance can become a liability.
8 in 10
CEOs experience loneliness at work. Research strongly links loneliness with poorer performance, higher burnout and ultimately leaders walking away.
$1.8bn
And when the pressure takes its toll, organisations pay the price: PwC reports a forced CEO departure costs an average $1.8 billion in shareholder value.
The belief that strong leaders should handle pressure alone puts both their own health and performance, and their organisation's, at risk.
Too many leaders are close to breaking point.
Until we change the belief that strength means carrying it all alone, the cost will continue to be paid in burnout, lost talent, poorer decisions and performance.
THE HIDDEN COST OF RELENTLESS HIGH PERFORMANCE
IS BECOMING TOO GREAT TO IGNORE.
The Different Idea
RESILIENCE ISN'T ONLY BUILT WITHIN US.
IT'S BUILT BETWEEN US.
We've been taught to think of resilience as an individual capacity: our ability to cope, adapt and keep going.
But what if some of our greatest resilience comes not from what we can carry ourselves, but from what we can access through others?
Asking for help is a skill.
It's a skill we can learn and get better at.
It isn't simply something we're either comfortable doing or not. Getting better means understanding what we need and what matters most, who to ask, and how to ask in a way that gets the critical outcomes we're after.
The best leaders don't need to have all the answers.
They know how to access the best answers. To make the best decisions.
Asking for help unlocks intelligence, experience, perspective and support that no individual leader can possess alone.
Asking for help doesn't only benefit the person asking.
It gives someone the opportunity to matter.
Being asked for our experience, perspective or support can make us feel valued and give us an opportunity to contribute.
The shift is from relentless self-reliance to intelligent interdependence.
Not becoming less capable, but becoming more effective by knowing how to make better use of the wisdom, intelligence, ideas and support around us.
Why Ashley?
A LIFETIME OF HARD-EARNED LESSONS IN RESILIENCE
Why Ashley?
A LIFETIME OF HARD-EARNED LESSONS IN RESILIENCE
Ashley has spent 30 years in high-pressure senior roles and environments spanning advertising, global businesses, consultancy, startups and entrepreneurship.
Today, he is a Human Skills Instructor with Simon Sinek's The Optimism Company, a Techstars founder mentor, and has taught his approach to asking for help and interdependence to 400+ leaders and teams.
But the most profound lessons can from his own life.
After losing his mother aged five, experiencing periods of career burnout and later facing a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, Ashley confronted a belief he'd stubbornly held since childohood:
“I’ll manage. I’ll be okay. I don’t want to burden others. I need to be independent”
Learning to confidently and clearly ask for and receive help changed everything.
It inspired Ashley to start The Gift of Help: a mission to change our relationship with help, and inspire more of us to experience what the life-changing possible when we get better at asking for it.
More about Ashley →“Asking for help can be really hard... it's something we all need to do in order to grow and thrive. That's why I'm so excited we at The Optimism Company have teamed up with the brilliant Ashley Usiskin.”
Simon Sinek
Founder, The Optimism Company
The Change
From carrying it aloneto excelling together.
Ashley's keynotes give leaders a different way to respond to pressure. Not by simply becoming better at handling more, but by getting better at accessing the help, intelligence and experience around them.
AUDIENCES LEAVE BETTER ABLE TO:
- 01 —
Handle pressure, uncertainty and change with greater resilience.
- 02 —
Make smarter decisions without feeling they need to have all the answers.
- 03 —
Ask for what they need with confidence, clarity and purpose.
- 04 —
Access the collective wisdom, experience and perspective around them.
- 05 —
Build stronger trust, connection and collaboration across their teams.
The Result
More resilient leaders. Stronger teams. Better performing businesses. Excelling together rather than struggling alone.
In the Room
THOUGHT-PROVOKING.
CHALLENGING CONVENTION.
PRACTICAL.
Ashley combines relatable storytelling, powerful reframes and immediately usable tools to change how leaders see help and unlock more of the value that's already around them.
Rather than simply telling audiences they should ask for more help, Ashley gets them talking, changing old habits and confidently tapping into the intelligence, experience and support already in the room.
An experience that makes people rethink what strength looks like, ask more openly and make better use of the wisdom around them.
Available as a keynote or interactive session, tailored to the audience, event and time available.
READY TO CARRY LESS AND EXCEL TOGETHER?
Let's talk about what you, your leaders or your orgainsations need.
Enquire about a keynote