Volume 01: Practice Makes Progress—Not Perfect

COACH’S CORNER

The 25th Hour Group toolkit in action

I coach a very senior executive in the marketing industry; we’ve been working together for about 3 years now. His company is crushing it, everything is going really well. But last month there was a moment where the numbers dipped and when he met with a small subset of board members to discuss it, he kind of choked. He went into a spiral, or a swirl as I call it, and his fear system got activated.

We did a quick phone check-in and wound up going through 4 tools (Angel vs. Devil, Focal Point, What’s the Intent, What's the Worst Thing That Can Happen; more on these later) to get to the bottom of the situation. We were able to squash his fears in all of 7 minutes. We saved him countless hours (maybe even days) of overthinking the situation in a matter of minutes. Had he not applied the tools? It would have been a massive distraction.

What I loved about this situation was that it was a reminder that even for my most seasoned clients, there is always a need to practice the tools. True mastery requires repetition and practice. He was having a human moment, as we all do, and I was able to be a partner to him as he sharpened his application of the tools.

- Neal Schore

Redefining Leadership

One word to think about differently this month

Google’s Definition: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

The 25th Hour Definition: Fear is like the F word. It's a dirty, nasty word. No one likes to admit that they live in fear, but we all have fears. Lots of them, in fact. Fear of failing, fear of not making enough money, fear of getting fired, fear of not passing a class, fear of being embarrassed. Mastering and conquering fear is really key when it comes to you managing you. No one else is going to manage our fears;
we have to manage them on our own.

a SMALL SHIFT

A SIMPLE LEADERSHIP EXERCISE FOR THE MONTH AHEAD

Do something differently.

If you shop at a particular grocery store, shop at a different one. If you have a set walking path, go the opposite direction this week. If you work out in the morning, work out in the afternoon. If you usually put your left pant leg on first and your right pant leg on second, switch the order.

Why?

  1. To get comfortable being uncomfortable: Remember the F word I talked about earlier? Experimenting with our routines in small ways in our daily life can really help us break free of our fears. Even a small shift can help you improve your relationship to change—an essential skill for leaders.

  2. To become more conscious of your subconscious habits: As leaders there are so many habits that we need to break free of, that we aren’t even aware of. If we can train our brain to pay closer attention to our preferred pant leg or route to the store, we slowly learn to bring closer attention to bigger habits that impact our leadership.

CRUNCH TIME

A DATA point worth paying attention to

Employees spend ~2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict, leading to $359 billion lost annually. - Allen & Unger

on & off the clock

A quick look at what’s happening at the 25th Hour Group—and what we’re doing outside of work with our well-earned 25th hour!

On the Clock: The 25th Hour Group led two corporate offsites in December, and not only did the participants learn, we did too! We got some incredible feedback that we are excited to apply to our upcoming engagements. In 2026, we’ll be diving deeper into our toolkit and spending more time with each tool, so participants can engage more meaningfully and leave with tools they feel confident using right away.

Off the Clock: Over the holiday break my family attended the Rose Bowl to celebrate Indiana’s (where my youngest son went to school) upset over Alabama. Indiana is a Big Ten University, but it was never considered a football school. Two years ago, though, the university hired a new coach, and by bringing in a strong leader, the dynamic of their entire football program shifted, and they won the Rose Bowl—and later the National Championship, too. It is such a great example of the power leaders possess to make change that ripples across an entire ecosystem, and it was so euphoric to watch alongside my family.