"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing."
— August Wilson, Playwright
We recently saw the remake and re-imagined Phantom of the Opera, and though VIM Executive Coaching is hardly in the play critique business, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was not our first time to see the production so this time, the nuance and multi-layered themes caught our attention.
In the end, we appreciated the way in which “the Phantom,” representative in part of the demons we carry within us, had to be embraced before it could be let go. It is hardly a simplistic message nor is it an easy task.
No such thing as perfect
Author Jordana Borensztain, writing for CEO World (October 26, 2025) said:
“Authentic leadership requires vulnerability, trust, and the courage to show up as you really are. Perfectionism demands the opposite: no errors, flawless performance, rigid control, and hiding anything that might expose weakness…”
In the article, she recalled an episode of “performance” in her life when she tried her hand at stand-up comedy and (sort of) flopped. She tried so hard to memorize her lines and deliver them with absolute perfection, a lot of the humor, spontaneity and fun was lost.
In the quest for perfection many executive leaders do everything possible to push away past mistakes, errors in judgment, failure and (even) pain or embarrassment. Leaders often set impossible standards and worse, compare themselves to other leaders who are viewed as being perfect.
The demons many of us live with, can make us better stronger and certainly more self-aware.
Professor of Marketing Iñigo Gallo writing for the Harvard Business Review (November 30, 2023), addressed the concept of executive leadership failures through the lens of the positive outcomes.
In the view of the professor, four major positive outcomes result from business disappointment or catastrophe:
- Failure can bring an executive leader closer to their team. There is humility in failure.
- Failure can help an executive leader build trust. Yes, failure hurts and its painful, but if the effort was honest and the outcome unforeseen, what more can be done than to be better and do better?
- Failure is a learning opportunity. Executive leaders grow when they mindfully accept a demon. Don’t push it away, feel the pain, accept it and then strive to move on. We are not naïve here. Sometimes failure results in a negative outcome in one situation but it may well propel the executive to greatness in the next setting (or team or organization)
- Failure can lead to a culture of innovation. No organization or industry or line of research has ever succeeded in a vacuum. The demon of disappointment has led to virtually every advancement we can think of, whether a mess-up in a play rehearsal or the lifesaving development of a new biotech product.
Why they make erasers
Whether an “old-fashioned” pencil, correction fluid, the delete button or an auto-correct function, the true wisdom is found not in intentionally leaving a mistake, but in correcting it. For executive leaders who wrestle with being better, understand that as long as honesty, authenticity and mindfulness are applied, improvement and greater success can be achieved.
Phantoms will leave leaders when leaders exercise the greatest gift to themselves of all: compassion.