There’s a phenomenon I’ve heard a number of leaders discuss, of growing bored with their own dance within a couple of years. The theory is that while a follower gets a different dance from every leader, a leader only gets to experience their own dance over and over again.

While that sounded logical, it didn’t turn out to be true for me for a long time, for a number of reasons. But let’s begin at the beginning (and if you don’t already have a cup of tea, you might want to make one now) …