#301 Could Your High Standards Be Hurting Your Team? Jeanné Els GrowCFO Mentor
High-achieving leaders often pride themselves on attention to detail, relentless drive, and demanding the best—from themselves and everyone around them. Yet the very qualities that fuel success can quietly erode team confidence, autonomy, and performance. When expectations become uncompromising, people stop taking initiative, avoid risks, and operate in fear of making mistakes. A critical leadership challenge is learning how to maintain excellence without creating pressure that stifles creativity, burns people out, or drives the best talent away—and how a few intentional shifts can turn high standards into a force for sustainable growth rather than harm.
In this GrowCFO Show episode, host Kevin Appleby is joined by Jeanné Els, GrowCFO Mentor and founder of coaching and facilitation practice Selah, to explore how high standards play out in real teams and real careers. Drawing on more than a decade in corporate finance and her work with high-performing professionals, Jeanné shares candid reflections on times when her own drive and perfectionism unintentionally created pressure and reduced ownership in her teams, and contrasts that with a more sustainable approach built on psychological safety, trust, and clear expectations. Together, Kevin and Jeanné connect these leadership lessons back to finance business partnering, showing how insight, storytelling, and curiosity can raise the bar while keeping both leaders and teams out of burnout.
Key topics covered:
- Jeanné shares her journey from aspiring musician to chartered accountant and ultimately to coach and facilitator, illustrating how high performers often reinvent themselves when their old success patterns stop working
- The discussion reframes finance business partnering as a storytelling and insight function, not just a reporting role, emphasizing the importance of communicating what really matters to stakeholders
- Jeanné unpacks the concept of sustainable ambition, explaining how unchecked high standards can push leaders into overdrive, creating disconnects between who they are and how they show up at work
- She explains how her own high standards once created pressure for her team, and how focusing on psychological safety, questions, and trust led to stronger, more autonomous performance
- The episode explores imposter syndrome and the transition from technical expert to leader, highlighting why leaders must let go of needing all the answers and instead create space for their teams to learn and experiment
- Jeanné outlines her vision for Selah as a community and support system for high-performing professionals who want to maintain ambition without sacrificing wellbeing or team health
Links
Timestamps:
- 00:00 – Kevin introduces Jeanné Els, her background in corporate finance, and sets up the importance of examining how high standards shape leadership and team dynamics
- 03:20 – Discussion of finance business partnering as moving beyond historic reporting into insights, communication, and influencing decisions—not just “being right” with the numbers
- 13:11 – Jeanné reflects on lessons she wishes she’d known earlier, including how relentless standards and over-responsibility can backfire on both career and team
- 13:27 – Jeanné explains the story behind Selah, her focus on sustainable ambition, and the need for safe spaces to step back and reflect on how you’re leading and living
- 20:47 – Deep dive into psychological safety, trusting your team, and treating mistakes as learning opportunities instead of evidence of falling below impossible standards
- 32:06 – Jeanné shares her vision for expanding Selah and building communities where driven professionals can maintain high standards without burning themselves or their teams out
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