Embracing humility, grace, and accountability at the top

When we think of leadership, we often picture the teams we manage or the goals we set—but sometimes, we need to look a little closer. True leadership starts with self-awareness: it starts with me. In this episode of Pave It Black, executive coach and leadership expert, Wally Adamchik, shares how he has helped leaders grow by embracing grace and humility. Known for his straight-talk style, high energy, and grounded advice, Wally brings clarity and actionable insights to this week’s conversation.

Wally shares practical tools for becoming a better leader by first becoming a more intentional individual. One of his impactful tips is to create a time log to track how you actually spend your hours and how you can reclaim your schedule to invest in what really matters. He also dives into the power of mission statements, not just as lofty ideals but as guiding principles that keep you and your team accountable.

This episode is full of humility, humor, and real-world anecdotes that entertain and educate. It’s time to reflect on you, tune in now!

This short exchange shows a sneak peak of our conversation with Wally. Be sure to listen to the full episode to start your journey of self awareness. Listen now.

What’s the most unexpected lesson that you’ve learned on your leadership journey?

I think the lesson is, it’s all about me, or the leader, right? We think that leadership is about that other person, the person we’re trying to influence, but it starts with you. If you don’t have that self-awareness, if you don’t know what ticks you off, who ticks you off, if you don’t have that humility and patience, those kinds of things. I don’t think you can lead as successfully as you might. I think the epiphany is it really starts with you and not with them.

If there is one thing you wish you had learned earlier in your career, what would that be?

I think the word is humility. I’m a Marine Corps officer. I’m Billy Badass. All these things and I’m still trying to find my way in the world. Anybody who gets promoted into leadership, there’s a little bit of imposter syndrome, trying to find their way in the world. So how do we do that? As males, we posture, we get a little louder. We thrust our chest out just a little bit. We stick our finger in people’s chest just a little bit. Now, of course, conceptually, we don’t do any of those things anymore, but conceptually you get where I’m going with it. This concept of personal and intellectual humility to say ‘I don’t have to be the loudest, I can still be excellent, but I can listen more.’ And if we look today, humility and honesty and those connections we’ve got from a place in leadership where it was follow me to let’s go together. That’s a different mentality. I’m not telling any of our older listeners here that what you did 30 years ago was wrong, but today’s dynamic of more participative is one where the humble leader is the one that’s going to have the greater success. I ask leaders the question ‘what’s going to cause someone to take the bullet for you?’ What does that mean? It means, it’s Friday afternoon, there’s a tropical storm coming in, but that person is going to go walk the job one more time to make sure the erosion control is in place, right? That kind of little bit of extra effort as opposed to, you know, ‘while he is a jerk, I don’t care, I’m just going to go home and whatever happens, happens.’ It’s that humility to lean into people that I, I wish I had learned that sooner. Said differently. I wish I was less of a jerk back then.