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MOVES™ · Dimension 5 of 5

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Saboteurs

Every leader has inner voices that helped them succeed in the past. In a new context, those same voices can become obstacles. Saboteurs are automatic patterns of thought and behaviour that feel like protection but function as interference.

Key question

“Which of my inner voices is running the show right now? Is it genuinely helping, or is it hijacking the very performance it claims to protect?”

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At a glance

They were once useful.

Saboteurs developed to help you succeed, often at an early age, in a specific context. The perfectionist got results. The hyper-achiever opened doors. The problem is their automatic activation where they no longer serve. They are patterns with their own logic, predating this transition by years.

Uncertainty activates old defences.

Transitions create precisely the conditions of ambiguity, visibility and performance pressure that trigger saboteur patterns most strongly. Awareness is the only intervention that works.

Name it to tame it.

You cannot dismantle a pattern you cannot see. The first move is identification: naming the voice, recognising its signature, understanding its triggers. Then the choice becomes possible.

Why it happens

Saboteur patterns are automatic, fast and convincing. They feel like protection, like wisdom, like pragmatism. They are rarely recognised as the source of underperformance because they present as the solution to it. The perfectionist insists on quality. The hyper-achiever drives results. Both can derail exactly what they claim to serve.

The path through Saboteurs runs through recognition, then choice. A pattern cannot be dismantled while it is running. Awareness creates the gap, and in that gap, a different response becomes possible.

Aditi's story · Global leadership

Promoted to global head of a business unit, Aditi found herself overworking, over-checking and under-delegating. Her team sensed the lack of trust. Performance suffered. When she identified her pattern, a hyper-achiever combined with a controller, she began to notice when they activated and to interrupt the automatic response. Within a quarter, she was leading differently.

Self-assessment

I can name my primary saboteur and describe how it typically shows up.

I can recognise when my inner critic is activated, distinct from useful self-reflection.

I notice saboteur patterns under transition-specific triggers: ambiguity, visibility, pressure.

I have a practice that creates distance from automatic self-limiting responses.

Resources

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