She rang her company's CEO 3 years ago and pitched him on why he should create her role.

The same passion that got her hired is why she's sitting across from me. When there's a disagreement at the executive table, she scrunches her nose. At a multinational, multibillion-dollar company, there's a lot of disagreement. And everyone at the table can see exactly where she stands before she says a word. I ask: "Have you ever been wrong before? Like, has your intuition ever been off and their stance been right?" Pause. "No." Shit. But I recognized that "no." I'd given the same one for 2 years. Every conversation with my parents about my business ended the same way. The last one, my mom and I were borderline shouting. I nearly hung up the phone. My brother later told me my dad had been losing sleep over it. Then a friend asked if maybe I was the problem. The next conversation was the first one that didn't end in a fight. "Could you be fulfilling your own prophecy? You walk in convinced they're wrong, you get defensive, they get defensive?" And that's when she started to think. A few weeks later, a direct report made a mistake that would've normally ended with her making them feel small. Instead, she asked questions and guided them to their own answer.