About the author

Gustave Lacaille

Gustave Lacaille is the founder of unfollowtheleader (Become Luminous). He works with executives and sales leaders on self-awareness, feedback and decision quality, and built Lumia — an AI coach grounded in your Octagon profile — to make that practice available between sessions.

Library

Articles, videos and agents to deepen your practice.

56 resources

Must Read

Article
Leadership

The Art of Feedback: Tips & Best Practices for Lasting Impact

Trust, conditions, frameworks — the craft of feedback that actually lands.

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Article
Leadership

Assertiveness: Being True to Yourself in Conversations

Saying what you mean without armor or apology — six feedback models, each illustrated with the same real situation.

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Article
Leadership

Beyond the Carrot and the Stick: Mastering Motivation in the Modern Workplace

Autonomy, mastery, purpose — what actually moves people when incentives stop working.

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Article
Leadership

Finding the bottleneck is not enough: leaders also need to think correctly

Spotting the constraint isn't enough; leaders need thinking models to fix the right one.

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Article
Leadership

How Leaders Misjudge the Range

Six ways leaders pick the wrong mode — coaching too early, directing too late — with a mini-case for each and a quick self-diagnostic.

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Article
Leadership

The illusion of progress is one of leadership's most expensive traps

Motion is not progress — how busy teams stand still, and what to measure instead.

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Article
Leadership

The Leadership Range: Choosing the Right Mode at the Right Moment

Directive, supportive, coaching, mentoring — how to read the situation and choose the right mode at the right moment.

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Article
Leadership

The Art of Navigating Difficult Conversations: From Tension to Trust

Brain science, a 7-step preparation plan, NVC, Karpman, Harvard — and two word-for-word scripts for the conversations you'd rather avoid.

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Article
Leadership

From Critique to Catalyst: The "Opt-in + SBI + Empowerment" Feedback Method

A three-step feedback method that turns critique into a catalyst for growth.

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Article
Leadership

Level Up Your Life: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Covey's seven habits as an operating system for modern leaders — what still works, and where the book shows its age.

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Article
Leadership

The Socratic Three: Your Leadership Reset Button for Giving Feedback

Three questions to pass through before sharing your perspective — a reset button for feedback.

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Article
Leadership

Leadership starts when we stop optimizing everything

Optimization is a comfort zone; leadership begins where the playbook ends.

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Article
AI coaching

Is Your Data Safe with an AI Coach? Privacy, Ethics and the Questions to Ask

What an AI coach really knows about you, who can access it, and the eight questions to ask any provider before you type a single doubt.

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Article
Self-coaching

"Who am I in relationship today?"

A morning check-in on the presence you bring to others — one question that moves conversations from control to curiosity.

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Article
Leadership

Leading Between Asking and Telling

The daily tension between asking and telling — what Schein calls Humble Inquiry, and how to recalibrate in the middle of a conversation.

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Article
AI coaching

AI Coach vs Human Coach: An Honest Comparison

Cost, availability, depth, confidentiality, alliance: a clear-eyed comparison of AI and human coaching — and when to choose which.

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Article
AI coaching

AI Coaching for First-Time Managers: A Practical Guide

Six situations every first-time manager faces in the first 90 days — and how to rehearse each one with an AI coach before it counts.

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Article
AI coaching

AI Executive Coaching: What It Can (and Can't) Replace

Executive coaching works — but stays rare and expensive. What an AI coach can genuinely take over, what stays human, and how leaders combine both.

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Article
AI coaching

AI Sales Coaching: Turning Every Rep's Prep Into Deliberate Practice

How an AI sales coach turns discovery prep, pitch rehearsal, MEDDPICC deal audits and loss debriefs into deliberate practice — minutes a day, not offsites.

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Article
Self-awareness

Internal vs External Locus of Control: The Leadership Difference

Where you file the causes of wins and losses shapes how you delegate, decide and recover. Rotter's locus of control, applied to leadership.

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Article
Self-awareness

The Johari Window Exercise: A Step-by-Step Guide for Managers and Teams

Run the Johari Window exercise for real: solo protocol, pair version, and a 60–90 minute team workshop with the official 56 adjectives.

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Article
Self-awareness

Leadership Blind Spots: 7 Ways to Find Yours Before They Cost You

Everyone around you sees your blind spots. Seven concrete ways to see them yourself — before they cost you deals, trust, and talent.

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Article
Self-awareness

Self-Awareness in Leadership: The Evidence-Based Guide

Why self-awareness is the meta-skill of leadership, what the research actually shows, and the tools and rituals that build it — for real.

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Article
Self-awareness

Self-Awareness Test for Leaders: 20 Questions That Reveal How You Actually Operate

Twenty behavior-based questions across four dimensions, plus an honest way to read your answers — no flattering score attached.

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Article
Self-awareness

The Two Types of Self-Awareness (and Why 95% of Leaders Overestimate Theirs)

Eurich's research shows self-awareness comes in two independent types. Most leaders build one and assume they have both. Here's how to check.

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Article
AI coaching

Can You Build a Working Alliance with an AI Coach?

The working alliance predicts coaching results better than technique. Early research suggests it can form with an AI coach — with honest caveats.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

25 Conversation-Shifting Questions That Can Save You 12 Years of Practice

Twenty-five discovery questions, grouped by moment in the sales cycle, with the coaching science behind why each group works.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

Discovery in 13 Dimensions (from fog to strategic clarity)

A complete sales discovery framework: 8 dimensions to gauge a problem's gravity, 5 to read the buying dynamics — with a real deal as a running example.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

The Invisible Hand: The Subtle Power of MEDDPICC

MEDDPICC beyond the acronym — the psychology that turns a checklist into deal control.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

The Physics of Sales: Overcoming the "Activation Energy" of the Status Quo

Deals don't stall for lack of interest — they stall below the activation energy of change.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

Why Most Buyers Feel Sales Pros Don't Put Them First

Buyers reward sellers who understand their goals — yet most say sellers never take the time. Here's why listening fails, and how to audit your own calls.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

Target the Symptom, Not the Problem

Buyers don't wake up thinking about root causes — they feel symptoms. Sell to those.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

The MEDDPICC Pipeline Audit Checklist

A letter-by-letter audit to separate real, forecastable deals from hopeful leads.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

The Perfect Pitch is Dead.

AI has commoditized the polished pitch — connection is what's left to compete on.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

Where Sales Teams Will Win

The edge is no longer information — it's how a conversation makes the buyer think.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

Why Your Demo Isn't the Problem

If deals die after the demo, the discovery before it is usually the real culprit — here are the symptoms, and the same deal run both ways.

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Article
Self-awareness

Everything Starts With Awareness

The first move in any change is noticing — fully, without judgment.

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Article
Leadership

Is Your Team 'Good' or 'Great'? Here's How to Make the Leap.

The difference between a good team and a great one is rarely talent — Collins's five concepts, applied at team scale.

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Article
Self-awareness

The Johari Window: A Simple Framework for Self-Awareness

Four panes that reveal what you know, what others see, and what's hidden.

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Article
Self-awareness

Why Knowing Yourself Is the Ultimate Strategic Skill

Self-knowledge as the leverage point behind every long-term decision.

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Article
Self-awareness

Locus of Control: Where Do You Place the Blame?

How shifting from external to internal locus rewires your sense of agency.

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Article
AI coaching

Make me want to change

Motivation rarely precedes action — how a coaching conversation creates the want.

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Article
Leadership

The SCARF Model: Five Triggers That Run Every Meeting

Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness: how David Rock's SCARF model explains every tense meeting — and how to use it as a leader.

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Article
Self-coaching

The Dilution Trap

Saying yes to everything quietly dilutes what matters most — one daily practice to see where your attention actually goes.

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Article
AI coaching

Getting Started with AI Coaching

What this space is for, how to start in three steps, and what you can realistically expect from your first AI coaching sessions.

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Article
Self-coaching

Consistency over perfection

Small and steady rewires more than rare and perfect — why rhythm beats intensity, and a 3-day protocol to prove it to yourself.

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Article
Self-coaching

What is essential for me to do today that only I can do?

One morning question to cut through the noise of a crowded day — why it works, a 3-day protocol, and the traps to avoid.

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Article
Self-coaching

From Doing to Being

A micro-pause before decisions and conversations: "Who am I being right now?" — and why that one question changes everything that follows.

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Article
AI coaching

How should you use your AI Coach?

Five real scenarios from a manager's week — with the exact prompts — to fold your AI coach into how you already work.

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Article
AI coaching

What is an AI Coach, really?

Not a chatbot with advice — what an AI coach actually is, what it isn't, and the four ways leaders really use one.

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Article
Self-coaching

Did I do my best today?

A nightly question that turns experience into growth — why asking about effort beats judging outcomes, with a 3-day protocol.

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Article
Self-coaching

Managing yourself before managing others

Self-management is the license for managing anyone else — why one breath changes tense moments, and how to train it in three days.

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Article
AI coaching

How long should a session with my AI Coach last?

The ideal session length, what practitioners say about micro-sessions, and the calendar rituals that make short pauses actually happen.

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Article
Sales effectiveness

The Paradigm Shift Nobody Talks About: Stop Qualifying Your Prospects. Start Coaching Them.

Coaching-based selling, defined: why the best discovery calls don't qualify prospects — they create clarity the prospect couldn't reach alone.

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Article
AI coaching

The ROI of AI Coaching: What to Measure and What to Expect

Coaching meta-analyses show large individual effects. Here is what AI changes in the ROI equation — and how to measure it without fooling yourself.

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Article
AI coaching

Does AI Coaching Work? What the Evidence Actually Shows

An honest review of the evidence on AI coaching: meta-analyses, randomized trials, real limits — and how to use it well.

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