Two Reasons Leaders

Walk Into the Gym

1. The issue is protecting a different issue.
Your L10 keeps tabling it, re-wording it, or watering it down. Or not talking about it at all. Then the same issue shows up next week or remains unspoken. Same thing the week after.

Most teams keep trying to solve the issue with the same behaviors that created it.

2. The Quarterly is done. And the Rocks are already at risk.
You set the Rocks. But there's at least one issue underneath them that didn't get fully IDS'd and you can already feel it slowing execution.

Every L10 that doesn't resolve the real issue is another week of drag against the Rocks you committed to. Time you're not getting back.

The Gym is built for both.

What Changes When

Leaders Walk Out

• L10s that actually finish — faster
• Rocks that move instead of slip
• The same issue stops circling the board
• Your team finds courage under pressure, not after it
• Decisions get made in the room, not after the room
• Leadership matures faster than the business demands it

How It Works

1. You submit the real issue before the session.
The one your L10 keeps tabling — or the one you didn't fully IDS at your Quarterly but already know is putting a Rock at risk. Naming the issue precisely, in writing, before you walk in is what makes the room move faster than your L10 does.

2. Sue Hawkes facilitates live issue-solving on what leaders bring.
Including yours. You work the version of the issue that's been avoided, not the version that's been safe to discuss. Yours may be worked in the room, in a breakout, or you may watch another leader's issue and recognize your own in it.

Either way, you leave with what you need to walk into your next L10 with clarity on what’s slowing you down.

3. You start interrupting the pattern yourself.
When the conversation drifts. When the issue being discussed is protecting a different issue underneath it. When the L10 is circling because no one has made the call — or because two people in the room don't trust each other enough to be honest about what's true.

You not only can easily identify old habits when they occur, you’ll know how to stop them in their tracks and redirect the team to the real issue at hand.

And then Issues get resolved instead of rotated.

Your L10s get faster. Your Rocks stop slipping. And your team starts running.

“Can't I just use ChatGPT for this?”

We aren’t anti-AI, when its powers are used for good. And yes, a tool can classify an issue. It can suggest categories. It can give you a tidy framework.

But It cannot hold the line when the conversation redirects to a safer version of the issue.

It cannot see when your team has drifted.

It cannot tell when politeness is winning at the expense of growth.

It cannot stay on what's true past the point where the room would usually let it go. That requires a human outside the system.

That's what Sue Hawkes does.

Who Am I to Tell You What to Do?

Hey, it’s me, Sue Hawkes, and here’s what I want to tell you: I've sat in thousands of L10s and I know this for sure: the recurring issue on the Issues List is rarely the real issue.

There's almost always something underneath that the team refuses to name.

I’m not a motivational coach. I’m not here to inspire you to achieve your goals with a quote.

But I do diagnose. And I help you build the strength to handle what's true.

The ability to name and solve the real issue isn't a personality trait: it's a skill. The Gym is where you build it.

My book, Issues: Remove Friction, Fast-Track Your Growth, and Ignite Your Greatness, is the operating manual for this work, and the Gym is where you practice what the book makes visible.