Toku McCree is an executive coach. Formerly a monk, Toku lived in a Zen monastery where he vowed to liberate all beings from suffering. Today, as an executive coach, Toku has built a business to do just that. He founded Unexecutive.com—a platform that works to create enlightened leaders to solve the world’s most pressing problems—and has worked with many brilliant minds, from Zen Habits’ Leo Babauta to the marketing leaders of Pepsi and Nestle. But, to me, Toku is more than just an executive coach—he is love, accessibility, energy, calm, acceptance, and peace.

Toku joins me today to discuss how trauma shows up in leadership and describes the dark side of trauma response as a superpower. He explains how our childhood experiences shape who we are. He describes his life at a Zen monastery and how his time there informs his work with his executive coaching clients. Toku also outlines how trauma and its resulting “superpowers” get in the way of leadership and underscores the importance of creating an environment where trust can flourish.

“High-functioning trauma hiders develop superpowers through their trauma and, as a result, think that they should just use that capacity for everything, even when it’s not absolutely necessary.” - Toku McCree

This week on the Trauma Hiders Club Podcast:

• Hiding suffering and Toku’s life in a Zen monastery
• Perception versus communication and how hidden suffering tends to show up in the margins
• High-functioning trauma hiders and how they overuse their superpowers
• Recruiting the “wormy squirmies” into our lives and how being comfortable in crisis makes us want to stir up trouble
• What carrying the weight of trauma as a leader looks like
• Isolation and hypervigilance in relationships as a result of trauma
• The dark side of perception as a superpower resulting from trauma
• How “superpowers” from trauma can get in the way of leadership
• The relationship between trauma and trust and how mistrust costs founders
• Creating an environment where people can become trustworthy
• Our other “superpowers,” mysticism and accepting the world as a mysterious place
• Toku’s journey into his life at a Zen monastery
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Connect with Toku McCree:

• Unexecutive
• Unexecutive on LinkedIn
• Toku McCree on LinkedIn
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Where High Achievers Get Through Shit - TOGETHER

Thanks for tuning into this week’s Trauma Hiders Club ‘The Podcast’ episode with Karen Goldfinger Baker. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

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