How to Lead Your Inner Critic: The Itty Bitty Sh*tty Committee Explained

I teach a concept called Itty Bitty Sh*tty Committee (not a new idea 💡 — I first heard it from Kara Snyder when she coached me about a decade ago, and I’ve run with it ever since).

Itty Bitty Sh*tty Committee, or IBSC, for short, is the voice of our inner critic.

When clients learn this concept they think our job is to eradicate it. To conquer and silence it once and for all.

But here’s the thing. To do so is to cease being human.

My deep and undying curiosity about the human mind took me to spend time with Zen monks who dedicate their lives to mindfulness.

This morning, I sat with Abbott of the Korean Zen center in New York (photo below), and told him I have too many errant thoughts (all whisperings of my itty bitty sh*tty committee).

And you know what he said?

Monks have errant thoughts too.

To hear the itty bitty sh*tty committee is to be human.

And as humans we can all choose how we respond. We don’t have to obey every self-doubt spiral.

We can listen with curiosity. We can meet the voice with compassion, humor even.

The IBSC doesn’t go away.

But it does get quieter when you stop fighting it and start leading it.

Like any unruly committee, it needs a Chairperson. That’s you.

You get to decide which voices to dismiss, which to thank, and which to heed. That’s the work. That’s the practice. Not perfection — leadership. Inner leadership.