The Golden Path Fallacy and Leadership Integrity
with Brandon Jenkins
The Corvus Effect / Episode 14
Released: February 24, 2025
Overview
Brandon Jenkins spent 21 years in Navy aviation following what the military openly calls the golden path — the sequence of jobs and promotions that maximize the chance of advancing in rank. Then his commanding officer asked him a simple question — ‘Why do you want to be a CO?’ — and Brandon’s honest answer terrified him: ‘because that’s what I’m supposed to do.’ This conversation is about the trap of climbing without examining, why copy-pasting someone else’s path only works until your environment changes, and why the leaders who micromanage are usually the ones who haven’t done the work to know themselves.
About Brandon Jenkins
Brandon Jenkins is the founder of Tier One Coaching, an ICF-certified coach who guides leaders through his Blueprint Process after 21 years as a Navy aviator. He works with leaders who realize they’ve been following a path they never actually examined — and helps them build the self-clarity, humility, and confidence to lead from values instead of from a checklist.
Listen to the Full Episode
Key Takeaways
1. The golden path fallacy
The military says it openly — there’s a sequence of jobs that gives you the best shot at advancing — and the corporate version isn’t different, just unspoken. The fallacy isn’t the path; it’s climbing it without ever asking whether it routes through anything you actually value. Brandon’s wake-up call was the question he couldn’t answer: ‘Why do you want to be CO?’ had only one answer, and it was the wrong one.
2. Copy-paste only works until your environment changes
Looking up to mentors a few steps ahead and copying their playbook seems smart — until your unique blueprint and your specific environment force a decision they never had to make. If you don’t understand the principles underneath what the mentor did, you can’t adapt when the variables shift. That’s why the leaders who follow conventional paths most loyally are often the ones who feel the most stuck — they’ve met every expectation but their own.
3. Confidence enables empowerment; control prevents it
The leaders who micromanage gain confidence by believing they need to control everything — which is a tell that the confidence isn’t actually there. The opposite move is the one that works: trust the team to do the job, accept that your experts have better answers than you do, and lead from values when there’s no checklist telling you what to do. Brandon’s mantra — raise yourself, raise your team — is etched on the Tier One coin for a reason.