I gotta tell you, for years I thought I was just bipolar when it came to work. Seriously. One minute I’m standing up, full blast, giving the big motivational speech—Leo, right? The fire, the vision, the ‘let’s conquer the world’ energy. The next minute, I’m deep diving into spreadsheets, criticizing every single semicolon and line break, paralyzed by the sheer volume of flaws—that’s pure, uncut Virgo. I was running a business, but it felt like the CEO and the ruthless internal auditor were fighting constantly, and I was losing.
I needed to stop the internal civil war. That’s what kicked this whole practice off. I read up on the Leo-Virgo cusp, “The Cusp of Exposure.” Sounds dramatic, but that’s exactly what it felt like. Exposure to the limelight, and then exposed flaws. I decided I wasn’t going to just read about it; I was going to operationalize these traits. Turn them from conflict into a sequence of operations.
The Practice: Separating the Engines
My first step was simple, but tough: I systematically divided my workday. I stopped letting the Virgo side comment on the Leo side’s ideas in real-time. That instant self-critique was what was killing my momentum.
I started by dedicating every morning, before 11 AM, to pure, unadulterated Leo energy. This meant:
- Launching the big ideas: Zero filter, just brainstorming, massive whiteboard sessions.
- Speaking up: Leading meetings, giving high-level direction, selling the dream to the team.
- Ignoring the details: Literally forbidden myself from opening a checklist or a budgeting document. The goal was motion and vision, not perfection.
That felt great, but the execution was a disaster. Why? Because by noon, when I switched gears and tried to engage the Virgo focus, I was overwhelmed by the mess Leo had left behind. All these grand plans, zero structure. I was drowning.
I was in this cycle for three months. I’d initiate huge projects, and then I’d get stuck in the weeds trying to perfect Phase One before Phase Two even made sense. I was essentially turning the Leo leadership into a micromanagement nightmare. The team hated it. I hated it.
The Breakthrough: Reassigning the Roles
I realized the problem wasn’t the traits themselves; it was the timing and the application of their power. I was using Leo to lead the team, and Virgo to lead the process. Wrong. Totally wrong.
The real breakthrough came when I observed how my successful mentors operated. They didn’t lead with bombast; they led with clear, actionable processes. They didn’t want the spotlight just to shine; they wanted it to illuminate the path.
I flipped the script entirely. I stopped thinking of Leo as the CEO and Virgo as the clerk. I redefined their roles based on service and structure:
The New Leo Role: The Visionary Architect (Public Facing Strength)
- Action: Define the mountain we are climbing. Provide the motivational fuel.
- Focus: External communication, high-stakes decision-making, absorbing pressure.
The New Virgo Role: The Precision Engineer (Hidden Success Engine)
- Action: Design the steps, calculate the risk, build the sturdy roadmap.
- Focus: Internal optimization, documentation, quality control, minimizing waste.
I started using my Virgo trait to lead the internal structure. I spent less time giving fire-and-brimstone speeches (less Leo) and more time designing workflows that guaranteed success (more Virgo). When the system was flawless, the Leo confidence naturally followed. I didn’t need to fake the swagger; the results backed it up.
The immediate change was stunning. I streamlined the entire production cycle by applying the Virgo need for perfection to the process setup, not the individual tasks. Once the process was perfect, I stepped back into the Leo role to simply champion the process, not control it. I leveraged the Leo energy to celebrate small wins, which actually fed the Virgo drive for continuous improvement. They stopped fighting and started high-fiving.
The result? I pushed through two massive stalled projects within a quarter. We had the grand vision (Leo) but this time, the engine room (Virgo) was running perfectly, quietly, and efficiently. Maximizing these traits wasn’t about balancing them; it was about assigning them specific functions where their extreme nature became their greatest asset. Leo gets the exposure, but Virgo ensures there’s actual gold beneath the spotlight.
