Leadership ideas and considerations
Leaders are often judged as if decision-making quality is purely a matter of intelligence, values, or willpower. That assumption is convenient because it keeps everything in the realm of motivation and mindset. It also produces inaccurate diagnoses by overlooking the biological system responsible for thought. If the system is underbuilt, underfueled, or chronically strained, performance […]
For decades, leadership theory has been driven by inspiration, traits, and things that “sound about right,” despite being utterly flawed. We’ve been told that great leaders are visionary, charismatic, servant-hearted, or emotionally intelligent. These ideas aren’t wrong, exactly. They’re just incomplete. That’s because they describe what leadership looks like without explaining how it actually works […]
Leaders must resist judging organizational change too quickly. Like piss in the river, problems persist even after the source is stopped, taking time to clear.
There is a chapter in American history that has been deliberately omitted from public education. What they told you was that the end of the Civil War in 1865 marked a turning point in American political life. That’s true. However, what they forgot to mention was that for the first time in the nation’s history, […]
Leadership is a discipline that demands clarity, direction, and adaptability. Time is important. Yet, many leadership approaches remain preoccupied with the past, whether through organizational history, habit, personal mistakes, or inherited dysfunction. This backward-facing posture is often reinforced by developmental models that prioritize therapeutic reflection over actionable change. I believe that approach to be highly […]
Organizational culture is always under construction – or destruction. It is not a fixed monument etched in vision statements or value posters. Instead, it is a living behavioral ecosystem. This is to say that it changes, often subtly and rapidly, with every decision, every action, and every tolerated deviation. Leaders who fail to recognize this […]
Recently, I saw a meme on LinkedIn that had a picture of two sets of footprints. One set was clearly larger, and the other clearly smaller, intended to represent a father and his son. The caption read, “Be careful where you walk,” to which the child replied, “You be careful—I walk in your footsteps.” Sounds […]
The question, “If everyone else was doing it, would you?” has long been used to challenge conformity. Yet, the reality is more sobering. In many situations—whether in organizations, schools, communities, or even entire nations—the answer is, in fact, probably. People often do what the group does, not because it is correct or rational, but because […]
In my opinion, leadership is one of the most discussed and misunderstood topics in modern discourse. Every day, social media platforms seem to be flooded with well-meaning but ultimately superficial slogans and oversimplified advice claiming to unlock the secrets of great leadership. “A leader serves first,” “Put others before all else – including yourself,” or […]
Charles Darwin once said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.” In other words, people who know little often appear more confident than those who are more informed. This observation connects with two important psychological phenomena: the Dunning-Kruger Effect and impostor syndrome. I find this particularly interesting because most would likely suggest that both […]
