Leadership is about “showing up”; it’s often about leveraging your presence in a room in order to influence, to cast vision, to bring alignment and to build teams. But effective leaders are just as strategic about leveraging their absence in order to move their organizations forward. But here are four types of leadership absences that can…
How To Avoid The Perils Of “Watch Me Swim” Leadership
Have you ever encountered a “watch me swim” leader? This is the person who insists on letting you know about every accomplishment they’ve achieved, no matter how small or insignificant. The attitude is very similar to the child splashing around the swimming pool, desperate for the grown-ups to notice their aquatic abilities. For children in…
Five Ways “I’m So Busy” Undermines Your Leadership Credibility
In a world that has attached a strange nobility to the notion of being busy, effective leaders stand out by avoiding the “I’m so busy” trap. One of the most effective leaders I’ve ever known was highly productive, and yet operated at a pace that was somehow both urgent and yet unhurried. This leader had…
How To Prepare Your Soul For More Effective Leadership In 2025
There will be hundreds of posts readily available this week to help you set new leadership targets for 2025. Today, I want to ask you a very different leadership question: “Is my soul in a better place today than it was a year ago?” For 12 months you’ve been doing the hard work of leadership.…
Lessons from Scrooge: Leadership and Compassion
Leaders have the power to give the gift of happiness, or of unhappiness, to those they lead. And the Christmas season is an ideal time to assess how effectively you have been distributing this precious commodity. This is not to say that the primary role of the leader is merely to ensure the personal well-being…
