Leadership Feeds

AGGRESSION carries a negative connotation. It’s often described as an attribute of anger and a lead-in to violent behavior. But aggression can also be equated with the tenacity with which someone goes after their goals. In this sense, it describes somebody who pursues their goal with great passion, enthusiasm, or intensity. An example may be a young executive, in the process of trying to impress her bosses, who utilizes unconventional tactics to increase her clientele. Her increased status leads clients of one of her coworkers to transfer to her accounts. While her goal had been to increase her sales, she had no intention of hurting her colleague. But nonetheless her coworker clearly was, even though hurting someone wasn’t the goal. Such tactics are often the case with people who become successful. Aggression has been shown repeatedly as paving the way for success. Aggression is the tenacity with which someone goes after their goals. Aggressiveness, which is the adverb describing behavior, captures this best. While there have been misunderstandings when we describe someone as aggressive, people mistakenly think that it means that they’re violent. In fact, there are two main types of aggression: instrumental aggression and reactive aggression. Instrumental aggression is when somebody is pursuing their goal with great passion, enthusiasm or intensity, in order to increase the likelihood of achieving that goal. A secondary consequence of that behavior may be to harm someone, but it is not the goal. For example, a basketball player is heading to the hoop…

Leaders don’t know they intimidate, frustrate, and de-energize people. Invisible impact holds leaders back. Inside you care. On the outside you’re scary. You don’t remember the pressure of pleasing the boss. You don’t realize casual comments feel like expectations. Silence feels like disapproval. Three questions reveal how people feel when you walk away?

Many books about stress are bandages. They focus on escape. They encourage you to breathe deeply. Close your eyes and notice your breath. Relaxing is a sinister bandage when stress is self-imposed. Three distortions give birth to self-imposed stress. Everything is urgent. Everything is your responsibility. Everything proves your worth.

LEADERS are under tremendous pressure to stay ahead of the curve while increasing output and notching wins. The tendency is to rush from project to project, overcome hurdle after hurdle, and never stop for a breath. But truly successful leadership requires taking time for reflection between one project and the next. Rather than diminishing leaders’ effectiveness, pausing in between heightens their insight and power. In Tibetan Buddhism, in-between periods are known as “bardos.” In these intervals, the teachings tell us, “the intellect becometh ninefold more lucid.” Bardos offer us a rich opportunity to step outside our usual ways of seeing and discover fresh perspectives. Our busy-ness can make us feel we’re on track, when the reality is that we’re drifting like a boat that’s steadily and unnoticeably veering off course. Striving to meet today’s glorified standards of productivity, we think we’re taking care of what matters most when, in fact, we’re putting it off. Tomorrow you’ll analyze what went wrong and what went right with the latest project. Next week you’ll acknowledge your team’s efforts. Later in the month you’ll take time to better understand how the processes you’re overseeing work. Next year you’ll strategize for succession planning. Now, as the new year gets underway, make a commitment to honor intermediary periods. Resolve to set aside time between projects for conscious attention to your relationships, your principles, and your purpose. By turning your attention to this kind of reflection on a regular basis, you can reset your compass, course…

Energy determines who leads, not titles. Positive energy multiplies impact. Multipliers breathe life into people. Bad is 5X stronger than good. One draining habit cancels five encouraging ones. Eliminate what drains before adding what lifts. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Click for tools to become a multiplier.

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Ryan Holiday on social intelligence: “Our curiosity, our desire for understanding should extend not just to the person in front of us but to how people function within groups. Both because it is an endlessly fascinating topic and because it’s essential to getting things done.” Source: Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. II. Michael J. Fanuele on inspiring others: “Passion and Reason work against each other. Passion is the energy that wants you jumping out of your seat. Reason wants you to sit and think for a little longer. Adding one decreases the other. “By all means, use your reason and logic and the full force of your big brain in figuring out what’s right and wrong, what you want to do and what you don’t, in composing your strategy. But then, when it comes to moving people to inspiring, I’m sorry, but Passion and Reason are indeed enemies. You’ll have to find the right balance between adding one and subtracting the other.” Source: Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.  …

Empathy destroys us when it makes excuses. Grit is pressing forward. Getting beyond resilience multiplies competence. Delicate teams argue over trivialities. Avoiding discomfort leads to weakness. The feeble need rescue. The competent grow through challenge. Resilience survives. Antifragile* teams thrive. Here’s how to get beyond resilience and turn adversity into advantage.

A bad mood suits this time of year. It’s the dead of winter in Central Pennsylvania. Pursuing happiness leads to misery.* But ignoring it doesn’t help. Your bad mood kills productivity, destroys retention, and dilutes engagement. Unhappy leaders lead unhappy teams. A bad mood spreads faster than the flu.

A leader with ideals always strives but never arrives. Anne Frank wrote, “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical.” Ideals are unreachable perfections. Excellence is always a pursuit. Ideals make demands. Ideals expose inadequacy. Ideals show the way. 7 Leadership Ideals…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Performance Coach Julie Gurner on caring deeply: “You have to care deeply to be able to challenge directly, and … somebody has to know that you care deeply about who they are in their role, that you care about their performance, that this is coming from a place that’s meant to make them better. And if it’s not coming from that place, and it’s coming from a place of punishing or shaming or humiliating or dominating, it’s not a really effective thing to do. But people can take hard feedback from people that they know are in their corner.” Source: The Knowledge Project Podcast: Caring Deeply, Challenging Directly II. Heidi Priebe on loving someone as they change: “To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people are too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don’t recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into. “We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out; to become speedily found when they are lost. But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along…

HERE’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in Janaury 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Intentional: How to Finish What You Start by Chris Bailey Setting goals is easy. Following through on them? A whole lot harder. It turns out, the secret to finishing what you start isn’t sheer willpower or the latest productivity hack. It’s becoming more intentional. With Intentional, bestselling author Chris Bailey distills a decade of deep research on productivity to deliver a profound, practical, and counterintuitive road map to getting things done. Forget extensive to-do lists and a never-ending workload. To reach your goals, you must structure your daily actions around what’s most important to you—and let go of the rest. This way, getting things done becomes second nature. The Next Renaissance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential by Zack Kass An eye-opening discussion on the transformative impact of AI and how to prepare for a new future. In The Next Renaissance, acclaimed AI advisor Zack Kass presents an optimistic and compelling vision of how artificial intelligence will shape our lives. Drawing on historical context, cutting-edge advancements, and firsthand experience, Kass lays out how AI will become a collaborative partner in building a better, more creative, and more compassionate world. Just as the original Renaissance revolutionized art, science, and society, today’s AI-driven Renaissance will redefine how we create, innovate, and flourish. Kass leverages his deep industry…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Psychologist Shane Lopez on hope: “Hope keeps us in the game. With low hope, we stop interacting with the world. We pull back. Literally, we don’t show up. We just move through in a zombie-like state. We all go through periods of sustained low hope, and they don’t lead to anything good at all. But hope for the future—maybe even the distant future—is what keeps people focused and moving in a direction that makes sense for their welfare and the welfare of the organization.” Source: Decade of Change: Managing in Times of Uncertainty II. Robert Quinn on externally and internally driven people: “People in the reactive mode tend to make emotions the centerpiece of their lives. Emotions become the measurement system for assessing the immediate situation. People are then forever fleeing from or searching for the ‘right’ situation, the one that will make them happy. Internally driven people have a different perspective. They know that their emotional states keep changing. They pursue their intended result no matter what their temporary emotion might be.” Source: Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.  …

Here is a selection of Posts from December 2025 that you will want to check out: From Manager to Strategist: How to Use Strategy Tools to See Your Situation Clearly by @artpetty The myth of ‘just let your work speak for itself’ Influence by @artpetty (Fitness Series #1) There’s an X-factor that too many good people overlook: influence born of relationships in the right places. Why Clarity Emerges From Chaos by Matt Lambert Design Is Not Dying by Bryan Chou The core value is no longer: “I made this.” It becomes: “I helped us choose this, and avoid many wrong directions.” The Destructive Power of “Microsteps” in the Wrong Direction by @PhilCooke Why Advertising on the Super Bowl Makes More Sense Than Ever @MusebyClio It remains the only cultural phenomenon capable of captivating more than 100 million pairs of eyeballs at the exact same time. How Has Your Leadership Been Shaped By The People You Have Met Along The Way? by @TerriKlass An Encouragement from Jane Austen on her 250th Birthday by @PhilCooke Interview by @jamesstrock with David S. Brown, author of In the Arena: Theodore Roosevelt in War, Peace, and Revolution Courage Is The First Virtue by @jamesstrock Ahmed El Ahmed Inspires World With Kinetic Courage. Do What Others Won’t Do (And You’ll Have What Others Won’t Have) by @AlanSteinJr What Every Leader Should Know About Inspiring Others by @DanReiland Doom Earth: How advertising’s timeline was ruptured via @shotscreative We were promised art. We got algorithm. Why the…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Nicole Vignola on learning: “The first major underpinning of a growth mindset is that people with this mindset understand that learning is a valuable opportunity in the face of adversity. When people believe that they can improve and grow from failure and setbacks, they are more likely to engage in challenging tasks and persist through difficulty. When people know and understand that the brain is malleable and are willing to adapt to circumstance, they are likely to persist in the face of obstacles. This perseverance can enhance pathways in the brain that are associated with learning, which strengthens the notion that learning is a dynamic process that’s forever evolving.” Source: Rewire: Break the Cycle, Alter Your Thoughts and Create Lasting Change   II. David McCullough on learning from others: “Be generous. Give of yourselves. Count kindness as all-important in life. Take interest in those around you. Try to keep in mind that everyone you encounter along the way, no matter their background or station in life, knows something you don’t. Get in the habit of asking people about themselves, their lives, their interests, and listen to them. It’s amazing what you can learn by listening.” Source: History Matters * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. * * * Follow us on…

THE titles listed below, published in 2025, improve our self-awareness regarding relationships and communication the sine qua non of leadership and provide us with a wider perspective on innovation and the changes taking place around us. The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luckby David Spiegelhalter(W. W. Norton & Company, 2025)How dangerous is our diet? How much of sports falls into the realm of luck? When authorities categorize a given event as “highly likely”—how likely is that, really? Whether we’re trying to decide if the benefits of a new medication are worth the chance of side effects or if artificial intelligence truly threatens humanity, our lives are riddled with uncertainties both everyday and existential—yet it can be difficult to know how to properly weigh all those unknowns. In lucid, lively prose, Spiegelhalter guides us through the principles of probability, illustrating how they can help us think more analytically about everything from medical advice to sports to climate change forecasts. He demonstrates how taking a mathematical approach to phenomena we might otherwise attribute to fate or luck can help us sort hidden patterns from mere coincidences, better evaluate cause and effect, and predict what’s likely to happen in the future. The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk Moreby Jefferson Fisher(TarcherPerigee, 2025)No matter who you’re talking to, The Next Conversation gives you immediately actionable strategies and phrases that will forever change how you communicate. Jefferson Fisher, trial lawyer and one of the leading voices on real-world communication, offers…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. L David Marquet and Michael Gillespie on focusing on our future self: “By changing our time-based point of reference, we inoculate ourselves from the present moment-biased effect of temporal discounting that we are otherwise subject to. The temporal distance reduces the importance and even the visibility of practical constraints. We do not feel them. When those practical constraints fade away, what we are left with is our ideal self. It is almost always a better human and allows us to focus on what we care most about, distinct from the urgent hassles, compromises, concessions, and justifications of today.” Source: Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions II. Margaret Andrews on managing yourself: “Self-understanding gives us insight, but self-management helps us get there. Altering the way we behave changes the way people perceive and respond to us, and can change the way we think and feel about ourselves. With time and practice, the new behavior becomes a more natural component of our leadership style and way of being. This, in turn, has transformative effect on our own leadership abilities as well as the product of the work we do with and through others.” Source: Manage Yourself to Lead Others: Why Great Leadership Begins with Self-Understanding * * * Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the…

SIXTY-SIX million years ago, an asteroid strike wiped out the dinosaurs and 75% of Earth’s species. Among the survivors was a creature that would teach us critical lessons about thriving amid disruption: the octopus. While other animals’ external armor was useless against this new threat, the octopus survived by being radically adaptable. It has a rare ability; it can edit its RNA to adjust to new conditions within hours. Today’s leaders face their own asteroid strike: artificial intelligence. And like that ancient catastrophe, AI is reshaping the business landscape with breathtaking speed. The question isn’t whether your organization will be transformed, but whether you’ll lead that transformation or be overwhelmed by it. Having worked with dozens of organizations navigating AI adoption, we’ve seen that the most successful leaders don’t treat AI as just another technology implementation. Instead, they recognize it as a catalyst for fundamental organizational redesign. Here are four critical lessons for leading this transformation. 1. Distribute Intelligence to the Front Lines The octopus has two-thirds of its neural tissue in its arms, not its brain. As a result, each arm can solve problems independently while remaining coordinated with the whole. This is the ideal model for organizations: push decision-making power to where the action happens. Most companies still operate with a “hub and spoke” command structure, where information flows up for decisions and then back down for execution. This creates costly delays. AI changes the game by making sophisticated analysis available at every level. A sales rep…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Paul J. H. Schoemaker on the value of scenario planning: “The purpose of developing scenarios is not to pinpoint the future, but rather to experience it. Scenario planning is not really about planning but about changing people’s mindsets to allow faster learning and smarter actions. The process of developing scenarios is one of gaining experience in a simulated future. When You feel the future deep in your bones, you gain a set of instincts that allow you to respond quickly and effectively to new challenges they unfold. The process enlarges the repertoire of responses available to managers based on superior pattern recognition. In an uncertain and changing environment, faster learning is the only lasting source competitive advantage, and scenario planning is a powerful way to accomplish this elusive goal.” Source: Profiting from Uncertainty: Strategies for Succeeding No Matter What the Future Brings II. Max Bazerman and Michael Watkins on challenging the status quo: “Decision-makers, organizations, and nations often fail to prepare for predictable surprises because of the natural human tendency to maintain the status quo. Above and beyond concerns about the cost and time requirements of change, when a system still functions and there is no crisis to catalyze action, we will keep doing things the way we have always done them. Acting to avoid a predictable surprise requires a decision to act against…

MOST leadership narratives talk about upheaval change as if it’s solely managed as a sequence: a plan, a timeline, a communication strategy, a rollout. Apply the favored change management steps, and all will be well. But when you’re inside a pending reorganization, merger, leadership removal, cultural overhaul, or sudden strategic pivot, you quickly learn something most leadership books never say: The hardest part isn’t the change. It’s the in-between. The stretch of time where what was no longer fits or exists, and what’s coming hasn’t yet taken shape, is an uncomfortable period of ambiguity, disorientation, and suspended identity for organizations, teams, and leaders themselves. Call It Liminality Upheavals such as a reorganization, merger, or unexpected leadership transition create a liminal space — a structural in-between where the old way, strategic plan, norms, and org charts no longer exist but the new one hasn’t been created. What leaders and teams experience inside that space is liminality: the psychological, emotional, and identity-level disorientation that comes from being suspended between two realities. The term liminality comes from the Latin limen, meaning threshold. It originated in the early 1900s when anthropologist Arnold van Gennep used it to describe the middle stage of rites of passage — the ambiguous and amorphous period as someone leaves behind who they were but hasn’t yet stepped into who they’ll become. Later, anthropologist Victor Turner expanded the concept, describing liminality as a space of: Uncertainty Identity dissolution and disorientation Destabilized roles and rules that no longer apply Heightened…

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: I. Jordan Peterson on vision: “Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. Strengthen the individual. Start with yourself. Take care with yourself. Define who you are. Refine your personality. Choose your destination and articulate your Being. As the great nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche so brilliantly noted, “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.” Source: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos II. Paul Millerd on prototyping: “Payoff can be profound. For most people, life is not based on all-or-nothing leaps of faith. That’s a lie we tell ourselves so that we can remain comfortable in our current state. We simplify life transitions down to single moments because the real stories are more complex, harder to tell and attract less attention. The headline Quits to Live on a Sailboat seems more impressive and is easier to talk about than Couple Slowly and Purposefully Tests Out a Life Transition While Aggressively Saving Money over Five Years. As a result, we hear fewer of the real stories, most of which include some kind of prototyping. “By experimenting with different ways of showing up in the world and making small, deliberate changes, we can open ourselves up to the unexpected opportunities, possibilities,…

HERE’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in December 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. The Seismic Shift in You: The Seven Necessary Shifts to Create Connection and Drive Results by Michelle Johnston and Marshall Goldsmith In a world more connected than ever, why are we all feeling so disconnected? Leadership expert Dr. Michelle K. Johnston reveals the hidden crisis plaguing modern workplaces: an epidemic of disconnection that’s eroding team performance, personal satisfaction, and organizational success. The Seismic Shift in You offers a transformative approach to leadership that starts with the most critical factor—you. Drawing on years of coaching top leaders and the latest research, Johnston outlines seven powerful shifts to help you lead more effectively, including: Rediscover your sense of purpose and direction, Transform everyday interactions into meaningful connections, Spark authentic engagement by starting from within, and Cultivate high-performing teams grounded in trust and collaboration. With real-world stories and practical tools, Johnston offers the clarity you need to lead with greater meaning, fulfillment, and results. You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI by Joseph Bradley and Don Tapscott AI tools are already reshaping the way we work and communicate, but as they gain autonomy, they will no longer be mere tools; they will become active participants in our world. As our digital identities become smarter and more capable, we enter the age…

Botanists will tell you to have a vision for how you want a plant to look before you start pruning it. The same is true for your life and your business. Whether you’re talking about programs, processes, personal commitments, or even people – over time, they all tend to accumulate. You simply end up with more of everything. However, overgrowth impedes your ability to scale yourself and your business. In order to grow, you’re going to have to prune. Continue reading The Pruning Principle at Full Focus.

It’s that time of year again. The weather is changing, leaves are falling off the trees, and your favorite leadership podcast is talking about Strategic Planning again. If there’s one thing that humans do well, it’s imagining the future. (We can do it badly, too, of course.) But the important thing is that we can create better outcomes for ourselves and our businesses when we do it intentionally. That’s where Strategic Planning comes in. Continue reading 6 Essential Ingredients for Effective Strategic Planning at Full Focus.

“Quiet quitting” seems to be the hot topic of conversation in business and leadership circles right now. But what exactly is “quiet quitting”? How can you figure out if your employees are doing it? And, perhaps most importantly, how can you create an organizational culture where your team members will feel empowered in their job?   Continue reading How to Avoid Quiet Quitting in Your Business at Full Focus.

You spend your days managing details, scheduling meetings, and replying to emails — by the time you start on the “real work,” the workday is half over. This ends up cutting into your personal life as you try to make up for lost time. It all leads to you feeling more tired, more stressed, and less productive at work and at home. If you heed our advice, you can minimize this pain. The advice is simple: hire an executive assistant! Continue reading 5 Mistakes Business Owners Make When Hiring an Assistant at Full Focus.

Last week we talked about the importance of a thriving company culture. Hopefully, Michael and Megan made the case that a company culture is both important and the responsibility of the leader. We’re going to continue that conversation by talking about how businesses can actually cultivate a thriving company culture – no matter where they’re starting from.   Continue reading 4 Ingredients for a Thriving Company Culture at Full Focus.

Anywhere you find a group of people, you’ll find a culture. That’s true for families, churches, cities, neighborhoods, and anything else you can think of that includes more than one person. This idea is especially true for businesses. Leaders need to have a vision for how they want their culture to look and feel. If they don’t, they could find themselves surrounded by a toxic culture that not only hurts business but makes everyone miserable. Continue reading Why a Thriving Culture Is Essential at Full Focus.

Your business is probably the largest single asset in your portfolio. You’ve invested time and money, and, one day, you may want to see a healthy return on those investments. If you want to maximize the value of your business, then you should start making plans today. Continue reading How to Maximize the Market Value of Your Business in 8 Steps at Full Focus.

There is no denying that you will get further, faster with a good coach. But what about a great coach? How much further could you get with amazing coaching? Today’s episode tackles that question by talking with LeeAnn Moody, Director of Performance Coaching for Full Focus. LeeAnn and Michael break down the four characteristics of great coaching and help you identify what you might need to be successful for your organization. Continue reading What Makes Good Coaching Great at Full Focus.

During the height of the pandemic, everyone was forced to go remote. But, now that offices have opened back up, leaders and staff are confronted with some challenging questions around a seemingly basic concept: Where should work happen? Continue reading What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Remote Work at Full Focus.

What if you could grow your business and only do about 20% of the work you’re currently doing? If that were true, you would do almost anything to find out how to do it, right? Continue reading The 10/80/10 Principle: Grow Your Business with 20% of the Work at Full Focus.