Leadership Feeds

Raising issues isn’t complaining. Complainers talk about problems while standing aloof. They expect others to change. They seek personal advantage. Builders point out concerns to understand. They seek improvement. They get dirty making things better. You’ll always face complaints. Some lift. Others tear down. Build a culture where forward-facing ownership wins.

Subtraction is harder than saying no. Saying no prevents future obligations. Subtraction kills current commitments. Subtraction creates space. Stop seeking more time. Eliminate obligations. Click to learn 7 ways to practice subtraction.

THERE’S a phrase that seems to be everywhere in the business world right now, but it is likely missing from most companies’ crisis management plans: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Crack open any decent crisis planning playbook, and you’ll find detailed roadmaps for navigating natural disasters, system failures, and traditional cyberattacks. These risks are well understood, and crisis management planners have often seen how other organizations have handled these setbacks or even dealt with them themselves. Although AI now touches on great swaths of our professional and personal lives, it is still a very young technology. And while most people vaguely understand that AI introduces some new level of risk, these dangers largely have yet to materialize in the sorts of public disasters that make headlines and get business leaders to take notice. Although no one can predict exactly how AI-related risks will unfold in the years to come, businesses should start incorporating the technology into their crisis management plans now. Bad actors are already using (and misusing) the technology, and some of the vulnerabilities in early AI deployments are starting to reveal themselves. Armed with this knowledge, organizations can prepare for AI-driven incidents before these events cause full-blown crises. How AI Is Reshaping Cyber Threats Unfortunately, AI is already making cyber attackers faster and more effective. Attacks that once required ample time, expertise, and manual effort to carry out can now be automated and scaled. The technology is also opening organizations to new attack types meant to leverage the vulnerabilities…

Others run your life until you know your values. Stop wandering in a fog of “shoulds.” “Our values show us the path and motivate us to pursue it.” Paul Ingram When values are fuzzy decisions are exhausting.

“They flatter one another out of contempt, and their desire to rule one another makes them bow and scrape.” Marcus Aurelius Using flattery invites people to look down on you. Neediness is obvious. (Adapted from Epictetus) Solomon said, “The one who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his steps.”

HERE’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in May 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better by David Epstein We live in a world that gives us seemingly infinite choices and prizes freedom above all else. We have an unprecedented number of options regarding what to do, who to be, and how to spend our time. All that choice is wonderful; it is also overwhelming. The irony is that total freedom can be paralyzing, and unlimited resources don’t necessarily lead to the biggest breakthroughs. In fact, overvaluing complete freedom can be disastrous for everything from starting a company to harnessing creativity to finding personal satisfaction. David Epstein argues that all of us—individuals, businesses, institutions, even societies—can benefit from narrowing our options. Valuable and Visible: Redefining Personal Branding by Leading with Impact Over Image by Vanessa Errecarte You’ve built real skill. You’ve solved real problems. But in a world that rewards visibility, doing meaningful work isn’t enough. Recognition matters. Yet the modern version of “personal branding” feels exhausting. Somewhere along the way, personal branding became synonymous with self-promotion, follower counts, and algorithm-chasing. For thoughtful professionals and students like you, that version feels performative at best and misaligned at worst. And yet invisibility is no longer neutral. If your work is going to matter, your ideas have to travel. In Valuable & Visible: Redefining Personal Branding…

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 Ingram on values: “When you know your values-really know them-you unlock something vital. You get clarity when things are uncertain. You gain confidence when decisions get hard. You find resilience when life throws something unexpected your way. And you create deeper connections with others because you’re leading from a place that’s honest and grounded.” Source: What Do You Really Stand For? The One Question That Will Transform Your Work and Life II. Stanley McCrystal on the ends justify the means: “It is the ‘end justifies the means’ conundrum. We often can’t be all we want to be without departing from the character we aspire to cultivate. The choice is rarely binary, although we often wish it were. But, if we choose an inflexible adherence to certain values, this can prove difficult to pull off within the complexities of the real world. On the other hand, once we depart from our core character, we join the legions of those who have abandoned what matters most.” Source: On Character: Choices That Define a Life * * * 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 April 2026 that you will want to check out: VIDEO: AI Is Replacing Leaders Who Can’t Do This One Thing by @cnieuwhof Worth watching! If You Get the Chance by @tedlamade via @collabfund Comfort in the Chaos? via @LBBOnline In periods of instability – economic pressure, cultural fragmentation, a constant sense of flux – people look for grounding. Lincoln Leadership Failure | Succession Planning by @jamesstrock 6 Reasons People Pleasing Hurts Your Leadership by @DanReiland What Hollywood Taught Me About Getting Ahead by @PhilCooke 5 Hidden Forces That Will Undermine Your Leadership Decisions by @WScottCochrane Why designers make better entrepreneurs than they think by @vcastillo630 The same orientation that made them uncomfortable to manage makes them deeply competent at building something of their own. Owning Your Creative Model by Bulandundonnelly It is no longer simply: Can you make this? It becomes: Do you know what is worth making? That is a very different kind of creative problem. Long-Term Money by @morganhousel The Cost of Misalignment by @samchand Get Unstuck by @James_Albright 3 Questions Great Leaders Ask Before It’s Too Late by @BrianKDodd Why Emotion Drives Effectiveness More Than We Might Like to Admit by @jacquesburger LBBOnline Great Company Culture Is More Than Creating a Nice Place to Work | Stanford Graduate School of Business An Institutional Reckoning via @commentmag A series of essays on the need for renewal of our institutions What The Astronauts Of Artemis II Know About Teamwork – 7…

It’s easy to amplify the negative voice in someone’s head. Challenge them to contribute. Say nothing when they do. People who feel they don’t matter hold back. Potential dies quietly. Leaders shrink people with silence. Ingratitude denies worth. People who feel strong go further than those who feel weak.

You don’t aspire to lead life-sucking meetings. Bad habits are never intentional. You’re so busy doing things that you don’t take time to improve the way you do things. Constant hurry ignites frustration. Fix meetings in 5 minutes.

MY go-to definition of leadership is “helping others do better.” I use it because it is simple, inclusive, and focused on the practical impact leaders have. Leadership is ultimately about having a positive effect on other people, teams, and organizations. But my best advice for achieving that starts by looking inward. By leading oneself—what I call ‘personal leadership’—a leader is better able to affect others positively. In more than three decades of research and teaching on leadership, the most powerful tool for personal leadership that I have come across is to leverage the leader’s own values. Doing this requires an upfront investment by the leader in work to clarify their top values, and an ongoing effort to keep those values salient and accessible, so they can be recalled at key leadership moments. Below, I offer concise advice on how to build this tool by clarifying your own values. But first, I’ll share some of my favorite evidence that the tool works. How Do You “Be Authentic?” Authenticity has been called the gold standard of leadership. Everybody wants it in themselves and in the people they follow. But just how do you ‘be authentic?’ If I asked you to be authentic, what should you do? I found one answer to this question through an experiment with my colleagues Yoonjin Choi and Sheena Iyengar. We studied how mid-career managers communicated with their teams by asking them to write and deliver a motivational speech to a camera. For half of the leaders,…

While Companies Race to Adopt AI, Many Lack the Skills to Make It Work AI isn’t the top workplace advantage, human skills are. TalentSmartEQ, the world’s premier provider of emotional intelligence (EQ) solutions, has released its 2026 State of EQ Report, examining how leaders and organizations navigate rising economic uncertainty, rapid change and the acceleration of AI adoption. The report reveals that the human skills required to make technology effective are now the strongest predictor of organizational performance in an AI-driven world. Drawing insights from nearly 700 leadership, HR and L&D professionals and EQ data from more than 23,000 individuals, this year’s report shows a widening gap between companies’ technological ambition and their human readiness to execute. “Technology has dominated the workplace conversation, but data continues to show that technology doesn’t create performance, people do,” said Howard Farfel, TalentSmartEQ CEO. “As AI adoption accelerates, the organizations coming out ahead in 2026 are deliberately building the people skills that allow leaders and teams to think clearly, stay steady under pressure and execute when conditions are uncertain.” Four themes that will define a company’s performance in the next three to five years: Build the “Human Skills Stack” When asked which skills will matter most in the years ahead, the top response was keeping up with technology, followed closely by adaptability to change, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and communication. Together, these capabilities form an integrated “human skills stack” that enables technology to deliver results. EQ sits at the center, shaping how leaders…

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. Rachel Barr on recall: “When we switch from books to screens, we’re also changing how we interact with information. Which introduces a new variable time. Online searches deliver results instantly, but this speed can flood our working memory—the brain’s sketchpad for holding and manipulating information in real time. Working memory has its limits, and scribbling too many notes too quickly can mean the ideas get muddled and lost. By contrast, the slower pace of searching through a book naturally aligns with the brain’s capacity to absorb information. The act of searching creates a pause that allows working memory to empty its contents, shuffling some of those items onto the next stage of processing to become short-term memories. The lesson here isn’t thar the internet is a threat to memory; it’s that it operates at a faster pace than we do.” Source: How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend II. Robert Greene on learning by doing: “The problem with formal education is that it instills in us a passive approach to learning. We read books, take tests, or maybe write essays. Much of the process involves absorbing information. But in the real world, we learn best by doing, by actively trying our hand at the task. The brain is designed to learn through constant repetition and active, hands-on involvement. Through such practice and persistence,…

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. Nir Eyal on change: “Positive thinking alone so often fails to create lasting transformation. Simply telling yourself you have control isn’t enough. Your brain needs direct evidence that change is possible. Every small victory that proves our actions matter helps build beliefs that override our default passivity.” Source: Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results II. Paul Ingram on values-based leadership: “Individuals are more motivated when they are responding to intrinsic motivations, such as when they are acting in accordance with their values. Leaders who affirm their values tap into this benefit, but they also invite others to think about their own priorities. Good leaders know that it is better to explain your thinking, and let followers reach their own conclusions as to how to behave, than to issue commands. Values-affirmed leaders are more likely to give their followers this opportunity.” Source: What Do You Really Stand For?: The One Question That Will Transform Your Work and Life * * * 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.  …

YOU can have an amazing business plan and strategy, but if there are issues with recruiting and keeping your people, your strategy will fail. Finding the right people and incorporating essential elements so that they will stay, are key to managing your organization’s greatest asset — your people. It starts with hiring for fit. Let’s say, hypothetically, that you could have two companies in the same industry in adjacent buildings. They may have very similar business models and customer bases; however, the two owners have very different values and personal philosophies — which lead to very different cultures and, therefore, very different strategies and plans. The target candidates for each company will be very different given the values and cultural differences. The way candidates are sourced, hired, trained, deployed, engaged, and evaluated might be very different. I know of two competing companies in which one has a strict uniform policy, and the other doesn’t. Can you see how that would affect everything? Looking back at my career, I can remember working for companies where I didn’t fit in. I can also recall places where I felt fully engaged. From a talent management perspective, it’s necessary to clearly define — and relay as early in the recruiting process as possible — what it means to “fit in” with your company. Strategies and plans can then be formulated to increase the company’s chances of attracting and hiring the candidates that fit that definition. Some organizations think that fitting in somehow happens…

IN MANY organizations, productivity is flat while stress and burnout are climbing. While many blame the unmanageable workload, the problem is really the overwhelming thoughtload. Thoughtload is the invisible tax on performance and productivity that comes from a treacherous triad of rising cognitive demands, escalating emotional burdens, and declining energy reserves. As thoughtload increases, it’s less likely that team members will be productive, creative, or collaborative. Managers need to support their teams in reducing each component of thoughtload, but first, they need to address their own chaotic experience. It’s impossible to manage the madness if you’re creating it. Focus Your Distracted Attention While the endgame is for you to reduce your team’s thoughtload, you cannot manage the madness if you’re caught up in it. Just think of all the ways your thoughtload impacts your team members. If your attention is diluted across a vast range of issues and initiatives, your team won’t know what to prioritize. If you’re nervous, impatient, demoralized, or hostile, you’ll pass that emotionality on to your people. If you’re run down, exhausted, and uninspired, how do you expect your direct reports to have pep in their step? You need to tackle your thoughtload first. But where to start, given that your attention, emotions, and energy are so intimately intertwined? I always tackle attention first, because you have no hope of taming emotions or restoring energy if you don’t manage your attention. The Achievable Ambition: Focused and Flowing Before we talk about how to effectively focus…

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. Greg Satell on change: “It is never enough to merely state grievances to challenge the status quo. To create meaningful change, you must put forward an affirmative vision for what you want the future to look like. This is not about messaging. It’s not enough to merely express your grievances more artfully. You have to define an alternative that is actually better, not just for those who agree with you, but for the vast majority of those who will be affected by the change you seek.” Source: Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change II. Richard S. Tedlow on seeking truth: “Denial is a powerful impulse, but we are not entirely powerless to resist it. Through self-knowledge, openness to criticism, and receptivity to facts and perspectives that challenge our own, we can arm ourselves against denial. This is easier said than done.” Source: Denial: Why Business Leaders Fail to Look Facts in the Face—and What to Do About It * * * 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.  …

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. Frank Barrett on Provocative Competence: “Leadership as design activity means creating space, sufficient support, and challenge so that people will be tempted to grow on their own. The goal is the opposite of conformity: a leader’s job is to create the discrepancy and dissonance that trigger people to move away from habitual positions and repetitive patterns. I’ve come to think of this key leadership capacity as ‘provocative competence.’” Source: Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz II. Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske on self-awareness: “Developing your sense of Self-Awareness not only helps you gauge how you are likely to react in a given situation, but it can also provide some in-sight into the people around you. Having a stable sense of self can therefore ground you in situations when many other circumstances are beyond your immediate control.” Source: The Winner’s Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve Success * * * 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’S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in April 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month. Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business by Marcus Buckingham Think about the last time you said, "I love that." Maybe it was about a product that exceeded expectations, a service experience that built instant loyalty, or a moment when your work brought out the best in you. That reaction isn’t just emotional—it’s electric. In the organization, it fuels engagement, strengthens performance, and drives lasting success. Yet most leaders don’t even acknowledge it, let alone measure or make use of it. In Design Love In, leading researcher on human performance and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham reveals how love—the deep connection that makes people feel seen, valued, and inspired—isn’t just a soft feeling. It’s a measurable driver of performance and growth. He shows how leaders, as experience-makers, can intentionally "design love in" to everything we do: our interactions with team members, our company policies and practices, the products and services and experiences we create for those we lead and serve. Leading in Chaos: A Clarion Call To A New Future From Two Pioneers In Leadership Development And Transformational Change by Nicholas Janni and Amy Elizabeth Fox Increasingly today we find ourselves surrounded by chaos, turbulence and existential threats. We are at a destiny-shaped moment for humanity that calls for a next level…

Here is a selection of Posts from March 2026 that you will want to check out: Difficult Conversations Don’t Have To Be So Difficult by @davidburkus Why Your Leadership Training isn’t Working by @stopyourdrama Marlene Chism Lindy Library: The 0.1% Of Ideas I’ve Found by @george__mack Excellence Is Not a Performance Target via @AdmiredLeaders Beneath the Surface of Leadership Development by @DanReiland The Quiet Signals Every Great Leader Notices (That Others Miss) by @WScottCochrane Why Being Good, Fast and Cheap Is the Most Radical Thing a Brand Can Do via @MusebyClio by John Stapleton If Your Email Is Too Long, Your Thinking Isn’t Finished by @PhilCooke Before hitting send, ask yourself a simple question: What is the one thing I’m trying to say? Be Better by @James_Albright The world we live in needs it. The people we serve and lead need it. Be better. Monomaniacal by @KevinPaulScott Obsessive focus on a single idea, goal, or pursuit Why AI May Lead to More Work, Not Less by Jacqueline Isaacs via @FaithWorkEcon In many cases, AI tools are actually expanding human work. Are You Empowering or Controlling? by @samchand 2:27 VIDEO AI Makes Designing Faster. But Are We Thinking Less? by @gokhankurt This applies to leadership as well. The Psychology of Prediction by @morganhousel 12 common flaws, errors, and misadventures that occur in people’s heads when predictions are made POV: The creative agency model is dead – that’s why I shut mine down by Madison Utendahl via @itsnicethat When the Crisis…

BEST practices are often viewed as the key to success in the business world. Certifications to prove practitioners are competent in accordance with a best practice make sense at the surface. However, they’ve become psychological cover that create mediocre results at best. It’s reassuring to be able to point at the protocol and say, “I followed the best practice. It’s not my fault.” Take project management, for example. Most project managers I’ve met (my younger self included) come from technical backgrounds who love best practices. I genuinely thought project management was about following the best practice and forcing people to follow my plan. Spoiler alert: That didn’t work. With today’s disruption and volatility, “business as usual” means little when there’s no “usual” anywhere in sight. Although Disruption and Volatility would make great names for a law firm, they require an adaptive approach to ensure survival and sustainability. Best practices bring a false measure of certainty for keeping threats at bay. However, they’re largely irrelevant as they’re developed by looking in the rearview mirror according to what worked under the conditions at that time. The solution is enhancing critical thinking to navigate complexity in real time. These days, to be successful, you need to be adaptable. This requires developing the critical thinking skills to solve the unique challenges your situation presents. To do so, follow these tips: 1. Don’t Mistake Motion for Mastery Attending endless meetings, always agreeing with leadership, escalating decisions, and “checking the boxes” that show you observed…

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.