Emotional awareness is the only skill that predicts leadership success.
If you’re missing feedback signals as a leader, it’s a sign of your own growth. Learn to listen differently to grow more. At some point, nearly every leader misses a feedback sgnal. There was a moment when I, too, found myself missing feedback signals as a leader. Here’s a story of how I missed a signal and made a decision that nearly cost me my company—and what I learned that helped me grow further. I remember announcing the decision and…
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If you’re wondering why leadership stops working, consider the impact of the scale of your job. Has encouraging others replaced doing it yourself? In my clients, I see why leadership stops working pretty often. For example, a senior leader I worked with had doubled his firm’s size and revenue and could clearly see a path to doubling again. Yet he was increasingly frustrated. Mistakes were creeping in, and his team didn’t seem as committed as he was. As the organization…
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The Value of Strong Leadership Shows Up in Results The value of strong leadership isn’t abstract or theoretical. It shows up in faster execution, fewer mistakes, lower turnover, and teams that solve problems before they escalate. In most organizations, managers at the same level are judged on similar criteria: results. Everyone is busy. Everyone has their own work to deliver. What separates effective leaders from struggling ones is not effort or authority—it’s how well their teams perform. Organizations don’t just…
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If experience automatically produced self-awareness in leadership, leading would get easier every year. But many capable, experienced leaders find the opposite happens. They work harder. They carry more responsibility. And yet certain problems keep resurfacing—miscommunication, friction, disengagement, decisions that don’t land as intended. This isn’t a lack of intelligence or effort.It’s a misunderstanding of how self-awareness in leadership actually works. Key Takeaways: Why Even Smart, Experienced Leaders Still Miss Things The Two Types of Self-Awareness Leaders Need Self-awareness in leadership…
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Self-Reflection for Leaders Quietly separates strong leaders from stuck ones. Strong leaders understand something many people overlook: self-reflection for leaders is not downtime. It’s a performance skill. For some leaders, the quietest week of the year feels… strange. Meetings slow down. Decisions pause. Some people are fully offline, while others are half-working from home. For leaders accustomed to a fast pace, this lull can feel uncomfortable—or even unproductive. If you find yourself restless during this quiet time, it may be…
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Strong leadership decisions depend less on having the right answer and more on confident decision making when the stakes are high. During disruption, crisis, or uncertainty, there is always an emotional reaction. That is human. But effective leaders know how to steady themselves, control their impulses, and create just enough space to respond clearly rather than react emotionally. They reconnect with their values. They consider the impact on their team, stakeholders, and customers. Then they move forward with clarity. That…
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