Respect - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

When You’re Too Valuable to Promote, Leadership Mentoring Is the Move

When the missing skill is leadership mentoring, leaders can stall even if when they and their teams are high performing. Leadership mentoring is an essential leadership skill, one that often gets short shrift in busy organizations when everyone seems to be stretched to their limit. Ironically, even in great organizations, leaders can plateau when they have built something that’s working exceptionally well. In fact, I’ve spoken to several team leaders who have passed up a chance at promotion because they…

The Relationship Layer Most Capable Leaders Undervalue

February 6, 2026

Alignment and Effective 1:1s

Many leadership challenges that appear strategic or operational actually have their roots in leadership relationships. At senior levels, leadership stops being primarily about execution and starts being about relationships. Not relationships in the social sense.Not networking.Not politics. But the quality of working relationships that determine whether influence flows, trust holds under pressure, and decisions actually move groups forward. Many capable leaders underestimate this layer—not because they don’t value people, but because earlier success rarely depended on it. Key Takeaways: Why…