• Why Smart Leaders Still Misread People

• Why Behaviour Is Usually a Symptom

• The 6 Human Needs, Explained Simply

• How to Start Using This With Your Team

• Real-World Leadership Scenarios

• The 6 Human Needs Worksheet & Mindmap

• Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

• Final Thoughts

Why Smart Leaders Still Misread People

I find this one of the strangest parts of leadership: I can work with smart, capable, well-intentioned people, and still feel confused by their behaviour.

For example:

• One engineer on my team needs constant clarity before she acts, while another gets frustrated the moment things become too structured.

• One technical lead keeps pushing for visibility and recognition, while another seems far more energized working in the background, as long as he is working on meaningful work.

• One manager resists change and prefers stability, while another gets bored if things don’t change fast enough.

I used to observe this behavior, but misread what was underneath it. Most leaders I speak to tell me they are in the same boat.

As leaders, we tell ourselves simple stories, and often attach “labels” to individuals:

• This team member is insecure.

• That one is difficult.

• This manager is ambitious.

• That one is disengaged.

Sometimes those labels are not completely wrong, but they are usually incomplete. They describe the “surface”, not the engine underneath it.

I find that a lot of leadership gets easier when you stop reacting only to behaviour, and start asking what might be driving it.

Why Behavior Is Usually a Symptom

At work, behaviour is what we see first. In the examples I shared earlier, behavior is what is visible: resistance, defensiveness, restlessness, neediness, etc.

But behaviour is often just the visible expression of something deeper.

I remember having a team member who would push back on every change, and I thought he was just ‘negative’. But it turned out that he was protecting his need for stability. I had another, a high performer, who suddenly seemed restless, and I thought he was being ungrateful and impatient. Turned out, he was starving for growth, and needed more.

I’m not saying that every behavior should be ‘excused’. Absolutely not. All I’m saying is that we should be more careful when we interpret behavior.

The reality is, most leaders in the corporate world are trained to ‘drive outcomes’ and ‘address performance’. And that does matter, of course. But I strongly feel that you can be more effective as a leader when you also get better at reading the emotional logic underneath what people do. When you learn to do that, you will further amplify the business results, not hurt them.

One of the simplest ways I’ve found to do that is through a model popularized by Tony Robbins called the 6 Human Needs.

Let’s now look at how that works.

The 6 Human Needs, Explained Simply

The model suggests that all human beings are driven, in different degrees, by six core needs:

1. Certainty

2. Variety

3. Significance

4. Love & Connection

5. Growth

6. Contribution

1. Certainty is the need for stability, predictability, and a sense of control. At work, this often shows up as a desire for clarity, structure, process, and low ambiguity. Many team members prefer working in stable and predictable environments.

2. Variety is the need for novelty, change, challenge, and stimulation. At work, it often shows up as a hunger for fresh problems, movement, experimentation, and less routine. I’ve seen many team members crave for variety, taking on challenging assignments related to areas they haven’t worked on before.

3. Significance is the need to feel important, valued, respected, or uniquely seen. At work, this can show up as a desire for ownership, recognition, influence, or visible impact. Many, if not most, team members want to be seen, and recognized for the impact they are making.

4. Love & Connection is the need for trust, belonging, closeness, and emotional connection. At work, this often shows up as a desire for team bond, support, trust, and a sense of belonging. This keeps team members engaged and feel a sense of shared ‘care’ for their wellbeing.

5. Growth is the need to learn, improve, stretch, and become better. At work, it shows up as a hunger for challenge, development, feedback, and progress. High performing team members who are studious often seek fast growth and progress in their career.

6. Contribution is the need to help, serve, support, or make a meaningful difference. At work, this often shows up as a desire for purpose, impact, service, and the feeling that one’s work matters to others. This helps to connect the dots between what a team member does, and why that matters to the organization as a whole.

For me, the biggest realization with this model is that as humans, we are not simply reacting to the task in front of us. We are (often unconsciously) trying to protect or satisfy one of those deeper needs within us.

One more thing to keep in mind is that the needs themselves aren’t inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’. What matters is how they are being met by the individual, or by the organizational culture itself:

• Need for certainty. One team member may meet that need by being reliable or calm, while the other may meet that same need by being rigid or resistant to change.

• Need for significance: One team member can show up as confident with a sense of ownership, while another may become defensive or performative.

• Need for connection: In some teams, this can show up as trust and belonging, while in others, it can show up as toxic positivity.

Ultimately, the context matters.

So, how do you start using this framework with your team? The good news is that you don’t need to be a psychologist or a psychoanalyst to use it.

There’s a much simpler way, which we will look at next.

How to Start Using This With Your Team

In order to apply this model in your own team, you just need to take a step back, analyze the need, and then craft your response accordingly.

I like to think of it as the three-step process:

Behaviour → Need → Response

Let’s look at each step one by one.

Read more

I’m Bobby Powers, and I run the Leader & Learner publication, where I share two posts per week for curious leaders and learners.

To me, those two topics—leading and learning—have always been intertwined. As soon as I began managing teams, I realized how little I actually knew about leadership, so I turned to books to fill in my knowledge gaps.

When I had to fire someone in my first manager role, books taught me how to be candid but kind. When I began public speaking, books taught me how to tell better stories. And when I was struggling with impostor syndrome, books showed me that many others have felt the same way (one of those books is even included below).

In the past decade, I’ve come to especially love business biographies and memoirs. Below are the five that have taught me the most (alphabetized by author’s last name). The founders and executives in these books have faced wild challenges, and I’ve incorporated their lessons into my own leadership.

These books have also taught me what to avoid as a leader. A couple of the books below are about people I mostly don’t want to emulate. Their lives have served as cautionary tales to help me avoid becoming rich but miserable.

Note: I take copious notes in all of the books I read, including writing my biggest takeaways in the back cover, so I included a picture of my back cover notes for each book.

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

“You have to ask the questions you need to ask, admit without apology what you don’t understand, and do the work to learn what you need to learn as quickly as you can. There’s nothing less confidence-inspiring than a person faking a knowledge they don’t possess. True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.” -Bob Iger

Iger served as CEO of Disney for almost 20 years. (Actually, he just stepped down two weeks ago.) His book reads as half memoir, half leadership manual. It’s one of the most honest memoirs I’ve ever read. He even talks about co-workers whom he had difficulty working with at ABC and Disney.

It’s refreshing to read an author who is candid yet still assumes the best of intentions of his colleagues. I learned a lot from this book.

Key Takeaways

• Lead with confident humility. Almost everyone feels impostor syndrome (even Iger). The key is to ask for help with your weaknesses while also leading with confidence in your areas of strength.

• Roone Arledge, the old head of ABC Sports, taught Iger that “good enough” isn’t good enough. Details matter more than you think because “the success or failure of something so often comes down to the details.”

• If something is important to one of your direct reports, clients, or bosses, take the time to learn why it’s so important to them. That’s one of the best ways to empathize with someone and understand more about them as a person.

• When the stakes of a project are already high, make sure you don’t put additional pressure on your team. Doing so is counterproductive.

Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson

“He’s amazingly successful getting people to march across a desert. He has a level of certainty that causes him to put all of his chips on the table.” -Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn cofounder), re: Elon Musk

Soooo much to learn from Musk, both good and bad. He’s one of the most intense people I’ve ever read about, and his passion for changing the world and paying extreme attention to small details is unparalleled.

I’ve read many of Walter Isaacson’s biographies, and this is now probably my favorite—not because I think Musk is a good person (he’s horrible), but because he’s fascinating. Many things shocked me in this book, including how ruthless Musk can be. (For example, he fired or laid off about 80% of Twitter’s workforce within months of taking over the company!)

Key Takeaways

• Absolute power in a company is dangerous. Every leader needs people to keep them in check. The more rich and powerful you become, the harder you need to work to ensure you’re not surrounded by sycophants.

• Spend tons of time on “the machine that builds the machine.” Ironing out small kinks in your operations will make all of your work more efficient and profitable.

• Question every requirement. If you don’t know if a part or process is necessary, remove it and see what happens, then iterate from there. Don’t work to optimize a process that should instead be removed.

• Rich ≠ Happy. Musk is a miserable human, and you can tell by reading his tweets and watching his interviews. Don’t strive to be rich or powerful. Strive to treat others well and build something beautiful in the world.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

“Each new day brought fifty new problems, fifty tough decisions that needed to be made, right now, and we were always acutely aware that one rash move, one wrong decision could be the end.” -Phil Knight

Shoe Dog is a great peek into the realities of entrepreneurship and leadership. Nike co-founder Phil Knight reveals the struggles he faced when starting the iconic sports apparel company, including almost losing his business.

Reading a book like this is such a mind-trip because you know going in that Nike is a multibillion-dollar powerhouse, but every page of the memoir feels like the company will never make it.

Key Takeaways

• Even the most famous and successful founders had a rough go of it. Persevere.

• Business success is a rollercoaster of massive ups (if you’re lucky) and gut-wrenching downs. You must survive the downs to be around to make money from the ups.

• Leadership requires a thousand tradeoff decisions: Which suppliers are you willing to work with? Stay private or go public? How much should you diversify your product line?

Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli

“His was a truly Shakespearean tale, full of arrogance, intrigue, and pride, of perceived villains and ham-handed fools, of outrageous luck, good intentions, and unimagined consequences.” -Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, re: Jobs

I’ve read multiple biographies about Steve Jobs, including the famous bestseller by Walter Isaacson. This one is my favorite because it paints Jobs in shades of gray: hard-working genius, impatient a**hole, caring human, and passionate creator.

Schlender knew Jobs personally for over 25 years, and he tells numerous stories you won’t find in any other Jobs bio.

Key Takeaways

• Even the best public speakers in the world (like Jobs) spent hundreds of hours perfecting their craft. No one is just “naturally good” at difficult things.

• Vision is one of the most underrated aspects of strong leadership. As Jobs’s wife Laurene said of him, “He imagined what reality lacked, and he set out to remedy it. His ideas were not arguments but intuitions, born of a true inner freedom. For this reason, he possessed an uncannily large sense of possibility—an epic sense of possibility.” That’s why we have products like the iPhone today.

• Anyone who’s trying to do something bold and new will be misunderstood (and sometimes thought to be crazy).

• Failure is not fatal. Jobs was even kicked out of his own company, but later became one of the most famous innovators in history.

The Everything Store by Brad Stone

“You have to start somewhere. You climb the top of the first tiny hill and from there you see the next hill.” -Jeff Bezos

Amazon is arguably the most interesting company in the world. In The Everything Store, journalist Brad Stone pulls back the curtain on the company, warts and all. He explains what makes the company successful while also sharing some surprising stories about Bezos and the company’s cutthroat culture.

You’ll learn how Bezos came to create the online retailer and what principles he instilled into Amazon to make it the behemoth it is today.

Key Takeaways

• Secure a toehold in a narrow field (like books, in Amazon’s case), then expand from there.

• The best way to dominate a field is to become absolutely obsessed with your customer. Find out what they want and build the business around them. If you relentlessly focus on the customer, profits eventually follow.

• Rigorously evaluate every prospective employee to join your company. Businesses live or die on their talent.

• Bake your core values into everything you do. For example, Amazon’s 16 leadership principles drive every decision at the company.

I loved these biographies and memoirs. If you want to learn more about managing a team, I’m sure you’ll love them too. Drop me a comment below if you have any other business biography recs I should check out next!

And if you enjoyed this guest post, I’d be honored for you to subscribe to my publication, Leader & Learner. Every Tuesday and Thursday, you’ll receive a post that will teach you about leadership, communication, and personal development.

*Note: Each book above includes an affiliate link from Bookshop.org. If you purchase one, you’ll support me and local bookstores at no extra cost to you. Win-win!

• Good work doesn’t always get recognized

• Why Leaders Need to Get Better at Advocacy

• The STAR Technique: How it works

• Applying the STAR Technique

• Real-world leadership scenarios where STAR helps

• The STAR Technique Worksheet & Mind-map

• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Final Thoughts

Good work doesn’t always get recognized

A few years ago, I came out of a calibration discussion (with 20+ other managers) with a nagging feeling.

One of my team members, who I had recommended for promotion, had come up in the conversation. He was a Sr. Software Engineer, and I strongly believed that he was already performing at the next level of Principal Engineer. He wasn’t just technically strong, he also demonstrated strong technical leadership, communication, and ownership.

But as the discussion unfolded, I felt that my case wasn’t landing as strongly as it should have. Ultimately, he was dropped from the promotee list as “not yet ready”.

After the meeting, I kept replaying the meeting in my head, thinking “I didn’t do justice to his work.” I thought I could have presented more compelling examples and story to support his case.

I’ve seen this play out with other managers, too.

One of the responsibilities of a manager is not just to support their team while they do the work. It’s also to advocate for them when they’re not in the room.

And that’s where many good leaders fall short.

Even though they genuinely care about their team members, they reply on “vague praise” when the moment actually needs structured evidence.

That’s when I started appreciating the value of a simple framework that most people only associate with interviews: The STAR Technique.

In this article, we will discuss how you can use this simple technique to advocate for yourself and your team with clarity, credibility and confidence.

Why Leaders Need to Get Better at Advocacy

Contrary to popular assumption, I believe that one of the most important parts of leadership happens when your team members are not in the room.

That’s when you’re often asked to make a judgment call.

• Is this person ready for more?

• Did this project really create impact?

• Should this person get the opportunity, the visibility, or the promotion?

And in those moments, good intentions are not enough.

You may know that your team member is strong, that he stepped up, and made a difference. But if you can’t explain that clearly and convincingly, it will likely not make an impact on the others in the room.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

A lot of strong work gets undervalued not because it lacked substance, but because it lacked advocacy.

And this doesn’t just apply to your team. It applies to you, too.

There will be moments when you need to make the case for your own readiness, your own impact, or your own growth. Maybe it’s a bigger role, or a more challenging assignment, or even a seat at a more strategic table.

In all of these moments, whether for your team or yourself, the challenge is the same:

You need to translate ‘great work done’ into an ‘impactful story’ that people can understand, trust, and remember.

That’s where the STAR Technique becomes useful.

The STAR Technique: How it works

The STAR Technique is a simple framework for turning experience into a clear, compelling story. It gives structure to your examples so that other people can quickly understand what happened, what was at stake, what was done, and why it mattered.

It has four elements or parts:

Situation

Start by setting the stage. What was happening, and why did it matter? Keep this to the point, with just enough context for the listener to understand the environment you or your team member were operating in.

Task

Next, make the challenge clear. What needed to be done? What problem were you trying to solve, or what responsibility were you stepping into? This is where you define the stakes.

Action

Then, get specific about what was actually done. What steps did you or your team take? This is where many leaders stay too high level. Be clear about the actions that made the difference, especially your or your team member’s role in it.

Result

Finally, highlight the outcome. What changed because of those actions? What improved, got delivered, or moved forward? Include numbers, anecdotes, or any other evidence to back this up. This is the part people remember.

As you can tell from the flow above, STAR helps you move from opinion to evidence. And that’s what makes it so powerful when you need to advocate for yourself or your people. People can challenge your opinions, but it’s way harder to challenge hardcore evidence.

Applying the STAR Technique

Read more

Modern leadership advice tends to glorify “charisma”.

We often like leaders who:

• inspire their team with bold visions

• speak with confidence

• bring “energy” into meetings

And to be fair, charisma isn’t all that bad. It’s helpful when you need to rally your team, or spark motivation.

But it has a hidden (and, should I say, serious) limitation:

Charisma creates emotional spikes. But in practice, leadership requires emotional stability, not spikes.

True, impactful, leadership is built in the ordinary, repetitive, and often unglamorous parts of work:

• How priorities are reinforced

• How decisions are made

• How leaders react under pressure

• How consistently people are treated

And this is exactly why truly effective leadership often looks… a little boring.

To be clear, I’m not talking about boring in the sense of dull or uninspiring, but boring in the sense of being calm, predictable, and steady under pressure.

What Actually Compounds in Leadership

You’ve probably heard about the power of compounding in the context of money, fitness, or habits.

I think the same principle applies in leadership.

Just like:

• Regular exercise builds strength

• Disciplined investing builds wealth

• Repeated habits shape identity

Leadership works the same way. In leadership, the behaviors you repeat become:

• your reputation

• your team’s expectations

• eventually, your culture

The key thing to remember is that teams don’t follow what you say once. They follow what you do repeatedly.

Where “Boring” Leaders Quietly Outperform Everyone Else

You might be thinking: if consistency is what compounds, where does it matter most? Let’s look at five areas where steady, low-drama leadership tends to outperform charisma by a long shot.

1. Consistency in Priorities Builds Clarity

I’ve come across many leaders who, often unintentionally, create noise by:

• introducing new initiatives too frequently

• changing direction without closure

• reacting to urgency instead of reinforcing strategy

They often do this as the sense of ‘motion’ gives them energy. They think they are being ‘agile’ by allowing rapid changes in priority or direction.

But the best leaders do something simpler, and should I say, harder.

They repeat what matters.

They reinforce the same priorities until they become clear and second nature.

💡 What this clarity does is almost magical: it creates alignment, and the team moves faster towards what actually matters.

2. Consistency in Behavior Builds Trust

I once had a manager who would show up differently almost every time I saw him.

• Sometimes he would look stressed and closed

• Sometimes he was loud and provocative

• At other times, he would act friendly and approachable

The challenge for me was: I didn’t know what to expect the next time I met him, so I was always on high alert not to offend him or trigger some emotion.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review highlights that psychological safety, which is the foundation of high-performing teams, is driven by leadership behavior that is consistent, inclusive, and predictable.

My boss was showing the exact opposite behavior.

What I’ve found is that teams trust leaders they can ‘read’:

• how they react under pressure

• how they handle bad news

• how they treat people in disagreement

💡 When you are consistent in behavior, your team will feel more inclined to open up and trust you.

3. Consistency in Follow-Through Builds Credibility

Have you had a manager who would say things like:

• “I’ll get back to you.”

• “Let me look into this.”

• “We’ll fix this.”

And then… nothing happened?

These moments may seem ‘small’, but over time, they accumulate and build your reputation. And, not a great one at that.

A leader’s credibility is not about what they intend to do or what they say they will do. It’s about their actions, their follow-throughs.

💡 Leaders who build strong teams are the ones who consistently follow through on what they say, not just make empty promises.

4. Consistency in Feedback Builds Performance

Many managers treat feedback as an ‘event’.

They set up a formal meeting as part of the annual performance review, read a long list of ‘feedback notes’, and then disappear for another year.

And when they do that, they create everything but actual improvement in performance. The team members end up walking out of that meeting even more confused and anxious.

Great managers treat feedback as a system. They create a rhythm of:

• regular 1:1s

• ongoing coaching

• frequent, low-drama feedback

According to Gallup, employees who receive regular, meaningful feedback are significantly more engaged and productive.

💡 Teams improve faster when feedback is regular enough to be useful,
not dramatic enough to be memorable.

5. Consistency in Values Builds Culture

I’ve worked in teams and organizations where they proudly decorate their office walls with their “value statements”, and show their “culture code” in official slide decks.

But in reality, culture is not what leaders say. It’s what they repeatedly tolerate, reward, and reinforce on the ground.

I once had a manager who would frequently say things like:

• “We value transparency.”

• “We encourage ownership.”

• “People come first.”

But he would end up doing the exact opposite when it came to behavior and action.

A leader’s actions directly translate into the team’s reaction:

• When the leader punishes bad news → the team members start hiding problems

• When the leader micromanages → the team loses the sense of ownership

• When the leader ignores burnout → “people first” becomes just a slogan

And over time, these patterns and behaviors evolve and form the real culture of the team.

💡 In the end, culture isn’t defined by your value statements. It’s defined by what you consistently allow, reward and repeat.

Final Thoughts

The most effective leaders are not always the most magnetic. They are the ones people can count on.

From the outside, they often look… a little boring. They don’t rely on “occasional brilliance”. What they do rely on is repeated behavior.

They build trust through consistency, not intensity.

💬 Curious to hear your perspective: have you worked with a “boring” leader who turned out to be exceptional? Drop your notes in the comments. 👇

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We were looking back at why so many of our releases had been delayed. As we unpacked the pattern, one root cause stood out: our CI/CD system was unstable. It kept creating delays, rework, and last-minute fire drills. Needless to say, it was a source of frustration for everyone.

By the end of the discussion, we were “aligned”. We all agreed this was a real problem, and one we had to fix.

I left the room feeling good. We had clarity at last. I assumed that clarity would lead to action.

But guess what - it didn’t.

That’s when I realized something uncomfortable: Agreement means nothing if nothing changes.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources

This framework includes the 3 Conditions for Change Worksheet and Mind-map.

• Existing Practitioners: Download these from your Resource Library.

• Not a member yet? Join the ⚙️ Practitioner Ecosystem to unlock these resources, along with full Substack paid access, The Leader’s Playbook, the complete Practice Worksheets library, System Posters & Mind-maps, and the private practitioner community.

Why Most Change Efforts Fail

What I experienced at that offsite is not unusual. In fact, it’s how most change efforts play out.

You identify a problem, discuss it in detail, and align on what needs to be done. The conversation feels “productive”. Everyone understands the issue, and there is agreement on the path forward.

But then things stall.

The new behavior doesn’t show up on the ground. The old patterns creep back up. A few weeks later, you find yourself having the exact same conversation again, wondering why nothing really changed.

Why does this happen? Because nothing actually shifted in how your team thinks and acts. They may “agree” with you, but they aren’t really bought in.

If you start paying attention, you’ll see this pattern everywhere.

• A team agrees to improve quality, but deadlines keep taking priority.

• A group commits to better collaboration, but silos remain.

• A leader sets a new direction, but the team keeps working the old way.

On the surface, everything looks “right”. There is alignment, clarity, and a shared understanding of the problem. But underneath, something is missing.

And until you see what that is, you will keep solving the wrong problem.

Most leaders assume that change fails because people don’t “understand”. So they respond by explaining more, adding detail, and repeating the message in different ways.

But understanding alone was never the issue, and that’s why nothing actually changes.

The Psychology of Change

The mistake most leaders make is assuming that people are rational.

If something makes sense, they believe people will do it. It feels logical, almost obvious. After all, if the reasoning is sound and the benefits are clear, why wouldn’t people act? I had the same exact belief, too.

But that’s not how people work.

Think about your own life for a moment. There are things you already understand that you should be doing. You know you should exercise more, or spend less time on your phone, or have that difficult conversation you’ve been putting off. The logic is not missing, and the benefits are clear. And yet, you struggle to take action.

That gap between knowing and doing is where most change efforts break down.

And the reason is simple. Humans are emotional beings, and we don’t act based on logic alone. We act based on a combination of logic, emotion, and instinct.

No doubt - logic is important. It helps us understand the issue at hand, and answers the question, “Does this make sense?”

But understanding, by itself, rarely creates movement. For something to move, it has to matter. You need to care about the outcome in a real, deep way. It has to connect to something you value, something you feel.

Remember what I mentioned earlier - we are, at the very core, emotional beings.

But logic and emotions are also not enough for real change. There is still one more “barrier”, if you like.

Change often involves risk. It asks people to step into uncertainty, to try something new, to let go of what feels familiar. For humans, and for that matter, any living being, that’s uncomfortable. We crave familiarity, and our fear hormones (aka adrenaline) get triggered the moment we’re faced with something unfamiliar.

So you end up in a situation where people understand the change, and may even agree with it, but still don’t act because one of the deeper drivers of action is missing.

And unless you address those drivers, no amount of explaining will create real change.

The 3 Conditions for Change

So, what are those drivers for real change?

In my experience, change happens only when three conditions are present. Miss even one, and you’re likely to struggle with driving the change.

I call these the three conditions for change or the Change Triangle.

Let’s look at each of these conditions in a bit more detail.

Condition #1: Willingness (Head)

Willingness lives in the head. This is where our logical brain works to ‘understand’ the issue at hand.

Your team needs to see the problem, make sense of it, and believe that the change is valid. Without this, you will only get confusion. They will ask basic questions, or simply won’t get the “need” to change.

This is where most leaders spend their time. They explain the problem, share the data, and walk through the reasoning.

Condition #2: Desire (Heart)

Desire lives in the heart. This is about whether people actually care.

Do they want this change to happen? Does it connect to something that matters to them, whether that’s pride in their work, less frustration, or better outcomes for their team?

When desire is missing, you may not see open resistance. You may see something more dangerous. Your team members will nod, agree, but not fully ‘align’ with the need for change. They will see the change as someone else’s priority, not theirs.

Condition #3: Courage (Gut)

Courage comes from the gut. This is what turns intent into action.

Now, let’s face it: change often involves risk. It means trying something new, exposing gaps, or stepping out of a comfortable routine. Even when your team understands the change and wants it, they may still hesitate.

When courage is missing, you see delays, avoidance, and a tendency to fall back on old habits, especially under pressure.

How These Three Conditions Work Together

As we discussed, each of these conditions matters individually. But real change only happens when all three come together.

• You can have willingness without desire. That’s when people understand the change, but don’t care enough to act.

• You can have desire without courage. That’s when people want the change, but hesitate when it’s time to take action.

• You can have courage without willingness. That’s when people aren’t afraid to plunge into action, but they don’t know which direction to go, so the action becomes pointless.

The way I think about this is simple.

• Willingness gives you clarity.

• Desire gives you energy.

• Courage gives you movement.

To make any change effective, you need all three.

So how do you drive change effectively? Let’s look into that next.

How to Drive Change in Your Team

Read more

What struck me wasn’t just that he enjoys the game, but how he plays it.

The same child who rushes through homework or gets distracted easily suddenly becomes intensely focused. He pauses, evaluates, and thinks.

And in those moments, I see a level of strategic thinking that surprises me.

It made me reflect on something deeper.

Chess is well-known as the game of strategy, but its lessons extend far beyond the board. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how these principles shape not just better players, but better leaders.

In this article, I’ll share five timeless chess principles that can help you master the art of strategic leadership.

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Principle #1. Think Ahead

Ever wondered what chess players do most of the time?

They think.

And they don’t just think. They think ahead, well into the future of the game.

Skillful players plan multiple moves ahead and have a long-term vision of the game. Their ultimate goal is to win the game.

For example, a player may choose to sacrifice a pawn in the current move to create a strong position or launch an attack several moves later. Maybe the pawn’s end brings a new angle, a new perspective to the game. Maybe it opens up the field for the rook, or the bishop. Or it just distracts the opponent.

Either way, chess masters keep their eyes on the final outcome the entire time, while skillfully inching move-by-move closer to it. They see small intentional losses as milestones that lead them to their goal, instead of getting emotionally attached to them.

Similar to chess players, effective strategic leaders develop a vision for the future, and set long-term goals and objectives for their organization.

As a strategic leader, you must always, and I say always, drive toward the vision and mission.

You should be willing to make decisions today that are going to reap benefits in the future.

As an example, a tech company may choose to invest in research and development for a new product idea that may take years to develop, but has the potential to revolutionize the industry.

👉🏼 As a strategic leader, you keep your eyes on the mission and vision.

Frameworks to set the vision and purpose:

Principle #2. Anticipate Your Opponent’s Move

Have you noticed how chess players seem to be lost in thought, almost frozen in their position?

Well, they’re not exactly frozen. They are observing.

They observe the opponent’s moves far in the game, and their expressions, and pick up other visual and non-visual cues to stay one step ahead of their opponent.

Is he nervous, confident, or lost? Is she planning an attack? Am I missing a smart move?

A chess master takes all these hints and cues, and anticipates and builds a mental map of what the opponent’s game plan might be. And they feed that into their own counter-strategy and use that to launch a counter-attack later.

Similar to a chess player, as a strategic leader, you must keep your eyes and ears open at all times.

You should keep abreast with the latest developments in your industry, anticipate market trends, customer behaviors, competitor strategies, and any other external factors that may affect your organization and your mission.

You should be intimately familiar with your organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and be aware of external opportunities and threats that might come knocking on your doors.

The last thing you want to do is sit tight and ignore what is happening around you.

You need to strategize where your organization is headed, what forces are working in favor and against it, and what moves you need to take as a leader to guide it in the right direction.

👉🏼 As a strategic leader, you are aware of external opportunities and threats that impact you and your teams.

Frameworks to stay ahead of your competition:

Principle #3. Decide Your Next Move

Every move in chess, however innocent it might seem to the observers, involves decision-making.

Skillful chess players review scores of factors before making the decision: the current state of the board, the available resources, the opponent’s potential moves, the risks involved, etc. They run mental calculations, and analyze the permutations and combinations of their moves, before arriving at the final decision.

And they do this on Every. Single. Move.

For example, a player may choose to change his opening strategy based on the opponent’s playing style. And continue to calibrate every single move based on the previous move.

Just like a chess player makes decisions on every move, as a strategic leader you make decisions daily.

The nature and complexity of the decisions vary, from the choice of room we want to reserve for your next meeting, to who we want to promote on our team, or who should be let go.

As a strategic leader, you need to make decisions by analyzing the current situation, the risks involved, and understanding the implications in your organization.

As an example, to decide who on your team should be promoted, you need to review multiple factors beyond just their performance in the recent quarter/year: Is this person ready to take on the senior role? Do we have the budget and need for this position? Is this the right move for the organization as a whole?

👉🏼 As a strategic leader, you make thoughtful decisions every day.

Frameworks to make strategic bets and calculated decisions:

Principle #4. Adapt Your Strategy

Chess players are masters at adaptation.

They adapt their strategies based on their opponent’s moves, and the evolving dynamics of the game.

They continue to evolve their strategy and their approach with every move.

For example, if the opponent throws a curveball by unexpectedly sacrificing their rook, it is worth thinking and adjusting the game plan. Was that a stupid move? Is the opponent playing a mental game? Am I missing something obvious?

A player who starts defensively may become a super-aggressive player later in the game as the game evolves, and vice versa.

That is the beauty, and power, of adaptation.

Similar to a chess player, as a strategic leader, you must adapt your strategies and plans based on changes around you.

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there was a massive movement of customers to online platforms. This prompted leaders to evolve and adapt their business strategies so they could tap into and align with this new reality. Now, with the evolution of Artificial Intelligence, leaders are thinking about how they can leverage the power of AI to simplify workflows, and improve their team’s productivity.

👉🏼 As a strategic leader, you evolve your strategy continuously.

Frameworks to manage change and adaptation:

Principle #5. Manage Your Resources

Each chess player starts with exactly 16 pieces.

Each of those pieces has a specific value, a specific trait, and the player must manage these resources efficiently to gain an advantage.

A pawn is different from a bishop. A bishop is different from a knight. A knight is different from a queen.

Each of these pieces has its unique strengths and weaknesses. A skillful chess player knows how to use the pieces so they can work together as a team.

A grandmaster can win a game with 1/3 of the pieces, because he knows how to effectively use those pieces. He can coordinate the movement of the pieces around the board, and implement his strategy effectively.

Just like chess players have limited resources, as a leader you too have limited resources available at your disposal, whether it is human capital, financial resources, or other assets.

You must allocate the budget and people to different projects or initiatives to maximize the value generated.

As a strategic leader, you know the individuals in your team, and their strengths and weaknesses, and allocate assignments and roles to them to maximize the chances of success.

You create an environment and culture of trust and belonging, so your team members are motivated and energized to bring their best to the team.

👉🏼 As a strategic leader, you manage your resources efficiently and effectively.

Frameworks to manage resources efficiently:

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

Chess and strategic leadership have a lot in common.

Success in each of those requires a combination of foresight, adaptability, effective decision-making, and the ability to manage resources and risks.

In this article, we discussed the five timeless chess principles that leaders can apply to level up their strategic leadership skills:

1. Think Ahead. Chess players think and plan several moves ahead to stay on top of their game. Similarly, strategic leaders should be thinking and driving their organization toward the long-term vision and goals.

2. Anticipate the Opponent’s Move. Skillful chess players can anticipate what their opponent is thinking by reading cues and making inferences from the gameplay. Similarly, strategic leaders should be abreast of the competitive environment, and anticipate the opportunities and threats that may come their way.

3. Decide Your Next Move. Every chess move is a decision that needs to consider scores of factors. Similarly, leaders should weigh factors and risks when they make decisions to move their organization forward.

4. Adapt Your Strategy. Chess players adapt their strategy as the game progresses. Similarly, leaders should be always ready to adapt and evolve their strategy to stay competitive.

5. Manage Your Resources. Every chess player starts with exactly 16 pieces, and must skillfully manage those resources through the entire game. Similarly, leaders should be strategic and thoughtful about how they want to use their resources to maximize the returns.

Which of these principles resonates the most with you? Let me know in the comments! 👇

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In my one-on-one meeting, after acknowledging the work, he looked me dead in the eyes and asked, “What’s the boldest goal we have set this year?”

For a few seconds, I froze. I couldn’t think of anything.

The truth was, while we had had a stellar year, we hadn’t set any “bold” goals. We had been playing it safe - comfortable goals that we knew we could achieve.

That question stayed with me for days until I finally came across the concept of Big Hairy Audacious Goals (or BHAGs). It was the answer I was looking for.

In this article, we will learn how BHAGs work, how you can set them, and most importantly, how you can achieve them.

Here’s what we will cover:

• What are BHAGs?

• The Science Behind BHAGs

• Setting BHAGs

• Strategies to Achieve Your BHAG

• The BHAG Worksheet & Mind-map

• Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Further Reading

• Final Takeaway

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What are BHAGs?

Big Hairy Audacious Goals - or B-HAGs - were coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book Built to Last.

Unlike typical goals, BHAGs are bold, visionary, and ambitious targets that seem nearly impossible at first glance. But with the right strategy, they’re completely achievable.

BHAGs are an intersection of:

1. What your organization is deeply passionate about.

2. What you can be the best at in the world.

3. What drives your economic engine.

The key is for the goal to be ambitious, and inspiring, yet still economically relevant and an area in which your organization holds expertise.

BHAGs are meant to challenge you and your team, push boundaries, and propel your organization to new heights.

Looking for some inspiration? Here are some popular BHAGs:

SpaceX: “Enable human exploration and settlement of Mars”

Meta: “Make the world more open and connected” and “Give everyone the power to share anything with anyone.”

Google: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”

Microsoft (early days): “Put a computer on every desk and in every home.”

Boeing (1950): “Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age.”

The Science Behind BHAGs

Studies show that setting ambitious goals has a significant impact on performance. A survey by Harvard Business Review found that teams with clear, bold objectives are 37% more likely to outperform those with vague or moderate goals. Another report by Gallup indicated that employees who are involved in bold goal-setting are 3.6 times more engaged at work.

In short, if you want your team to be more engaged, motivated, and productive, you may want to try setting BHAGs.

Setting BHAGs

In this section, you will learn how to set BHAGs in your role as a leader.

• We will start by reviewing the 4 Steps to Setting a BHAG, a simple yet powerful process that you can start using right away.

• But setting BHAGs is not enough. We will then discuss some strategies you can adopt to achieve your BHAGs.

• Finally, we will make it real with the BHAGs Worksheet and the BHAGs Mind-map, which will help you build your muscle in applying and using this framework in your leadership role.

The 4 Steps to Setting a BHAG

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As leaders, we often find ourselves caught in the whirlwind of our job’s daily demands: constantly responding to emails, attending meetings, overseeing operations, and making decisions.

With all that “busy-ness,” we manage to convince ourselves that our presence is required for the smooth functioning of our teams and projects.

“If I miss responding to an email, or do not attend a meeting, it will derail the project.” — what a manager believes

But what happens when you step away? What happens if you don’t respond to that urgent email or give that high-profile meeting a miss?

Recently, I took a two-week vacation and (almost) completely disconnected from work emails and calls. Upon my return, I discovered a number of leadership lessons that I’m sharing in this article.

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Going on Vacation

Before diving into the lessons learned, let me set the stage. I’ve been leading a team of smart people for several years now, including managers, senior technical leaders, and their extended teams. We’ve worked hard to build a culture of trust, belonging, and open communication.

Despite this, I’d always felt a nagging worry about stepping away for an extended period.

What if something went wrong? What if critical decisions were delayed?

These concerns had previously led me to check in regularly during vacations, never fully disconnecting.

I would steal a glance or two at my email while waiting in line at the Disneyland queue or respond to a Slack message while waiting for our food to be served at a restaurant. Sound familiar?

This time was different.

I made a conscious decision to completely unplug for two full weeks.

No email checks, no quick calls.

Nothing.

I informed my team well in advance, ensured all ongoing projects had clear directions, and then… (oh my) I left…

The Return

Coming back to the office after two weeks of radio silence, it was difficult for me to pick up my laptop to check my email. I braced myself for an avalanche of emails with issues, delayed decisions, and a ton of things I needed to follow up on.

But guess what: to my utter surprise (with a mix of relief and amazement), I found none of that.

Instead, I was greeted by a team that had not just maintained the status quo but had thrived in my absence. Projects were on track, decisions had been made confidently, and any issues that had arisen were handled efficiently.

Even though I had shared my phone number so they could reach me during emergencies, nobody called. The team promptly took care of the customer escalations and production issues that came up during the time and even conducted a blameless postmortem (which I was frankly quite impressed with).

The Lessons

I eventually came to terms with what had happened and was nothing but proud (and I must say, a bit emotional) of my team.

As I started thinking about this from a leadership context, several profound realizations popped into my head:

💡Lesson #1 — Trust is the Foundation of Effective Leadership

The smooth operation of the team in my absence highlighted the importance of trust.

By stepping back, I had given my team the ultimate vote of confidence. This trust was well deserved, and they rose to the occasion magnificently.

They felt empowered to make the decisions they did and to respond to the escalations the way they did.

👉🏼 Lesson: Building a foundation of trust is crucial. When team members feel trusted, they’re more likely to take initiative, make decisions, and handle challenges independently.

🛠️ Frameworks to build trust:

💡Lesson #2 — Empowerment Leads to Growth

My absence created a space that allowed team members to step up and take on more responsibility.

They made decisions they might have previously deferred to me if I were around or available. They stepped up and solved the problems that presented themselves in a thoughtful and creative manner.

👉🏼 Lesson: Regularly stepping back (even when not on vacation) can create opportunities for team members to grow and develop their skills.

🛠️ Frameworks to build empowerment:

💡Lesson #3 — Clear Processes Matter More Than Constant Oversight

The fact that operations continued smoothly was a testament to the fact that we had strong processes in place.

The decision-making processes, clear lines of ownership and accountability, and the engineering processes and systems all functioned smoothly and guided the team’s actions and decisions in my absence.

👉🏼 Lesson: Invest time in developing clear, robust processes and systems. They’re the backbone that supports your team and makes your operations smoother and more efficient.

🛠️ Frameworks to set systems and processes:

💡Lesson #4 — Overinvolvement Isn’t Always Necessary

I realized that my constant availability, quick responses, and frequent check-ins might have been more about my own need for control than actual necessity.

During my absence, the team proved they could handle day-to-day operations and even significant decisions without constant communication or involvement from me.

👉🏼 Lesson: Trust your team to come to you when they truly need input. Constant availability can sometimes hinder rather than help. Only get involved where truly necessary.

🛠️ Frameworks to lead better by “getting out of the way”:

💡Lesson #5 — A Leader’s True Value Isn’t in Daily Operations

Seeing the team function so well in my absence made me reflect on where I add the most value as a leader.

It’s not in the day-to-day decision-making or problem-solving.

The place I should be spending most of my time is in the strategic aspect of my role: setting the vision, developing talent, and creating opportunities for my team to grow and develop.

👉🏼 Lesson: Focus your energy on high-level strategy and team development rather than getting bogged down in daily operations. Your team can handle those better than you can.

🛠️ Frameworks to spend time strategically:

💡Lesson #6 — Delegating Isn’t Just About Tasks, It’s About Authority

Many managers believe that delegation is about assigning “tasks” to their team members. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

This experience demonstrated the importance of delegating authority, not just the tasks. By being unavailable, I had unintentionally given my team the authority to make decisions, and they handled it admirably.

If you only delegate tasks, you are giving them a budget to spend while keeping the purse strings tight and expecting them to come to you for every spend. And we all know how suffocating that can be.

👉🏼 Lesson: Effective delegation involves transferring not just tasks, but also the authority to make decisions related to those tasks.

🛠️ Frameworks to delegate authority:

💡Lesson #7 — A Well-Prepared Team is a Resilient Team

The smooth operation during my absence was a testament to the team’s capability, skills, and drive.

It told me that all the years of effort we had spent on training, building domain knowledge, and the skills specific to their roles had paid off.

👉🏼 Lesson: Invest heavily in preparing your team and equipping them with the right resources to get their job done. The more knowledgeable and capable they are, the more resilient your organization becomes.

🛠️ Frameworks to provide support and coaching:

💡Lesson #8 — Sometimes, Stepping Back Allows Others to Step Up

My absence created opportunities for team members to step up and showcase their leadership skills and their initiative, which may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Those who proactively rose to the occasion and took on the challenge showed great potential in taking on leadership roles.

👉🏼 Lesson: Periodically create opportunities for team members to lead, even when you’re not on vacation. It can reveal hidden talents and future leaders, and automatically build up your leadership pipeline.

🛠️ Frameworks to support growth:

💡Lesson #9 — The Importance of Work-Life Balance

The fact that the world didn’t fall apart while I was on vacation reinforced the importance of work-life balance.

In all honesty, I have never enjoyed and really “experienced” a vacation like I did this time around. I was able to be with my family both physically and mentally, which helped me to relax and rejuvenate.

👉🏼 Lesson: Model good work-life balance practices. It benefits you, sets a positive example for your team, and keeps your team at their best levels of performance.

🛠️ Frameworks to develop the right balance of stress vs safety:

💡Lesson #10 — Ultimately, Leadership is About Creating Other Leaders

Perhaps the most profound realization was that true leadership isn’t about making yourself indispensable.

It’s about developing a team that can function effectively, with or without you.

In fact, the best leaders are always looking to make themselves redundant. That is the holy grail of leadership.

👉🏼 Lesson: Your success as a leader should be measured by how well your team performs in your absence.

🛠️ Frameworks to develop your team:

Final Thoughts

As leaders, we often fall into the trap of thinking that we constantly need to be connected, even when on vacation.

But what I realized after my two-week vacation was this:

As a leader, sometimes the best gift you can give your team is to step back, trust them, and let them shine.

💬 What was your biggest takeaway from your most recent vacation? Share your story in the comments! 👇

Leave a comment

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There’s a major project that’s been delayed, small urgent tasks piling up, and a new feature request from your top client. You feel the weight of everything on your shoulders. Where should you focus? What should your team tackle first?

Now, picture being in that situation almost every day.

That was me a few years ago.

As a leader managing multiple teams of software engineers, I often found myself lost in the sea of initiatives. Everyone (no surprises there) had an opinion on what was urgent, but not everything was truly important. I needed a system to help me cut through the noise.

Do you feel the same? You’re not alone.

In fact, a survey by Gallup found that 64% of managers feel overburdened by the sheer volume of tasks on their plates.

When I stumbled upon the Impact-Effort Matrix a few years ago, it completely revolutionized how I made decisions at work and beyond. With this post, I hope to empower you to do the same.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources: This framework includes the Impact-Effort Matrix Worksheet and the Impact-Effort Matrix Mind-map.

• Existing Practitioners: Download these from your Resource Library.

• Not a member yet? Join the ⚙️ Practitioner Ecosystem to unlock these resources, along with full Substack paid access, The Leader’s Playbook, the complete Practice Worksheets library, System Posters & Mind-maps, and the private practitioner community.

Part 1: Understanding the Impact-Effort Matrix

In this section, we will learn what the Impact-Effort Matrix is and how it works.

What is the Impact-Effort Matrix?

The Impact-Effort Matrix is a decision tool that helps you prioritize tasks and projects. It helps you to filter out what matters and needs immediate attention, and what can wait.

It looks at two simple factors:

• Impact - the value a task creates. You can think of this as the value proposition, or the business impact.

• Effort - the work needed to complete it. You can think of this as the complexity and investment needed to get the ‘value’ returns.

When you place initiatives along these two axes, you get four quadrants.

• Easy Wins (High Impact, Low Effort): These are tasks that deliver big results with little work. Do these first.

• Big Bets (High Impact, High Effort): These require time and resources, but the payoff is large. Plan these strategically.

• Fillers (Low Impact, Low Effort): These are easy tasks that add little value. Do them only if time allows.

• Money Pits (Low Impact, High Effort): These drain energy without much return. Avoid them whenever possible.

👉🏼 Once you place your work into these four boxes, priorities become obvious.

How the Impact-Effort Matrix Works

The power of this matrix is its simplicity.

Leaders often struggle because every task feels urgent. The matrix “forces” you to ask two clear questions.

• How much impact will this create?

• How much effort will it take?

When you step back and look at work through this lens, patterns appear quickly.

• You start spotting easy wins that were hiding in plain sight.

• You see which big initiatives deserve real investment.

• And you catch the time sinks that quietly drain your team’s energy.

To be clear, the matrix does not make decisions for you - it’s a ‘lens’. What it does do it is it makes the right decision more obvious and easier to see.

Why the Impact-Effort Matrix Matters for Managers

As a manager, your success depends on your ability to make smart decisions quickly. With resources always limited, prioritizing effectively is critical.

Research shows that poor prioritization leads to wasted time, burnout, and missed goals. In a study by the Harvard Business Review, teams that used structured prioritization frameworks like the Impact-Effort Matrix saw a 20% boost in productivity.

By using the matrix, you can cut down on time-wasting activities and focus on what truly moves the needle for your team.

Part 2: Applying the Impact-Effort Matrix

In this section, you will learn how to apply the Impact-Effort Matrix in your role as a leader.

• We will start with a simple four-step process you can run with your team.

• We will look at a practical example of how the matrix helps you decide between competing initiatives.

• You will get to try out the Impact-Effort Matrix worksheet and Mind-map, which you can use to run your own session with your team.

If you’re not already a member, choose your path:

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A few years ago, I was in a business review meeting with my team, looking at charts and reports that showed how our business was doing. The numbers didn’t look good, and as everyone around the table shared their thoughts, it became clear that no one agreed on what to do next.

There were a lot of ideas, worries, and quick fixes ,  but not much clarity.

I realized then that my job wasn’t just about making decisions; it was about seeing the bigger picture, noticing patterns others might miss, and guiding the team through the confusion.

That’s when I understood what makes a leader truly strategic.

Being a strategic leader isn’t just about having a vision or setting goals. It’s about building a set of skills that help you see changes before they happen, connect the dots, and lead your team through uncertain times. 

In this article, I’ll share the six key skills that every strategic leader needs ,  and how you can start developing them today.

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1. Pattern Recognition

Have you noticed how some topics keep coming up over and over again, but in different forms or appearances?

For example, if you are a people manager, you might notice that several of your team members are missing their individual goals and deadlines, and they’re calling in sick more often. While these might seem like individual-specific instances, they may be pointing at a bigger problem. Perhaps your team is not engaged because of the nature of the work they have been doing for the past six months, or perhaps you haven’t been looking after them. 

As another example, if you are a product manager, you might notice that mobile payments are becoming popular with younger buyers. As it stands, this stream of income is tiny compared to the traditional sources of revenue, so it is not seeing much attention just yet, but you can see the patterns and recognize the signs that this is something you and your company should be paying attention to.

As a strategic leader, you can recognize patterns, connect the dots, and act on them swiftly before it's too late.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Stay Curious: Always ask yourself why certain things are happening. Look for the “why” behind the “what.”

• Look for Patterns in Data: Spend time analyzing data from your industry or within your organization. What trends are emerging? What do the numbers tell you?

2. Systems Analysis

You may have heard of the term ‘Systems Analysis’ in different contexts, but what exactly does it mean?

I like to think of it as a spider’s web. Imagine your organization is the entire web, and the different departments, functions, roles, and people are different sections of the web. It’s all interconnected, and a tug on one part of the web affects the rest.

If you are an engineering manager building software, you may think that what you do has no connection to sales or marketing. “My team’s job is to build software.” you might say. However, if you think of the entire system (your company business), you will be able to make better judgments and decisions about what’s right and make sure that the software your team is building helps the organization overall.

As a strategic leader, you think in terms of the entire system, and are aware of the interconnections and dependencies.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Think in Terms of Cause and Effect: When you make a decision, ask yourself, “What else might this impact?” Try to map out the possible effects on different parts of the organization.

• Use Business Analysis tools such as the Balanced Scorecard to assess how different parts of the organization are playing together. 

3. Mental Agility

I like to think of mental agility as ‘thinking on your feet’.

Not everything you do as a leader will go as planned. You will hit roadblocks, projects will fail, your customers will be furious.

Mental agility is the ability to adjust your plans and adapt your approach if you run into such situations. It is about knowing how to deal with complex and unexpected situations.

As an example, if you have just released a new product, and are not seeing the kind of adoption numbers that you expected, approach that as an opportunity. Review the customer sentiment, dig into the data, and adjust your strategy. Maybe the market you are targeting is not ready for this product, or the customers prefer a competing product.

As a strategic leader, you think on your feet and adapt to unexpected situations quickly.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Practice “What-If” Scenarios: Think through possible challenges and how you would react. You can use frameworks like the Animal Risk Matrix.

• Embrace Feedback: Be open to input from your team and others. Sometimes, the best solutions come from different perspectives.

4. Structured Problem-Solving

As a leader, you are constantly dealing with problems.

But how do you solve those problems? Structured problem-solving is about breaking down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts and finding solutions step by step.

Instead of getting overwhelmed by big challenges, structured problem-solving helps you tackle them piece by piece. It ensures you don’t jump to conclusions or miss important details. This skill is essential when facing tough decisions or managing projects with many moving parts.

For example, if you notice your team’s productivity is dropping, you can approach this in a structured way. Review the team data, ask the team through surveys, and gather enough data to make an informed assessment of what is going on.

As a strategic leader, you approach problems in a structured way, and tackle them systematically.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Use Problem-Solving Frameworks: Frameworks like the 5 Whys or First Principles Thinking can help break down problems and find root causes. 

• Map Out the Problem: Write down the different elements of the problem and how they are connected. This helps you see the whole picture.

5. Visioning

Now, I know you are not a fortune teller. 

However, you can still hold a strong imagination of what you want your team or organization to achieve in the long run.

Visioning is the ability to “see that future”  (the one you imagine )  clearly and vividly. It’s about inspiring your team and other stakeholders towards that vision and rallying them to put their energies into achieving it.

Visioning gives direction to your team. It helps them understand the bigger purpose behind their work and motivates them to strive for something greater. What’s more, if you have a strong vision, it will keep your team aligned, motivated, and inspired.

As a strategic leader, you have a strong vision of the future, and you inspire others to work towards that vision.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Use Visioning frameworks such as The Golden Circle (Start With Why) and BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) to craft the vision for your organization.

6. Political Savvy

Politics at the workplace is real. In any organization, there are relationships, power dynamics, and unwritten rules. 

Remember that you are ultimately dealing with people, and people are political creatures. Political savvy is about understanding how the dynamics work and using this knowledge to build alliances, influence others, and get things done.

As a leader, you need to work with different personalities, manage a variety of stakeholders, and build support for what you are trying to do. Imagine that you need to garner support from your leadership for a new project idea  -  how do you get that support? You may have all the data to back up your proposal, but what if one member of the senior leadership team doesn’t support it because they want another team to work on that idea?

At one point in my career, I hated politics, but then I eventually came to realize that there are good politics and bad politics, and good politics is essential to success.

As a strategic leader, you know how to navigate and approach different people and authority figures to get your work done.

How to Develop This Skill:

• Build Relationships: Take time to get to know people in different roles. Understanding what matters to them can help you work together more effectively.

• Learn the “Hidden” Rules of Office Politics: Observe how others navigate the organization, especially those who are good at influencing others. Pay attention to their approach.

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“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than meeting our basic human needs.” — Simon Cohen

As a manager, you want a team that owns its work.

You want people who care, who speak up, who go beyond the job description.

Right? But sometimes, it feels like you’re pushing a heavy rock uphill. I’ve felt that many times during my leadership career.

And it can feel crushing as a manager when the deadlines keep slipping, and the team’s motivation seems to fall, while we have no idea what’s really going on.

What I’ve realized over the past two decades in the corporate leadership roles is this: most performance problems are not “skill” problems. They usually go much deeper than that - often linked to the unmet needs of your team.

In today’s issue, we will discuss a classic idea from the lens of modern leadership. We will discuss the impact of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Leadership, and how you can use that to build the right culture, drive, and lead a high-performing team.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources: This framework includes the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Worksheet and the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Mind-map.

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Part 1: Understanding Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Leadership

In this section, we’ll understand the original model and how it applies directly to your role as a leader.

What Is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced the idea of the Hierarchy of Human Needs. He argued that human behavior is driven by layered needs. We move up only after the lower ones are met.

Maslow described five levels:

1. Physiological needs

2. Safety needs

3. Social needs

4. Esteem needs

5. Self-actualization

The key idea is simple: you can only meet the higher-level needs of a person after meeting their lower-level needs. For example:

• If someone feels unsafe, they won’t care about purpose.

• If someone feels excluded, recognition won’t matter.

The order matters, and as I studied this, I realized that the same principles apply to leadership.

How Maslow’s Hierarchy Works in Leadership

As a leader, you are responsible for creating the conditions that meet these needs for your team.

Here’s how the pyramid translates for leadership.

1. Personal Mastery

As a leader, at the foundational level, you must meet the basic needs for personal mastery.

These form your physiological needs, and include the necessary skills and knowledge to get your job done. You must know your job, your domain, and your industry.

You must build your expertise, and continue to invest in self-improvement, skill development, and growth.

Depending on your level and role, you may need to focus on technical leadership, tactical execution, or strategic planning.

Personal mastery also includes self-awareness, and the recognition and appreciation of your strengths, weaknesses, and motivations.

👉🏼 To gain personal mastery for yourself and your teams, you should:

• Build your expertise in your field, domain, industry

• Continue to develop your skills and deepen your expertise

• Be self-aware and recognize your strengths and weaknesses

• Provide comprehensive onboarding and training programs.

• Ensure employees have the necessary resources (hardware, software, workspace).

• Regularly review workloads to avoid burnout and ensure work-life balance.

2. Trust

Once you have acquired personal mastery, you move up to the next level of needs for any leader: fostering trust.

Just as individuals seek safety and security in their lives, leaders must create a sense of security and stability in their teams.

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni talks about how the Absence of Trust sits at the core of a dysfunctional team.

As a leader, you must create a supportive environment by fostering trust so your team members feel valued and respected. You must actively mine for hidden conflicts, and ensure your teams trust each other and hold each other accountable.

You need to create an environment of psychological safety, where your team members feel safe to voice their thoughts and opinions, and are willing to take risks.

👉🏼 To foster trust, you should:

• Create an environment of trust and psychological safety

• Encourage thoughtful and objective disagreements

• Be authentic and transparent in your communication

• Implement clear policies for conflict resolution and career development.

• Regularly check in on team morale and mental health.

3. Belonging

As humans, we are social beings, and the next level in the hierarchy of needs for a leader is belonging.

As a leader, you need to cultivate a sense of belonging in your team, which includes fostering a sense of community, collaboration, and inclusivity.

You need to value each individual in your team as they are, and celebrate the diversity of thoughts and ideas. You need to make sure they feel part of a team, and that they feel comfortable working together towards the common business goals.

You can do this with intentional gatherings, celebrating successes, and creating opportunities for the team members to bond and get to know each other.

Creating a sense of belonging will not only lift the engagement level for your team, but also improve the business results and impact.

👉🏼 To foster a sense of community, you should:

• Promote inclusivity and celebrate diversity of thoughts and ideas

• Encourage collaboration and team bonding through intentional gatherings

• Work towards a one-team mindset

• Organize regular team-building activities and offsites.

• Celebrate personal milestones and professional achievements.

• Create mentorship programs to foster connection and collaboration.

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A leader is like a handyman.

Every day, you face a wide range of challenges: strategic planning, decision-making, prioritization, giving feedback, communicating clearly, setting goals, and much more.

Like a skilled handyman, your job is to choose the right approach for each situation.

You need the right tool for the job.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the 10 must-have leadership tools that belong in every leader’s toolbox.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a frontline manager, or a seasoned executive, these tools will help you multiply your effectiveness and amplify your impact.

Ready to open the toolbox? Let’s begin.

Tool #1 - Mind Boxing (Scheduling)

Time is the scarcest resource, and mind-boxing is a simple framework that leaders — regardless of level or role — can use to be more intentional about how they spend their time.

The idea is to maximize the impact by scheduling your priorities.

How Mind-Boxing Works

A mind-box is the intersection of 3 verticals (columns) and 2 layers (rows).

The three verticals (aka 3Ps) of leadership are:

• People: ensuring the well-being of the people you lead, the stakeholders you manage

• Process: ensuring your organization is both efficient and effective in “how” they get work done

• Product: ensuring you are building the best product/platform or service that will delight your customers

The two layers of leadership are:

• Tactics: ensuring that you are delivering results, and getting the job done.

• Strategy: ensuring that you are thinking long-term, and are intentional in how you steer your organization forward

Applying Mind-boxing

There are three simple steps to applying the framework:

1. First, decide how you want to allocate your time between the six boxes. The allocation should be driven by your goals and priorities.

2. Second, review your calendar, your TODO lists, and any other planning tool you use, and align those with your 6-box time allocation.

3. Finally, on a regular basis, review your time allocation and adjust it based on changing priorities, roles or business needs.

References

• Mind Boxing: How Leaders (Should) Spend Their Time (The 6 Box Framework)

Tool #2 - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Team Health)

Some teams look healthy on the surface.

Everyone agrees and nods in meetings, and there’s no visible friction.

And yet, decisions don’t move as fast as you would expect, and the team is slow in delivering results.

Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team explains why. It uncovers the hidden behavioral breakdowns that quietly derail even the smartest teams.

How The Five Dysfunctions Work

Lencioni presents the dysfunctions as a pyramid. Each layer builds on the one below it.

• Trust — absence of vulnerability-based trust

• Conflict — fear of healthy debate

• Commitment — lack of clarity and buy-in

• Accountability — avoidance of peer standards

• Results — inattention to collective outcomes

The key takeaway is this: you can’t fix the top of the pyramid without strengthening the base.

Applying The Five Dysfunctions Framework

There are three simple steps to applying this model:

1. First, diagnose where your team is stuck. Look for the signals - the artificial harmony, fuzzy decisions, missed standards, or siloed behavior.

2. Second, climb the pyramid from the bottom up. Start with building vulnerability-based trust. Then normalize healthy conflict. Only then push for commitment and accountability.

3. Finally, make collective results visible. Shift attention from individual wins to shared outcomes.

If you try to force accountability or results without fixing trust, you’ll only create pressure, not performance.

References

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: How to Spot Them and Fix Them

Tool #3 — The Innovator’s Dilemma (Disruption)

A few years ago, my team was delivering consistently. Revenue was growing, our customers were renewing their subscriptions, and everything looked “healthy.”

Then a small startup entered our space with a product that looked… bad. I remember making fun of it. They had fewer features and a clunky interface.

But six months later, our customers started leaving for that company. That’s The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Clayton Christensen’s model explains why strong companies lose to weaker competitors, not because they’re incompetent, but because they focus too much on serving their current customers and protecting current revenue.

How The Innovator’s Dilemma Works

Christensen identified two types of innovation:

1. Sustaining Innovation: Improves existing products for your best customers.
   This offers higher performance, higher margins, and a predictable ROI.

2. Disruptive Innovation: This one usually starts worse - with lower quality, a smaller market, and lower margins. But it solves a problem differently, often for customers you’re ignoring.

Over time, disruptive innovation improves steadily, and by the time the incumbents react, it’s often too late.

The trap is what I call the “Dilemma Zone”:

• Not good enough for your core customers

• Too small to matter financially

• Too risky to approve internally

So leaders typically double down on what’s working, and miss what’s coming.

Applying The Innovator’s Dilemma

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, zoom out from your current customers. Ask: What problem are we really solving? And is there a radically different way to solve it?

2. Second, carve out space for small bets. Disruptive ideas rarely look attractive on a spreadsheet. I’ve found the best way to move forward is to carve out a small team and let them experiment (while protecting them from the existing release pressures).

3. Finally, examine your systems. Are your metrics, approval processes, and resource allocation models unintentionally killing new ideas before they mature?

Disruption rarely looks impressive at the start. It looks like a “toy”, until it doesn’t.

References

• The Innovator’s Dilemma: How to Turn Risk Into Your Competitive Advantage

Tool #4 — The Four Temperaments (People Awareness)

Every team has a variety of personalities:

• One person wants fast decisions.

• Another wants detailed analysis.

• One thrives in open debate.

• Another shuts down in conflict.

As leaders, we often mistake these differences for “performance issues”. But more often than not, they are temperament differences.

The Four Temperaments is a classic framework that helps leaders understand themselves and the people around them, so they can lead with greater awareness - both of themselves, and their teams.

How The Four Temperaments Work

Dating back to ancient Greece, this framework categorizes personalities into four types:

• Sanguine: The Social Butterfly. Energetic, expressive, optimistic. Inspires people easily, but may lack focus or follow-through.

• Choleric: The Determined Achiever. Results-driven, decisive, competitive. Moves fast, but can appear blunt or impatient.

• Melancholic: The Thoughtful Strategist. Analytical, detail-oriented, quality-focused. High standards, but may overthink or delay decisions.

• Phlegmatic: The Steady Diplomat. Calm, supportive, harmony-seeking. Stabilizes teams, but may avoid difficult conversations.

Most people are a “blend”, but usually lean toward one dominant style.

Applying The Four Temperaments

There are three simple ways to apply this framework:

1. First, understand yourself. Identify your dominant temperament and recognize your blind spots. In my experience, every strength has a “shadow.”

2. Second, tailor how you lead your team. Different temperaments respond to different communication styles, motivation triggers, and feedback approaches.

3. Finally, manage up and across. Understanding your boss’s or stakeholders’ temperament allows you to adjust your messaging, whether that means being more data-driven, more direct, more energetic, or more patient.

When you see “personality friction” show up in your team, it’s often not about competence, but usually about temperament.

References

• The Four Temperaments: Understanding Yourself, Your Team, and Your Boss

Tool #5 — Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Leadership (Motivation)

Why do some teams simply execute… while others are energized, engaged, and inspired?

The difference often lies in unmet needs.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow introduced the Hierarchy of Human Needs, a model explaining how human motivation progresses from basic survival to self-actualization.

Leadership follows a similar ladder. If you skip the lower levels and jump straight to vision and inspiration, you build your team and culture on weak foundations.

How Maslow’s Hierarchy Works in Leadership

Maslow’s model progresses upward through five levels. In leadership, they translate as:

1. Personal Mastery (Physiological Needs): Leaders must first build competence: skills, expertise, and self-awareness. Without mastery, you can’t build lasting credibility.

2. Trust (Safety Needs): Teams need psychological safety. Without trust, people protect themselves instead of contributing fully to the needs of the team.

3. Belonging (Social Needs): Humans crave connection. Strong leaders cultivate collaboration, inclusivity, and a “one-team” mindset.

4. Recognition (Esteem Needs): People go the extra mile when their efforts are valued. Recognition fuels motivation and confidence.

5. Vision (Self-Actualization Needs): At the highest level, leaders inspire purpose. They connect daily work to a larger mission. This unlocks their team’s potential.

At the core of it: you cannot motivate your team from the top without understanding their core needs first.

Applying Maslow’s Hierarchy in Leadership

There are three simple steps to applying this model:

1. First, diagnose the level your team is currently operating at. Are they struggling with clarity and skills? Or with trust? Or are they ready for a bigger purpose?

2. Second, strengthen the foundation before elevating expectations. This might bean bulding the skills and competence, or fostering a sense of belonging.

3. Finally, elevate toward purpose. Once the lower needs are met, align the team around a compelling vision that stretches their potential.

True motivation can only be achieved when you meet the basic needs of your team first.

References

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Leadership

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Tool #6 — Radical Candor (Feedback)

Most managers struggle with feedback.

Some are too blunt and break trust, while others are too nice and avoid hard conversations.

Both approaches hurt performance.

Radical Candor, developed by Kim Scott, offers a simple but powerful alternative: care personally while challenging directly.

At its core, Radical Candor is about being honest, while being human.

How Radical Candor Works

The framework is built on a simple 2×2 grid:

• Care Personally (vertical axis)

• Challenge Directly (horizontal axis)

This creates four quadrants:

• Obnoxious Aggression: Challenge without care.

• Ruinous Empathy: Care without challenge.

• Manipulative Insincerity: No care, no challenge.

• Radical Candor: High care + high challenge.

Most managers fall into Ruinous Empathy. They want to protect feelings, so they dilute feedback, and the performance suffers.

Radical Candor sits in the sweet spot: direct, clear, and rooted in genuine care.

Applying Radical Candor

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, build trust through genuine care. Understand what matters to your team members. See them as people, not just performers.

2. Second, challenge directly. Be clear, specific, and timely. Say what needs to be said, without attacking the person.

3. Finally, invite dialogue. Feedback should be a conversation, not a monologue. Create space for response and reflection.

When you deliver the hard truth with care, you accelerate growth for the individual. This is the greatest gift you can give to anyone.

References

• Radical Candor: How to Be Direct Without Being an Asshole

Tool #7 — The Animal Risk Matrix (Risk Management)

Every leader manages risk, whether they realize it or not.

• Launching a product.

• Hiring a senior leader.

• Entering a new market.

• Ignoring cultural issues.

Some risks are obvious, while others are rare. Some are predictable, while others are not.

The Animal Risk Matrix is a simple framework that helps leaders categorize risks based on predictability and probability, so they know what to act on first.

How The Animal Risk Matrix Works

The framework plots risks on two dimensions:

• Predictability: Can you see it coming?

• Probability: How likely is it to happen?

This creates four types of risks:

• Elephant in the Room: Obvious and visible, but ignored. Cultural issues, morale problems, misaligned strategy.

• Gray Rhino: Highly probable and high impact, yet leaders delay action. Burnout, tech debt, declining engagement.

• Black Swan: Rare, unpredictable, high-impact events. Market crashes, pandemics, sudden disruption.

• Black Jellyfish: Rare but predictable risks. Regulatory shifts, vendor failures, leadership exits.

Each type requires a different response.

Applying The Animal Risk Matrix

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, identify and list your key risks across culture, strategy, technology, and external forces.

2. Second, categorize each risk into one of the four animal types. This clarifies urgency and response.

3. Finally, act accordingly: Address Elephants openly, mitigate Gray Rhinos early, build resilience for Black Swans, and prepare contingency plans for Black Jellyfish.

Risks are always there, and the question is whether you are naming it, and then acting on it.

References

• The Animal Risk Matrix: How to Spot, Prioritize, and Manage Risks Like a Pro

Tool #8 — Systems > Goals (Execution)

Leaders love goals.

• Revenue targets.

• Product launches.

• Engagement scores.

• OKRs.

But setting a goal by itself rarely changes behavior.

There is high energy at the kickoff meeting, but after a few weeks, the energy and enthusiasm wane. Priorities shift, and your team finds itself buried, barely scrambling to make progress.

How Systems > Goals Works

Goals are important, but they typically remain on a slide deck; however, progress needs to happen on the ground.

• A goal is the result you want, and defines the outcomes

• A system is the repeatable process that gets you there - the behavior.

And ultimately, it is the day-to-day behavior that delivers results.

For example:

• Goal: Improve customer satisfaction. System: Close every support ticket within 48 hours and review feedback weekly.

• Goal: Increase team performance. System: Run structured retrospectives after every sprint.

Systems create a consistent rhythm, a habit, and they reduce reliance on willpower. They make progress automatic.

Applying Systems > Goals

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, clarify the outcome. Define what success looks like in clear, measurable terms.

2. Second, identify the leading behaviors. Ask: What repeatable actions would make this outcome almost inevitable?

3. Finally, design and track the system. Build those behaviors into calendars, meetings, workflows, and dashboards, and monitor the habits, not just the results.

Results are lagging indicators, while systems are leading indicators.

References

• Systems > Goals: How to Build Habits That Deliver Results

Tool #9 — Psychological Safety (Culture)

You can have a team full of smart, experienced people.

• Clear strategy.

• Strong goals.

• Tight processes.

But if people are afraid to speak up, to admit mistakes, or to challenge ideas, their output is bound to drop.

Psychological safety, a concept popularized by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, is the shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.

It’s the foundation of high-performing teams.

How Psychological Safety Works

The framework rests on two dimensions:

• Psychological Safety: Can people speak up without fear?

• Accountability: Are people held to high standards?

When you map these on a 2×2 grid, you get four zones:

1. Comfort Zone: High safety, low accountability. Nice, but complacent.

2. Anxiety Zone: Low safety, high accountability. Fear-driven performance.

3. Apathy Zone: Low safety, low accountability. Disengagement.

4. Learning Zone: High safety, high accountability. Trust + high standards.

Only the Learning Zone drives sustained performance.

Applying Psychological Safety

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, model vulnerability. Admit mistakes, ask open-ended questions, show that it’s safe not to have all the answers.

2. Second, invite participation. Invite those who are quieter to share their thoughts, and normalize respectful disagreement.

3. Finally, raise the bar. Make expectations clear and hold people accountable, while supporting them in meeting those standards.

When people feel safe and challenged, they are at their best in performance.

References

• The Four Zones of Psychological Safety: Where Does Your Team Sit?

Tool #10 — The Influence Flywheel (Influence Without Authority)

Have you ever left a meeting thinking you made a strong case… only to watch nothing change?

• You had the logic.

• You had the data.

• You even had the title.

But you didn’t have traction, because real leadership power doesn’t come from authority. It comes from influence.

The Influence Flywheel is a practical framework for building influence, especially when you don’t control the org chart.

How The Influence Flywheel Works

Influence is not a personality trait. It’s built through five reinforcing elements (or spokes):

1. Credibility: Do people trust you?

2. Connection: Do they feel understood and valued?

3. Clarity: Is your message sharp and purposeful?

4. Communication: Does it resonate and stick?

5. Courage: Are you willing to say what others avoid?

Each spoke strengthens the others.

• Credibility builds trust.

• Connection builds openness.

• Clarity reduces confusion.

• Communication builds momentum.

• Courage builds respect.

Over time, these elements compound like a flywheel, gaining speed.

Applying The Influence Flywheel

There are three simple steps to applying this framework:

1. First, pick one stakeholder or situation where influence matters.

2. Second, assess which spoke is weak. Is it trust? Clarity? Courage?

3. Finally, make one deliberate move to strengthen that spoke. Maybe you need to deliver on a promise, sharpen your message, or have the hard conversation,

Influence doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from leveraging the spokes that build on each other, even when you don’t have authority.

References

• The Influence Flywheel 🌀: A Systematic Approach to Building Leadership Influence

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In Summary: The Leadership Toolbox

Just like a handyman, a leader needs to determine the right tool for the job at hand.

In this post, we discussed the 10 must-have tools in your leadership toolbox:

1. Mind-Boxing (Scheduling) — Schedule your priorities across People, Process, and Product to maximize your leadership impact

2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Team Health) — Diagnose and fix hidden team breakdowns by building trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and results

3. The Innovator’s Dilemma (Disruption) — Spot disruption early and protect small bets before they disrupt you

4. The Four Temperaments (People Awareness) — Understand personality differences to lead, communicate, and collaborate more effectively

5. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Motivation) — Motivate and elevate your team by meeting foundational needs before pushing for vision

6. Radical Candor (Feedback) — Care personally while challenging directly to deliver honest, high-impact feedback

7. The Animal Risk Matrix (Risk Management) — Categorize risks by predictability and probability so you know what to address, mitigate, or prepare for

8. Systems > Goals (Execution) — Build repeatable systems and habits that drive results instead of relying on motivation

9. The Four Zones of Psychological Safety (Culture) — Balance safety and accountability to move your team into the high-performance learning zone

10. The Influence Flywheel (Influence without Authority) — Build credibility, connection, clarity, communication, and courage to grow influence without authority

Which one is your favorite? Drop your thoughts in the comments below! 👇

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You want them to perform, to take ownership, to raise the bar without being pushed every week.

But when performance dips, where do you look first? Let’s be honest.

Most leaders look at the people.

• Who’s not stepping up?

• Who needs feedback?

• Who needs more pressure?

I know, it feels logical, and it feels responsible.

But here’s the reality: it’s often wrong.

Because in most cases, your people are not the problem. The system is.

• The wasteful meetings.

• The unclear priorities.

• The messy communication channels.

• The list of bottlenecks no one talks about.

As a leader, you have two options: You can push people harder, or you can improve the system they work in. One creates stress, while the other creates momentum.

In this issue, we will discuss the Kaizen mindset, which will change the way you lead not just your team, but your underlying systems.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources: This framework includes the Kaizen Mindset Worksheet and the Kaizen Mindset Mind-map.

• Existing Practitioners: Download these from your Resource Library.

• Not a member yet? Join the ⚙️ Practitioner Ecosystem to unlock these resources, along with full Substack paid access, The Leader’s Playbook, the complete Practice Worksheets library, System Posters & Mind-maps, and the private practitioner community.

Part 1: Understanding Kaizen

In this section, we’ll explore what Kaizen really means, where it comes from, and why it changes the way you think about leadership.

What Is Kaizen?

Kaizen is a Japanese word (改善) that means “change for better.” It became widely known through the Toyota Production System, where it shaped how one of the most respected manufacturing companies in the world approached improvement.

After World War II, Toyota could not compete with larger automakers on scale or resources. So, instead of chasing dramatic innovations, they focused on something far more disciplined.

They worked to improve their processes every single day, across the organization.

The core idea behind Kaizen is simple. Small, steady improvements compound over time and often outperform bold, disruptive change.

In my experience, this is where many leaders get it wrong. As leaders, we are conditioned to believe that meaningful improvement requires a “new strategy”, a “major restructuring”, or a “high-visibility initiative”.

But Kaizen challenges that belief. It asks you to look closely at how work actually flows through your team, improve one small part of it, and then repeat the process. The power lies not in the size of the change, but in the discipline of making change continuous.

Some of you may be thinking: this sounds familiar! And it should, indeed.

I’ve previously written about “Systems > Goals,” inspired by Atomic Habits by James Clear, and about The Theory of Constraints, inspired by The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. These are different frameworks, but the core principle is the same: focus on continuous improvement instead of obsessing over big, distant goals.

How Kaizen Works

At its heart, Kaizen is a shift in attention. When something goes wrong, instead of asking who failed, you ask where the system failed.

Most performance problems are system problems, not talent problems.

• Unclear goals create hesitation.

• Poorly designed meetings waste time.

• Complicated approval flows slow decisions.

• Over time, these small frictions drain energy and lower standards.

Kaizen gives you a simple operating rhythm to deal with this. It is often described as the Plan–Do–Check–Act loop.

• Plan: You establish a clear objective and define the process required to reach it. The key here is focus. You do not attempt to fix everything. You choose one meaningful improvement and decide what “better” looks like.

• Do: You implement the change. This step is about action. The team carries out the new process or adjustment and observes what happens in real work.

• Check: You evaluate the results. You look at the data, the outcomes, and the lived experience of the team. Did the change remove friction? Did it create new problems? What actually happened, not what you hoped would happen?

• Act: You adjust based on what you learned. If the improvement worked, you standardize it. If it did not, you refine it and run the loop again.

This cycle is simple, but it is powerful because it builds learning into the system. Improvement is no longer an occasional event. It becomes a habit.

And here is the leadership shift.

Instead of reacting emotionally to problems, you run the loop. Instead of debating endlessly, you test the execution. Instead of defending past decisions, you adjust your processes.

Over time, this creates a culture where improvement feels normal. Your team stops fearing mistakes because mistakes are inputs into the next cycle. It’s just part of the process.

Part 2: Applying the Kaizen Mindset

Understanding Kaizen is useful. Applying it is what changes your leadership.

In this section, you’ll learn how to bring the Kaizen mindset into your role starting this week.

• We’ll begin with a simple way to run the Plan–Do–Check–Act loop inside your team without turning it into a big initiative.

• Then we’ll walk through a few common leadership situations and see how a system-focused response looks different from a people-focused one.

• Finally, I’ll share a practical Kaizen Mindset Worksheet and a Kaizen Mindset Mindmap you can use to build this into your weekly rhythm.

If you’re not already a member, choose your path:

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I know that word sounds negative. But at its core, manipulation simply means influencing behavior. And influencing behavior is what leadership is all about.

The real question isn’t whether you influence people. You already do. The real question is whether you do it on purpose and in the right way, or by accident.

Great leaders don’t rely on pressure, personality, or motivational talks. They focus on something deeper. They shape the environment people work in and design systems that guide behavior.

Once you see leadership this way, a better question to ask is: What exactly should you be shaping?

In this post, we’ll look at seven powerful levers.

1. Manipulate the Environment, Not the People

Most leaders try to change behavior through words.

They say things like, “Be more proactive,” or “Take more ownership.” But behavior rarely changes because of instructions alone. It changes when the environment shifts.

• If you want focus, reduce noise.

• If you want accountability, remove ambiguity.

• If you want ownership, eliminate unnecessary dependencies.

A few years ago, when my team was modernizing a legacy cloud platform serving millions of users, we didn’t repeatedly tell teams to “move faster.”

Instead, we redesigned the system itself. We created smaller deployable units, clarified service ownership, and implemented automated testing.

Speed improved, not because people suddenly became more motivated, but because the system made good behavior easier.

👉🏼 People respond to structure far more reliably than they respond to speeches.

2. Manipulate What Gets Measured

What you measure becomes what people prioritize.

Research from McKinsey consistently shows that organizations that tightly align performance metrics with strategic priorities significantly outperform peers.

So, in that sense, measurement doesn’t just track progress - it actually directs attention.

• If you measure hours worked, you’ll get visible busyness.

• If you measure tickets closed, you’ll get quantity over depth.

• If you measure short-term output, you’ll often sacrifice long-term quality.

But if you measure customer impact, defect escape rates, or product adoption, you get your team moving towards real outcomes.

At one of my previous companies, we had “bug bounty” programs, where engineers who logged the highest number of bugs won a prize. The intention was to improve quality, but the engineers were (unintentionally) incentivized to write sloppy, buggy code in the first place.

This is the classic example of Goodhart’s Law, which I talked about in one of my earlier posts.

👉🏼 Metrics are not neutral. They quietly shape behavior every day. Choose them carefully.

3. Manipulate the Default

Behavioral economics has shown that “defaults” are incredibly powerful.

For example, in countries where organ donation is the default option, participation rates are dramatically higher than in countries where people must actively opt in.

Here in Singapore, there are no “tips” or “gratuity”, but whenever I visit the US, I can see how the food outlets apply the same principle by setting a ‘default’ gratuity value in their POS terminals. Even though you can, how many customers would actively go and change that default value? Very few.

In organizations, your processes are defaults.

If your default for decision-making is a quick Slack message, you shouldn’t expect strategic depth or quality. But if your default requires a structured process outlining the problem, options, trade-offs, and recommendations, the quality of the decision will improve automatically.

Similarly, if documentation is optional, it will be neglected. If it is embedded into the workflow and required before code merges or launches, clarity becomes standard.

👉🏼 Instead of asking people to be more disciplined, design workflows that make disciplined behavior the easiest (default) path forward.

4. Manipulate Identity

People often perform according to the identity they believe they hold.

This is known as the Pygmalion Effect, a concept widely discussed in leadership research (and I also wrote about this here). When you raise expectations of your team members in a sincere way, their self-perception changes, and they end up performing better.

If you subtly signal that someone is “still junior,” they will become more cautious of their behavior. On the other hand, if you communicate that they are one of your strongest problem-solvers and that you trust their judgment, their behavior will begin to align with that expectation.

When you consistently describe your team as resilient, thoughtful, or customer-obsessed, you are shaping how they see themselves.

👉🏼 Your belief can shape the identity of your team, and that becomes a quiet form of gravity, pulling their behavior in the desired direction.

5. Manipulate the Narrative

Work is never just about tasks. It is about meaning.

Gallup’s research on employee engagement consistently shows that people who feel connected to the purpose are significantly more productive and engaged than those who don’t.

Back in Adobe, when I was building early mobile applications in what had been a desktop-centric organization, the project could easily have been framed as “porting features to a smaller screen.” Instead, we framed it as redefining how millions of users would interact with documents in a mobile-first world.

The code didn’t change, the narrative did.

👉🏼 People are far more committed to building something meaningful than they are to completing a backlog.

6. Manipulate Autonomy

Motivation research highlights three consistent drivers of intrinsic motivation: Autonomy, mastery, and purpose. This idea was popularized by Daniel Pink in his book Drive, and I also wrote about this in one of my previous posts.

Autonomy, however, is frequently misunderstood.

• Too much control suffocates your team.

• Too little structure creates confusion.

The balance lies in defining outcomes clearly while giving teams freedom over execution. In other words, clarify the WHY and the WHAT, and let your team decide the HOW.

In my experience leading cross-functional, geographically distributed teams, I’ve learned that specifying every detail leads to disengagement, while vague goals lead to misalignment.

👉🏼 The most effective approach is to clarify the problem, define success metrics and outline non-negotiables, and then allow your team to design the solution.

7. Manipulate Consequences

Culture is shaped less by speeches and more by consequences.

• The behavior you reward grows.

• The behavior you tolerate persists.

• The behavior you ignore fades.

If a high performer who behaves unprofessionally continues to be promoted, the team receives a clear signal that that behavior is acceptable.

Every promotion, every bonus decision, every piece of public recognition communicates what truly matters.

Leaders often underestimate how closely people watch these signals.

👉🏼 If you want to shape behavior, pay close attention to what is tolerated and rewarded in your system.

Final Note

At this point, the word “manipulate” may still feel uncomfortable. Let’s face it - it should.

The distinction between manipulation and leadership lies in intent, and the real choice is whether you will apply it deliberately and ethically.

The best leaders I’ve worked with don’t push people toward performance. They build environments where performance becomes the natural outcome.

💬 Thought exercise for you: Step back and examine your own team today, and ask yourself: What behaviors is my current system encouraging? If you’re comfortable, share your thoughts in the comments below.

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As a computer scientist, I had delivered strong results for years. I was reliable and could solve hard problems. I was the person people went to when something complex needed fixing.

When I moved into a manager role, I believed I was doing well: My team was shipping key capabilities, our stakeholders were satisfied, and the team seemed content.

On the surface, everything looked fine.

But something wasn’t right. I could sense a lack of energy in discussions, and the ownership felt inconsistent. I noticed that decisions kept flowing back to me, even when I tried to delegate.

For a long time, I blamed external factors such as workload, pressure, and deadlines.

But then one day, it hit me. I asked myself the honest question: “What if the issue was me?”

That question hurt, but it also helped, because once I was willing to look at myself honestly, I began to see what I had been missing.

Here are the six lessons I had to learn, often the hard way. 👇

1. Doing the Work Is Easier Than Letting Go

Early in my leadership journey, I often stepped in to “help.”

If a presentation wasn’t sharp, I rewrote it. If a design had gaps, I fixed them. If a deadline was at risk, I took over part of the work.

On the surface, this looked like “high standards”. And sometimes it was.

But over time, I noticed a pattern. The more I jumped in, the more my team waited for me to jump in.

Letting go wasn’t easy and felt risky. I asked myself: What if the work wasn’t perfect? What if stakeholders were disappointed?

Here’s the tough lessonI learned: When you step in too often, you unintentionally signal that you don’t fully trust your team.

I had to learn to tolerate imperfection. I had to allow people to solve problems in ways that were not identical to mine.

It wasn’t easy, but was necessary.

👉🏼 Leadership is not about proving you can still do the work. It is about building others who can.

2. Clarity Beats Motivation

For a long time, I believed my role was to “inspire”.

I spent time crafting vision slides. I talked about impact, and tried to energize the team around the “bigger picture”.

But I noticed something uncomfortable. Even when my team seemed motivated in meetings, execution still drifted. They worked hard, but not always on the right things.

Here’s the tough lesson I learned: Most performance problems are not effort problems. They are clarity problems.

I had not been clear enough about what “good” looked like. I had not defined what “done” meant. I had not made trade-offs explicit.

Once I started focusing on clarity over motivation, my team’s overall performance started improving. They finally knew where to focus.

👉🏼 In leadership, clarity is kindness.

3. Feedback Delayed Is Trust Damaged

I used to delay hard conversations.

If someone underperformed, I told myself I would wait for the “right time”. If behavior was off, I hoped it would self-correct.

I thought I was being “nice” - I didn’t want to discourage people.

But here’s the hard lesson I learned: Silence does not create safety. It creates confusion.

When feedback is delayed, people sense something is wrong but don’t know what. They start guessing, and that takes away from their focus on what really matters.

I learned that when feedback is delivered timely, calmly, and is actionable, it builds trust. It shows you care enough to address the issue. It prevents small problems from turning into big setbacks.

👉🏼 The discomfort of giving feedback is short. The cost of avoiding it is long.

4. Your Mood Is the Culture

I once thought culture was about “values statements” and team events.

Over time, I realized that culture is shaped in small, daily moments. It is shaped by how you respond when a deadline slips. It is shaped by your tone when someone brings bad news.

There were days when I walked into meetings already frustrated from something else. I thought I was hiding it well. But I was not.

Leaders underestimate how closely they are observed.

Research from MIT Sloan highlights that leader behavior under stress strongly influences team climate. Your team watches how you react, and they calibrate their own behavior accordingly.

👉🏼 If you want a calm team, you must model calm. If you want accountability, you must show accountability.

5. High Standards Without Support Create Fear

I have always believed in high standards, and still do.

But early on, I confused “pressure” with leadership. If the bar was not met, I raised expectations again. I assumed the gap was effort.

What I realized was that, sometimes, it was not.

Your team often needs context, coaching, and feedback to reach a higher level. Pressure without guidance creates anxiety. It may drive short-term results, but it rarely builds long-term success.

I had to learn to pair expectations with support. That meant being there with the team when they needed it most. It meant explaining why something needed to change, not just that it needed to.

👉🏼 High standards are necessary. Support makes them sustainable.

6. Not Everyone Is Motivated by the Same Things

The final lesson took me the longest to understand.

Early in my career, I was ambitious. I wanted growth, a larger scope, and high visibility.

I assumed everyone on my team wanted the same.

Turned out, that assumption wasn’t true.

Some team members valued depth over a promotion. Some cared about stability. Some were navigating life stages that shifted their priorities that I wasn’t aware of.

When I projected my ambition onto others, I unintentionally judged them by the wrong yardstick.

The shift happened when I started asking one simple question during one-on-ones: “What does a good year look like for you?”

Every single one of my team members had a different answer to that question.

👉🏼 Leadership is not about building replicas of yourself. It is about understanding what matters to each person and aligning work accordingly.

Looking back, I realize something simple.

The skills that made me a strong individual contributor did not automatically make me a strong leader.

If you are in that uncomfortable stage where leadership feels harder than you expected, you are not alone.

💬 What was the moment you realized you still had a lot to learn? Share it in the comments.

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I’ve been there many times.

I had asked for input, and a few team members spoke, but most didn’t.

On the meeting notes, we looked aligned. But as I left the meeting, something didn’t feel right. I could sense the undercurrents:

• Ideas were sitting just below the surface

• Some concerns didn’t get spoken out loud

• Some tensions never got expressed

At first, I thought they weren’t prepared, or they just didn’t care enough to speak up.

But I was terribly wrong, because the reality was that I hadn’t created the space or environment for the team to speak up with their ideas or their concerns.

Which leads to the real question.

So how do you surface all those ideas from your team, especially the ones no one says out loud?

In this week’s issue, we’re going to look at 🧱 Lego Serious Play, a fun yet powerful method leaders use to make team thinking visible.

And yes, if you or your team already like LEGO, there’s a good chance this will be enjoyable too. I promise.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources: This framework includes the Lego Serious Play Worksheet and the Lego Serious Play Mind-map.

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Part 1: Understanding Lego Serious Play

Before we talk about how to use this with your team, it helps to slow down and understand what this method really is. And just as important, what it isn’t.

What is Lego Serious Play?

Lego Serious Play, created inside the LEGO Group, is a facilitated way for teams to “think together”.

And they do this by building, not talking.

Each person uses LEGO bricks to build models that represent how they see a problem, a situation, or a future state. Those models act as metaphors. People then explain what they built, and why.

The shift is subtle, but powerful.

Instead of asking people to find the right words, you give them something to point at.

And removes the barriers of speaking that many team members face at work.

What Lego Serious Play is not

This matters, especially for skeptical leaders.

Even though it can be fun, this is not an icebreaker or a team bonding game.

And for those of you screaming “but I’m not creative”, this is not about being creative with LEGO either.

It doesn’t matter how “nice” your build is - nobody’s going to judge your creation, and there are no winners. (Phew!)

Every model is valid, because every model reflects how someone is thinking.

That’s the point.

How Lego Serious Play works

The method rests on a few simple ideas.

First, your hands know things your mouth doesn’t.

When people build with their hands, they don’t have time to overthink. So, what shows up is often more honest and “real”.

Second, metaphors make it safer to speak.

It’s easier to say, “This part of the system feels fragile,” when you can point to a shaky tower instead of calling someone out.

Third, everyone gets equal airtime.

Each person builds, explains, and noone interrupts or talks over each other. This guarantees that you will get something from every single person, not just the loud ones.

As a leader, this changes your role.

Contrary to a typical meeting, as a leader, you are no longer “driving the discussion”.

You’re simply observing and listening for patterns.

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Part 2: Applying Lego Serious Play

The goal of Lego Serious Play is to surface ideas and suggestions from your team.

Many times, these could be ideas they didn’t know how to say, or risks they never felt comfortable adding to slides.

In this section, you’ll learn how to apply Lego Serious Play in your role as a leader.

Here’s what we’re going to walk through.

• We’ll start with a simple, repeatable way to run a Lego Serious Play session, without overthinking it.

• Then we’ll look at real leadership situations where this method works better than discussion.

• Finally, we’ll make it practical with a Lego Serious Play Worksheet and the Lego Serious Play Mind-map you can reuse with your own team.

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That’s the modern leadership mantra, right? Create psychological safety, make space for feelings and show up as your full self.

But in reality, sometimes, that doesn’t work.

Sometimes, the “nice” boss creates chaos. The always-available manager burns out. The empathetic leader gets walked all over.

And meanwhile, the team with the so-called “toxic boss” - the one who is blunt and demanding - is performing and growing.

And strangely enough, that “toxic boss” is respected.

So what’s going on?

Here’s the thing: traits we call “toxic” aren’t inherently bad. In fact, when used with care, timing, and clarity, they’re exactly what your team needs.

Now that I have you excited, let’s look at six ways to be the “toxic boss” your team secretly wants.

1. Be Direct (Even When It Feels Harsh)

We all love a kind leader.

But clarity > kindness.

Too often, managers wrap feedback in so many cushions that the message gets lost.

I remember one of my “kind” bosses gave me feedback like this: “You’re doing great. Just one tiny suggestion if you’re open to it - maybe consider, possibly…”

At the end of it, I walked out confused and demotivated.

A McKinsey study found that clarity of expectations was one of the top drivers of employee engagement and performance.

Let’s face it: your team wants to grow. That requires feedback that’s honest, timely, and unfiltered.

That means saying:

• “This presentation wasn’t clear. Let’s fix it.”

• “You’re not ready for that promotion yet. Here’s why.”

• “We missed the mark here. Let’s talk about what went wrong.”

People can’t fix what they don’t understand. Be direct, while remaining professional.

Framework to try out:

2. Set Unreasonable Standards

Want to frustrate your top performers? Set low expectations, and let things slide.

Most people don’t rise to the level of their potential, they fall to the level of your standards.

And here’s where the “toxic” label often comes in. When you expect excellence, your team might say you’re too demanding, too unrealistic, too unreasonable.

Ignore that.

Because what feels “unreasonable” at first often turns into someone’s personal best.

Think about every coach, teacher, or mentor who shaped you. Were they easy on you?

Probably not.

Demand more, expect better, and most importantly - believe in your team’s potential. And get ready to be surprised.

Framework to try out:

3. Create Tight Deadlines

Let’s be clear: Burnout is real, but pressure itself is not the villain.

Deadlines and stretch goals don’t destroy teams. They focus them.

Imagine a team with no urgency, no accountability, and no timeline. That’s laziness, not empowerment.

Pressure is actually good when it is paired with support. When you do that, it creates flow - that focused, energizing state where your team does its best work.

So yes, don’t be the boss who lets deadlines slide and easy targets. Instead, be the one who sets bold targets and stretch goals. Be the one who says, “I know this is hard. I believe we can do it.”

Your team doesn’t want a comfort zone. They want to be proud of something that wasn’t easy.

Frameworks to try out:

4. Protect Your Time Like a Tyrant

Let me guess: Your calendar looks like the game of Tetris: back-to-back meetings, no time to breathe or think. Correct?

Many managers confuse busyness with being productive. They fill their calendar to the brink, but have no clue what they did at the end of those ‘busy’ days.

The best leaders are ruthless with their time:

• They say no to status meetings with no agenda.

• They block focus time like it’s sacred.

• They cancel check-ins when there’s no real purpose.

This can feel “toxic” to some - cold, dismissive, unavailable. But in reality, it creates clarity.

When you protect your time, you protect your decision-making, your energy, and your ability to lead.

And best of all: that gives your team permission to do the same.

At the end of the day, leadership is about being effective, not busy.

Framework to try out:

5. Be Emotionally Unavailable (Sometimes)

This one will ruffle feathers.

You’ve been told to be emotionally available. And yes, empathy matters.

But being too emotionally available can create a dangerous trap:

• You become the ‘team therapist’.

• Every problem becomes your problem.

• And soon, you’re no longer leading. You’re babysitting.

Here’s a counterintuitive take: your team grows faster when you step back emotionally.

Why? Because when you do that, you:

• Let them wrestle with hard things.

• Let them find answers.

• Let them experience discomfort.

If you’re always jumping in to ‘save your team’, you’re not giving them the space to become resilient.

Sometimes the most powerful form of support is not intervening.

Frameworks to try out:

6. Prioritize the Mission Over Feelings

As a leader, your job isn’t to make everyone feel good all the time. You’re not a therapist.

Your job is to serve the mission: of the business and of the people. And that means making hard calls such as:

• Firing someone who’s underperforming, even if they’re popular.

• Killing a pet project that’s draining resources.

• Making decisions that disappoint some people, but serve the larger goal.

Some may think it’s heartless, but it’s actually a core leadership responsibility.

Remember: your team members are grown-ups, and they know that decisions are (and should be) based on what matters, not moods or favoritism.

Please don’t get me wrong - of course, you should be respectful and human. But don’t confuse kindness with softness.

If you start prioritizing harmony over truth, feelings over results, your team will feel it, and they will lose trust and motivation.

The core principle: lead with heart and backbone.

Framework to try out:

The Real Definition of “Toxic”

The word “toxic” gets thrown around too easily.

A “toxic” boss isn’t someone who’s clear, demanding, and focused. A toxic boss is someone who:

• Abuses power.

• Belittles others.

• Creates fear without purpose.

That’s not what we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is the kind of leader who pushes, challenges, and sharpens their team.

That’s the kind of leader that your teams secretly wish they had.

So, what do you think about being such a boss? Let me know in the comments below!

Leave a comment

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But the hardest part isn’t the decision itself, but the time pressure that comes with it.

You’re trying to make a call while inputs are still flying in. While your Slack is buzzing. While you’re still processing what just happened in that last meeting.

In the middle of all that, it can be tempting to overthink, or to just default to what you did the last time.

But there’s a better way to lead through uncertainty. In this issue, we will discuss the OODA Loop, a decision-making framework that does exactly that. And guess what: it came from a place that knows chaos better than most: aerial dogfights.

⚙️ Practitioner Resources: This framework includes the OODA Loop Worksheet and the OODA Loop Mind-map.

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Part 1: Understanding the OODA Loop

In this section, we’ll explore what the OODA Loop is, how it works, and why it matters for leaders.

A Brief History: From Cockpits to Boardrooms

The OODA Loop was developed by U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd, a fighter pilot turned military strategist.

Boyd wasn’t just known for his flying skills. He was obsessed with understanding why some pilots survived aerial dogfights while others didn’t. And he realized it came down to this: the pilots who could process new information faster, and act on it, had the edge.

They weren’t necessarily the strongest or most experienced. They were simply better at staying ahead of the situation.

So Boyd built the OODA Loop to describe what these top performers were doing even if they didn’t know it themselves.

Over time, this model spread far beyond the military. Today, it’s used in business strategy, emergency response, cybersecurity, and, yes, leadership.

Because leadership, like flying a jet in combat, often demands fast decisions in uncertain conditions.

How the OODA Loop Works

OODA stands for:

• Observe: What’s happening? What are the facts?

• Orient: What does this mean in context? What assumptions or mental models are you using?

• Decide: What’s your best move based on what you’ve seen and interpreted?

• Act: Take the action. Then immediately loop back to observe what happened next.

What makes it different from other models is speed.

The goal is to cycle through the loop faster and better than the chaos around you.

And here’s what I like most about this model: The faster you go through the loop with intention, the more you can adapt, respond, and stay ahead.

Part 2: Applying the OODA Loop

In this section, you will learn how to apply the OODA Loop in your role as a leader.

• We will begin by walking through the 4 stages: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, and how they show up in leadership settings.

• We’ll then examine 3 common real-world leadership challenges - prioritization, firefighting, and managing ambiguity - through the lens of the OODA Loop.

• Finally, you’ll get the OODA Loop Worksheet to practice using this framework in your everyday leadership decisions.

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It came from five habits so stupidly simple, I almost dismissed them.

They were easy to skip, easy to forget, and definitely not the kind of things that would trend on LinkedIn.

But they worked.

Here are the five habits that slowly, consistently, and completely changed the way I lead, and how you can adopt these too.

1. I started writing down one leadership win each day

At the end of each day, I wrote down one small leadership win.

Just one.

It could be something as simple as:

• Giving tough feedback and having it land well

• Saying no to a distraction

• Helping someone get clarity in a 1:1

The point wasn’t to brag or keep score. The point was to reflect. And reflection, as it turns out, is the superpower most leaders skip.

A study from Harvard Business School found that employees who spent just 15 minutes reflecting at the end of the day performed 23% better after 10 days than those who didn’t.

For me, this habit built self-awareness. It helped me notice what was working and sometimes, what wasn’t.

And maybe most importantly, it gave me a reservoir of stories and examples to draw from. In coaching sessions, performance reviews as well in moments of doubt.

I stopped letting the days disappear into thin air, and started learning from each one.

2. I began asking “What do you need from me?” in 1:1s

Early in my leadership journey, I saw 1:1s as a status check. I would discuss project updates, roadblocks, and of course, timelines.

But then I started asking one simple question, and that flipped the entire dynamic of our 1:1:

“What do you need from me?”

When I asked this question, it reminded my team:

• This space is for you

• I’m here to support, not micromanage

• You can tell me what’s not working

The beauty of this question is that the answer is not always the dry “we’re on track.”

• Sometimes, they needed a decision.

• Sometimes, they needed air cover.

• And many times, they just needed to vent.

According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. One of the most consistent patterns among high-performing managers is individualized attention.

This one question creates that.

3. I stopped replying to messages immediately

This one was hard for me, personally.

Like most people in leadership roles, my days were full of Slack pings, emails, Teams messages, and sometimes phone calls.

And I prided myself on being responsive. If someone messaged me at 8:14, I’d reply by 8:15.

I thought I was being helpful, fast, and it felt like “good leadership.”

But it turns out, it wasn’t.

What I was actually doing was:

• Training my team to depend on instant answers

• Robbing them of space to think or solve problems

• Burning myself out, one notification at a time

So I stopped, not completely, but intentionally.

I built in “focus hours” where I didn’t check messages or emails. I turned off Slack notifications, and gave myself (and my team) some breathing space.

And ironically, doing this helped me to gain more respect from my team. When I modeled boundaries, my team members felt safe to set them too.

And, it helped me become more thoughtful, strategic, and less reactive.

4. I repeated team priorities out loud. A lot.

I used to think repeating the same message made me sound like a broken record.

Then I realized something: If I wasn’t repeating it, no one remembered it.

So I picked our top 3 priorities as a team. And I repeated them in all-hands, in team chats, in 1:1s, and in reviews.

It was the same message, but in different formats, over and over.

And it worked.

I noticed that my team members started quoting the priorities back to me. They used them to make trade-offs and decisions.

The world today is full of noise, and clarity is kindness. And clarity comes from repetition.

Patrick Lencioni once wrote, “If you’re not sick of hearing yourself say it, you’re not saying it enough.”

According to Harvard Business Review, high-performing teams over-communicate priorities by 3X compared to average ones.

5. I started celebrating boring progress

Everyone celebrates big wins.

But the biggest shift in my leadership came when I started celebrating boring wins:

• A smoother team meeting

• A cleaner code deployment

• A process that ran without reminders

At first, it felt strange. I wasn’t used to praising things that felt... ordinary.

But what I realized is that ordinary is where trust lives.

When I started recognizing these moments, my team lit up, and I could feel the vibe lifting. They felt more motivated and energized.

And over time, those “boring” improvements added up to serious momentum. This principle applies at every level of leadership.

• You want a culture of innovation? Start by noticing small, daily progress.

• You want more initiative? Start by appreciating small steps.

• You want a team that cares? Start by showing that you care about what they’re already doing well.

Final Thought

The best leaders don’t just think big.

They act small, with stupidly simple habits that stick.

Which habit resonated most with you? Or is there a small habit that’s made a big difference in your leadership? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear what’s worked for you.

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You’re leading a team of smart engineers. You’ve set the goals for the year, and explained the ‘why’.

You have even reinforced the message in your 1:1s, All Hands, and even hallway chats with your team.

But despite all that, something doesn’t seem to work.

You find that for some of your team members, the message seems to land - they are aligned with the goals, and jump on board.

However, for others, it doesn’t seem to work. You notice that they smile and nod during the team meetings, but then they go back to their old ways.

So, you naturally start to wonder:

“Am I not being clear? Do they not care? What am I missing?”

Here’s what most leaders miss:

• Not everyone sees the world the same way.

• Not everyone is driven by growth, or impact, or freedom.

Some people want structure. Others want meaning. Some just want stability.

So, what you’re really facing is a values mismatch, not a motivation problem.

In this issue, we will discuss Spiral Dynamics, a leadership framework you can use to tackle exactly that, and align your own values with your team’s.

Here’s what we will cover:

• Part 1: Understanding Spiral Dynamics

  • What is Spiral Dynamics?

  • How Spiral Dynamics Works

  • Why Spiral Dynamics Matters for Leaders

• Part 2: Applying Spiral Dynamics

  • The Team Value Mapping Method

  • The Spiral Dynamics Worksheet

• Part 3: Going from Here

  • Common Pitfalls (and How to Avoid Them)

  • Recommended Resources

  • Final Thoughts

Let’s begin by understanding what Spiral Dynamics is.

Part 1: Understanding Spiral Dynamics

What is Spiral Dynamics?

Spiral Dynamics is a model that helps you understand the underlying values that drive people, and how those values evolve over time.

It was originally developed by psychologist Clare Graves, and later expanded by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.

At its core, Spiral Dynamics says this:

The model organizes these value systems into a “spiral” of stages. Each stage represents a different “worldview”: a way of thinking about work, purpose, success, and relationships.

And while we tend to grow through these stages over time, people and teams don’t all operate from the same level:

• Some are focused on rules and structure.

• Others care about collaboration and shared purpose.

• Some are just trying to keep things from falling apart.

That’s why one leadership style doesn’t work for everyone.

If someone on your team is in the ‘stability and safety’ mode, and you start talking to them about ‘growth and purpose’, you’re likely to lose them

Spiral Dynamics gives you a way to see that mismatch, and fix it.

How Spiral Dynamics Works

The Spiral Dynamics model maps human development into eight core value systems, each one represented by a different color.

Each color stands for a stage in how people think, what they value, and how they behave in groups or organizations. To be clear, though, these aren’t ‘personality traits’. They’re evolving ‘mindsets’.

Here’s a quick overview of the eight stages:

• Beige (Survival): Driven by basic needs such as food, safety, shelter. Rare in organizations, unless under crisis.

• Purple (Security): Loyalty, rituals, group safety. Think tight-knit families or founding teams.

• Red (Power): Control, strength, action. Think early-stage startups or strong-willed individuals.

• Blue (Order): Structure, discipline, rules. You’ll find this in traditional companies, schools, or military-style cultures.

• Orange (Success): Achievement, autonomy, measurable goals. This is where most modern companies operate.

• Green (Community): Collaboration, equality, community. Think mission-driven teams or inclusive cultures.

• Yellow (Systems): Complexity, integration, adaptability. Values the bigger picture and long-term thinking.

• Turquoise (Holistic): Global awareness, interconnectedness. Rare in business, and more common in philosophy or social leadership.

A few key things to note:

• These stages build on each other. You don’t skip from Red to Yellow. You evolve gradually as your worldview expands.

• Teams and organizations often have a dominant value system, but individuals within them can operate at different levels.

• You don’t “graduate” from one stage and never look back. People often shift between levels depending on the situation.

Why Spiral Dynamics Matters for Leaders

What makes Spiral Dynamics powerful is that it helps you see the invisible: the underlying logic behind someone’s choices, motivations, and resistance.

What I like most about this model is that it turns culture from something fuzzy and abstract into something you can observe, name, and work with.

And for leaders, that changes everything.

As a leader, you’re not just managing projects. You’re managing people with different motivations, mindsets, and values.

Spiral Dynamics helps you to:

• Understand where your team is coming from

• Adjust your leadership style to match what they actually care about

• Create a team culture that meets people where they are, and helps them grow

Think of it as a map 🗺️.

Without it, you’re guessing. With it, you’re leading with confidence and precision.

And once you see your team through this lens, you’ll start to notice things you missed before: the invisible patterns that shape your culture, your team dynamics, and even your biggest challenges.

In the next section, we’ll see how to apply this model to real teams, real problems, and your day-to-day leadership.

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Part 2: Applying Spiral Dynamics

So far, we’ve explored what Spiral Dynamics is, how it works, and why it matters.

Now let’s bring it down to the ground.

In this section, you’ll learn how to apply the Spiral Dynamics model in your role as a leader. This is where it gets real, because once you start seeing your team through this lens, you’ll start leading very differently.

Here’s what to expect:

• We’ll start with the Team Value Mapping method, a simple way to identify the dominant value systems within your team.

• Then, you will get the chance to practice this in your own situation with the Spiral Dynamics Worksheet, a practical tool to help you assess your team and adjust your leadership style with clarity.

👉🏼 If you’d like to see how these tools, scenarios and worksheets fit together as part of a broader practice system, you can explore the ⚙️ The Good Boss Practitioner space - where leaders apply these frameworks in real situations.

The Team Value Mapping Method

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