INSIGHTS FOR GROWTH

He went on vacation for two weeks. His team handled 90%. The 10% they couldn’t? That was the most useful data he’d gotten in months.

A senior leader was about to launch a political campaign against a peer based entirely on a narrative. Her facts were three items. Her assumptions filled a page. Here’s the five-minute exercise that changed everything.

A leader I coached was spending every Friday afternoon sitting down with her underperformers, going through their work, getting it back on track before the end of the week. Hours. Every single Friday. I told her: you’re training them that less effort is okay. They do the minimum. You bail them out. Next week, same thing. The week after that, same thing. The word I used was codependency. That hit different than “delegation problem.” Because delegation sounds like a skill gap

Leaders who get trusted with more aren’t the ones who never have problems. They’re the ones who never let problems become surprises.

She’d built the analytics practice from scratch. Exceeded every number. And her boss barely knew she existed. Not because he didn’t care — because she’d never given him the narrative.

There’s a difference between being a spotlight and being a lighthouse. One swings for attention. The other shines steadily so others can navigate.

At some point you stopped being evaluated on your work and started being evaluated on how people talk about your work. Nobody announces when the rules change.

There’s a kind of gardener who can’t resist pulling up plants to check the roots. The checking kills the growth. Leadership works the same way.

Here’s a simple diagnostic for your leadership: take two weeks completely off. What breaks? That’s not a badge of honor. That’s a gap.

Every time you say “here’s what I’d do,” you’re solving this problem AND guaranteeing they’ll bring you the next one.

Leaders love to say “my door is always open.” But an always-open door can create a line, not a team.

You know what happens when you use GPS every day? You follow the blue line but never learn the route. That’s what happens when leaders jump in to fix everything.