INSIGHTS FOR GROWTH

The leaders who stay with intention — who have actually asked the hard questions, run the data, and decided this is still the right place — are fundamentally different from the ones who stay by default. Staying by default is passive. Staying with intention is a choice. And choices can be invested in.

A non-negotiable is not a preference. It’s not something you’d like if possible. It’s the thing you have learned — through experience, through regret, through watching yourself compromise it — that you cannot continue to trade away and remain effective. Your non-negotiables aren’t the ceiling of what you’re looking for. They’re the floor.

Most leaders who are considering a move do one of two things: they either stay stuck in analysis paralysis, or they jump impulsively when frustration peaks. The Spring Fling is a third option — a deliberate, bounded period of active market intelligence that answers the question without forcing the decision.

The Two-Year Test is one question: if nothing materially changes — same role, same structure, same growth trajectory — who are you in two years? Don’t answer with what you hope might happen. Answer with what the current data projects. That answer is almost always more honest than the one you’ve been giving yourself.

Most leaders make the stay-or-go decision on mood rather than data — when they’re depleted or frustrated enough to act. Two tools change that: the Energy Audit, which surfaces what’s actually happening right now, and the Two-Year Test, which projects it forward. Together they turn an emotional decision into a strategic one.

Most leaders don’t make the stay-or-go decision wrong. They make it late. They wait until they’re depleted or frustrated enough to act, rather than reading the signals that were there much earlier. Energy is data. The question is whether you’re paying attention to it.

Every reorg creates white space. Roles that weren’t defined before. Problems without owners. Decisions without clear accountability. The leaders who find opportunities in disruption are the ones who look for them deliberately — while everyone else is hunkering down and waiting for the dust to settle.

Most leaders in a reorg are focused on getting information. The best ones are focused on having conversations. Two conversations specifically — one with their team as a whole, one with the individuals they can’t afford to lose. Both require intentionality. Neither happens by accident.

I’ve coached dozens of leaders through reorganizations. The ones who come through strongest share one thing: they stop spending energy on what they can’t change and start leading what’s actually theirs to lead. Two tools make the difference.

There are three circles in any reorg. The innermost is what you actually control: your behavior, your communication, your team. The middle circle is what you can influence. The outer circle is what you have to accept. Most leaders spend their energy in the outer circle. That’s where the suffering lives.

The reorg is not about you. It’s about the organization trying to solve a problem. The leaders who survive them well are the ones who stop personalizing the structure and start navigating it. Reorgs are structural. The suffering is optional.

Most leaders think about executive presence during a conversation. The leaders who are best at it think about it before and after. Your presence doesn’t start when you open your mouth — and it doesn’t end when you stop talking. It’s what you do in the first two minutes and the last two minutes.

She’d been told she came across as defensive for years. She wasn’t being defensive — she was being rigorous. But the room wasn’t reading rigor. It was reading threat. Executive presence is the gap — or the absence of a gap — between what you intend and what you transmit.

Right now, somewhere in your organization, there’s a conversation happening about your future. You’re not in the room. The question is: who’s saying your name?

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.