INSIGHTS FOR GROWTH

A holding pattern doesn’t feel like being stuck — it feels like working. The engine runs, the fuel burns, the altitude doesn’t change. Most leaders respond by working harder on the very things keeping them level. The move is to find the one real blocker — the specific thing, not the general excuse — and aim at it directly. More at therightaltitudebook.com/horizon-series.

Week three of the Influence Framework. Results as a dimension of influence isn’t about whether you produce — it’s about whether what you produce builds your standing or quietly spends it. This week’s mini breaks results into reliability, legibility, and cost, with a three-question audit of your last win. The full framework is in The Right Altitude — available now at therightaltitudebook.com.

Empty by 2 PM in an open office and can’t explain why? The background filter most brains run for free — and what to do when yours runs in manual.

Never late to meetings, surprised by every deadline. Time perception, not discipline.

Most leaders spend 40–60% of their time below their altitude — not because they can’t delegate, but because the work below feels productive. One question sorts the calendar: does this require me?

Every other chapter is about performing better at your altitude. The last one asks whether it’s the right altitude at all.

Leaders build monsters without meaning to. The Monster Audit names 4 habits consuming your time, then kills one this week.

The whole idea behind the right altitude is not a metaphor for ambition. It’s a metaphor for fit. The altitude where your natural ability meets the work you’re actually built for. Not too high, not too low. Just right — and nobody can assign it to you from the outside.

The leaders I’ve worked with who feel most settled — not most successful by external measures, but most settled — are the ones who did two things. They defined what good looked like on their own terms, in concrete and specific language. And then they protected it. Not perfectly. But consistently enough that it held. Most people skip the first step. They never define it. So they can’t protect something they never named.

Even if you have zero intention of leaving your career, brainstorm five businesses you could start or buy. Not as a plan — as a perspective shift. The exercise does three things: it reminds you that your skills are valuable in contexts you haven’t considered, it reveals what’s missing in your current work, and it makes your current path feel like a choice rather than a sentence.

Most leaders have spent their careers meeting other people’s definitions of success. The Non-Negotiables Exercise asks a different question: not what do you want to achieve, but what must be true for you to call your life good? Three columns. Work, Family, Self. Three to five non-negotiables each. Then audit your calendar against the list. The gap is your actual development priority.

Your calendar is the most honest document in your life. Not your LinkedIn profile. Not your development plan. Your calendar. Look at the last two weeks and categorize every block: work, family, or self. Then compare the ratio to what you say your priorities are. The gap between those two things is not a time management problem. It’s an honesty problem.

Leaders who reset priorities weekly train teams to stop caring about direction. Agility means adjusting your approach while holding the destination steady.

Some leaders thrive in crisis but struggle when things stabilize. Why the firefighter archetype can undermine their value when fires stop burning.

If you’re working 50+ hours a week, here’s the only experiment worth trying: cut five hours over the next two weeks. Not by working faster — by finding which five hours aren’t actually necessary. Most people generate a list of reasons why every hour is essential. Most of those reasons are habits, not necessities.

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.

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.

You're spending 40 to 60 percent of your time on work below your level. Use the Altitude Dial, W-Questions Test, and Need to Know vs. Want to Know to stop.