08/19/2026
Debbie Longo didn't soften this one, and I appreciated that she didn't.
Employees will start quitting or asking for a change of team if the experience they have is tearing them down or even just not allowing them to grow and feel valued.
Control feels like leadership while it's working. But you can guarantee it won’t work forever.
Because the leader can't see their own behavior clearly, they see the fallout as everyone else's fault. The team getting lazy, the market getting tougher, or the culture getting soft.
Meanwhile the exits keep happening, quietly, one resignation letter at a time, until it isn't quiet anymore.
Maybe folks don’t leave, but the support dwindles, responsiveness slows, or the attitudes sharpen.
Control is actually the fastest way to lose your best people and your numbers.
Have you seen this play out on a team you were part of?
08/18/2026
Your team can see it before you can.
That's not a knock, it's just how self-awareness works. It's never obvious from the inside. It just feels like being right.
Here's what makes it expensive: that gap doesn't show up as a complaint. It shows up as quiet erosion - less trust, less respect, less benefit of the doubt.
By the time turnover shows up on a report, your credibility is shot.
The leaders who catch it early do one specific thing differently: they ask their team, not just their peers, about how they're actually showing up.
Peers see your polish. Your team sees your pattern.
Our free Leadership Gap Diagnostic is available if you want a faster read than asking around.
When's the last time you asked the people who report to you; what experience do I create for you?
08/11/2026
"You'd be surprised how little others think of you."
I heard that sentence twelve years ago, and it rearranged how I saw my entire career and personal outlook.
Most of the exhaustion in leadership isn't the workload, it’s the second job of managing what everyone thinks of you. And, that’s on top of actually doing the work.
Here's the part almost nobody says out loud: the people you're performing for are mostly not thinking about you at all. They're managing their own version of the same exhausting second job.
This week's episode is about what happens after you finally stop performing for others, and the actual foundation you have to build once that old story is gone.
For many professionals, feeling free of that burden was never the goal. It was the ability to create something of themselves with that freedom.
What would you create in place of the effort you have been putting out performing the way others expect of you versus how you want to lead?
08/11/2026
You cleared the space. Now what are you building in it?
That's the question I've been sitting with all week, because I've watched too many genuinely capable leaders do the hard part of releasing an old story, an old fear, a version of themselves that kept them stuck where they are and then just stop there.
Sure, they’re relieved and feel lighter, but six months later, they’re back where they started.
Feeling different isn't the same as being different.
Tomorrow's episode is all about the part nobody talks about: what actually has to get built once the old pattern, behavior, or belief is gone, so the change you’re making actually sticks instead of fading.
What step do you take to ensure a change you make sticks? ⬇️
08/09/2026
You can't keep business and personal separate, you bring all of yourself to work, habits and all.
So why not treat the workplace as exactly what it is: a lab for your professional growth, not a place to hide any rough edges, gaps, or insecurities.
What has work taught you about yourself this year?
08/08/2026
Laura Berman Fortgang learned this phrase the day she coached on Oprah's stage in front of twenty million viewers.
It's four words, and it'll change how you walk into your next room with someone more senior than you.
Save this one.
08/07/2026
High performers who won't delegate because somewhere along the way, doing it all became the proof of their worth.
It isn't, and nobody's handing out medals for it.
What's one thing you could delegate out this week so you can buy back some of your time this week?
08/11/2026
08/09/2026
08/08/2026
08/07/2026