A Field Guide to the Unruly Art of Leadership

Picture this: a team retreat in the great outdoors. There’s a roaring campfire, a trust fall lined up, and someone’s brought cupcakes—because who doesn’t love cupcakes? But there’s also a dog.

Not a friendly, waggy-tailed dog. This one’s growling, pacing, and snapping at anyone who gets too close. It bit someone earlier. It bit someone last year too.

You can pass out cupcakes, start the active l...

Ever wonder how some leaders breeze through the day, while others spend 20 minutes debating whether a bar graph or pie chart will better "tell the story"?

The difference isn’t a superhuman brain—it’s knowing how to protect your mental energy for what actually matters.

Decision fatigue is real, and it’s not just making you tired—it’s making you worse at leading. Your brain can only handle so much...

Leadership as we know it is incomplete.

It’s not bad. It’s not broken. But it’s missing something.

We’ve spent decades defining leadership as authority, decision-making, and vision. We’ve bolted on management to keep things running and, when absolutely necessary, thrown in a half-hearted nod to followership. But we left out one of the most powerful roles of all—the role of the Guide.

And withou...

 "Hustle harder." "Never stop grinding." "Sleep when you're dead."

(Anyone else exhausted just reading those?)

Here's what I've noticed after decades of guiding leaders: We've created a culture that romanticizes constant motion while treating stillness like a guilty pleasure. And perhaps most tellingly, we keep adding "but fail forward!" to the end of every piece of advice, as if we need to apol...