Bill Treasurer's Blog

In a fast-moving workplace, leaders are expected to stay focused, balanced, and ready to guide others with clarity. But that starts long before you lead a team; it begins with how you lead yourself. This blog explores ten timeless practices that help leaders stay anchored, self-aware, and aligned with what truly matters.

1. Lead Yourself First

Self-leadership is the foundation of all leadership. When your life is chaotic or your emotions run the show, people notice and they will not follow you far. Leading yourself well means honestly assessing where you need to grow and committing to improving yourself every day.

2. Value Values

Great leaders do not just have values; they live them with consistency and integrity. Your values shape your character, guide your decisions, and define your leadership boundaries. Take time to clarify what you stand for and make sure your actions follow suit.

3. Name Your Fear

Arrogance is often fear in disguise. When leaders feel threatened, their egos push them into defensive or intimidating behavior. Naming your fears reduces their power and helps you lead with courage rather than insecurity.

4. Start and End Your Day with Two Key Questions

Benjamin Franklin’s daily questions anchor leaders in purpose and reflection. Starting with “What good shall I do this day?” creates intentionality. Ending with “What good have I done today?” builds accountability and keeps your leadership grounded in service.

5. Respect Yourself and Others

Respect is earned through everyday behaviors, not titles or rank. Leaders show respect by listening well, treating people like they matter, managing emotions, and owning their mistakes. Respecting yourself through boundaries, self-care, and positive self-talk is just as essential.

6. Play the Tape Forward

Leadership requires looking beyond today’s tasks to tomorrow’s possibilities. Strong leaders anticipate future needs for their team, their organization, and themselves. Visualize the outcomes you want, then take the steps that make those outcomes more likely.

7. Balance Why, What, and How

Many leaders focus heavily on the “what” and neglect the “why” and “how.” People need to understand why the work matters and how they are expected to approach it just as much as what needs to get done. Identify your imbalance and bring all three into alignment.

8. Polish Your Conscience

A clean conscience is a leader’s most reliable guide. Stay aligned with what is right by serving others, practicing humility, and living in a way you would be proud to see publicly shared. When your conscience is clear, your leadership remains steady.

9. Be Grateful and Gracious

Gratitude keeps leaders humble and connected to the people who make their work possible. Notice what and who you appreciate, then express it generously. Gratitude that is shared strengthens relationships and energizes your leadership.

10. One More Time: Earn Your Trident Every Day

Leadership is demanding, complicated, and imperfect, yet it is also one of life’s greatest privileges. Earning your Trident means embracing the challenges, showing up with courage, and choosing service over comfort. Doing this daily creates leaders who grow others with intention and heart.

Thriving Leadership in Practice

At the end of the day, courage isn’t a one-time act. It’s a practice. And like any practice, it grows stronger every time you choose to lean in instead of stepping back. My hope is that these ideas help you take your next bold step with a little more confidence, clarity, and conviction.

What’s one courageous move you’ve been avoiding, and what might become possible if you finally took it?

Want more insight into thriving leadership and how to achieve it? Check out these related posts:

5 Signs of Leadership Hubris: Are You a Leader or a Ruler?A Tip For Coaches – Learn to Inspire Courageous Action

Image by Ilona Ilyés from  Pixabay

The post Ten Tips for Thriving Leadership appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

Do you care about me? This is what people want to know when they work for you. They may not say it directly, but it is the core question that defines the relationship between you and the people you lead. When people believe the answer is “yes,” they will be more committed to their work and to you. But when they think the answer is “no,” their commitment to their job and their loyalty to you will suffer. To be a leader means getting results. But when the drive for results monopolizes a leader’s attention, people become the lesser priority.

When a leader cares more about the “ends” (results) and less about the “means” (people), he becomes susceptible to treating people like objects. You’ll hear it in the language. He’ll refer to people as “resources,” as if they were interchangeable parts sitting on a machinery shelf. He’ll stress the importance of resource planning to manage the budget and schedule. He’ll plead with his bosses for more resources to enlarge the capacity of his department. The leader is the machinist, and his resources are his machine parts.

What does it mean to Care?

So what does caring look like? When you care about people, you take an interest in their career aspirations. You seek and value their opinions. You appreciate that each person has a life outside the office that impacts how they perform inside the office. You know that people aren’t just “resources”; they are the coach of a local soccer team, a lay minister at the church, an active alumna at the state college, or a husband whose wife just died after a long battle with breast cancer, and a father to three heartbroken kids.

Answering “yes” to the core do-you-care-about-me question means taking a deep and genuine interest in those you are leading. Caring, in this sense, is obliging. When you care about people, you give them more of your time, attention, and active support. A wise leader treats people as more important than results, because strong people produce those results. Period.

Open Your Heart and Others Will Care for You

As a practical matter, it’s a good idea to care about your people. When they know you care about them, they will care about you and your success. In fact, you’ll know that you’re truly a leader who cares when the people you lead start seeking and valuing your input, when they take an interest in your career aspirations, and when they are actively supportive of you. And when your people care about you, they’ll help you get better results.

The people you lead need to see that behind whatever shell you portray lives an imperfect being just like them. They need to know that, despite whatever successes you’ve achieved, whatever power you’ve amassed, and whatever perks you get, you’re still “real.” They want to know that, however big your britches are, you still have a sympathetic heart that they will always be able to reach. As long as people know that you have a good and open heart, they will let you push them, give them tough feedback, and ask them to do more. Power works best when it’s anchored in humility.

The Risk when you Open Your Heart

When relationships become more personal, people usually care more. For a leader, that caring comes with a risk. When you care about people, you become more sensitive to their needs and their interests and opinions become harder to dismiss or ignore. Real relationships are obliging. Some leaders fear that by caring for others, they’ll lose objectivity or independence and be taken advantage of in the process. These risks do exist, but the danger is greater if a leader is remote, aloof, and rigid. When you’re as accessible as a stone obelisk, your people will secretly wish for your failure.

So, next time you work alongside those you lead, ask yourself: “Do they know (not just hope) that you genuinely care about them?

Want to learn more about creating a caring and fostering workplace? Check out these related posts:

Coaching with Courage: Best Practices for Unlocking Growth.Love Business, Lead Better

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The post Open Your Heart and the Door appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

At some point in the middle stage of your leadership career, it’s common to be consumed with the thought, “there must be something more.” The job of a leader, which looked so enviable when you were younger and at lower levels, feels less satisfying than you had imagined.

You are spread so thin that, when it comes to your attention, everyone seems to get a little gypped—including yourself.

The headaches are frequent, pressures are unrelenting, and the rewards less satisfying than you had hoped. Worse, everyone is depending on you: your boss, your employees, your clients, and your family. You are spread so thin that, when it comes to your attention, everyone seems to get a little cheated—including yourself.

Something else may nag you at this stage, something more troublesome.

You feel like you’re selling small portions of your soul each day. You find yourself making decisions at work that go against the principles you hold outside work. With each small compromise of your principles, you feel like your “work” self and your “real” self are becoming increasingly disconnected. You’re becoming someone you never thought you would be: a sell-out. You worry that you’re selling your soul, but you’re not sure who the buyer is.

When your enthusiasm for leading ebbs, you’ll call into question everything associated with your current and future identity as a leader.

I call this mid-career leadership stage “ebbing.” Not every leader experiences this distinct low point, but those who do fear that it extends indefinitely.

What if this is all there is? They worried what if becoming a more senior leader just brings more headaches, more pressure, more compromises, more ass-kicking, and less with fulfillment? How much of my soul am I willing to sell?

Think of it this way, ebbing is a time of reflection and reassessment when you’ll have more questions than answers.

The questions you grapple with during the ebbing stage are well worth answering because they will influence the kind of leader you will ultimately be. If you find yourself deep in the ebb, pay close attention to the questions that surface for you. Recognize that, eventually, the tide will roll back in, and the decisions you make during the ebb may end up defining the extent to which your leadership makes a positive difference in the lives of those whom your leadership will touch.

Here are some questions for the ebbing leader to consider:

Who do I aim to be as a leader?What true difference do I hope to make through my leadership?How do I wish to treat people while I’m leading?How do I wish to be treated as a leader?What principles will I uphold?What compromises am I willing to make?What actions do I need to take to close the gap between the leader I aim to be and the leader I am today?Can I become the leader I want to become by working where I work today?

When your enthusiasm for leading ebbs, you’ll call into question everything associated with your current and future identity as a leader. Rather than endure it, embrace it as an essential part of your leadership development. Do that, and you’ll benefit from what you learn when you become a senior leader.

What if the discomfort you’re feeling isn’t a signal that your leadership journey is ending, but an invitation to redefine what leadership means to you?

Want to learn about leadership and development? Check out these related posts:

Coaching with Courage: Best Practices for Unlocking GrowthConfidence and Humility

 

updated October 2025

Image by Sergio Cerrato – Italia from  Pixabay

The post Ebbing Causes Problems for Many Mid-Career Leaders appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

“Raise you’re hand if you’ve ever worked for a horrible boss?”

Whenever we ask that question during our leadership workshops, nearly all the hands in the room go up. The stories that people share are cringeworthy. One participant recently shared that his boss would round up his young team each morning and say, “Which baby seal do I get to club today?”

Much of the focus of Giant Leap’s work is to develop leaders who are courageous, competent, confident, and compassionate. Why? Because we’ve seen the lasting damage that horrible leaders leave in their wake. When covering the topic of bad bosses, we share these 5 signs of a toxic leader. Use them to identify whether you might be working for a toxic leader…or if you might be one yourself!

1. Short Fuse

You have a short fuse when you don’t get your way or when others make mistakes.
Impatience and outbursts might feel like leadership in the moment, but they shut down initiative and learning. Over time, they cultivate a culture of fear.

2. Excessive “I” Talk

You use the word “I” way more than “we.”
Leaders who are caught in their own ego make everything about themselves. They take credit and deflect blame. The best leaders know success is a shared journey.

3. Easily Offended

You are easily offended, especially when you think your authority is being disrespected.
Leaders rooted in insecurity often mistake disagreement for disloyalty. But good leadership invites challenge. It doesn’t punish it.

4. Boss-Focused, Not People-Focused

You spend too much time with your bosses and not enough with your direct reports.
Hubris shows up in how leaders spend their time. Chasing approval from above while neglecting the needs of those below erodes trust and weakens team cohesion.

5. Feedback Averse

You rarely ask for feedback about your leadership and how it could be improved.
Toxic leaders are often the last to know how others perceive them because they never ask. Feedback isn’t a threat. It’s a tool for growth.

These five signs are rooted in a deeper issue: leadership hubris.

“Hubris is the single deadliest leadership contaminant, and the source of nearly every despicable act done by egomaniacal leaders throughout the ages.”
– The Leadership Killer: Reclaiming Humility in an Age of Arrogance

Hubris is more than just overconfidence. It’s dangerous overconfidence. And when left unchecked, it kills the very things leadership is meant to build: mission, morale, performance, loyalty, ethics, and legacy.

So ask yourself:
Do you want to be a leader or a ruler?

A ruler controls and intimidates. A ruler makes everything about themselves.
Leaders empower. A leader lifts others up. A leader builds something that lasts.

At the end of our “bad boss” workshop segment, we ask:
“How many of you would choose to work for that horrible boss again?”
In over two decades of asking, not one hand has ever gone up.

That’s a pretty clear message.

Whether you’re leading a team now or preparing for leadership down the road, keep your ego in check. Stay grounded and remember: the real power of leadership lies in humility, not hubris.

Want to learn more about how not to succumb to leadership pitfalls? Check out these related posts:

Self-Centered BehaviorConfidence and Humility

 

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The post 5 Signs of Leadership Hubris: Are You a Leader or a Ruler? appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

In today’s complex work environments, the role of a coach has become more important than ever. Leaders are being called to do more than manage. They’re being asked to guide, inspire, and support growth in others. At the heart of that support lies coaching. Done well, coaching builds self-awareness, drives accountability, and fosters real transformation. So, what does great coaching look like?

Start with Presence

Before you can effectively support someone else, you have to get yourself right. Great coaching starts with presence. That means being grounded, composed, and fully attentive. When a coach shows up centered and focused, they create a space where the coachee feels safe to explore challenges, take risks, and grow. It’s easy to think coaching is about sharing your knowledge or wisdom, but the first rule we share at Giant Leap Consulting is simple: it’s not about you. It’s about the person in front of you. Our job as coaches is not to insert ourselves into the conversation but to draw out the story, goals, and insights already inside the coachee.

Deep Listening and Powerful Questions

One of the greatest signs of respect you can show someone is to listen. Really listen. That means putting your full attention on what’s being said, what’s being avoided, and what’s not being said at all. Listening deeply sends a powerful message: you matter. From that place of presence and listening, coaching becomes about asking the right questions.

The best coaches don’t offer quick answers. They ask thoughtful, open-ended questions that help people discover their own best answers. That’s what makes the learning stick. It’s also what inspired the creation of Q Cards, a framework of powerful coaching questions that spark breakthrough thinking and real results. When I look back on my own coaching journey, I wish I’d had these cards when I was first starting out. They help coaches get to the heart of a conversation quickly and effectively. If you want to become a more effective coach, start by becoming more curious.

Support the Whole Person

Coaching is not just about solving problems. It’s about helping people become more self-aware, self-reliant, and self-confident. The journey inward is not always easy. It takes courage to look at one’s own flaws, patterns, and limitations. But that journey is where real growth happens. As coaches, we can serve as sherpas, walking beside people as they do the hard work of self-reflection. We don’t judge – we observe. We don’t fix – we ask. And we fiercely protect confidentiality so that the trust in the relationship remains strong and unshakable. Trust is the cornerstone of effective coaching. Without it, people won’t open up. With it, anything becomes possible.

Coach with Emotional Intelligence

A coach’s emotional intelligence often determines the depth of their impact. EQ means tuning into your own emotional state, recognizing patterns, and responding with empathy. It also means knowing when to push, when to pause, and how to meet people where they are. If your EQ is low, coaching will feel like a transaction. If your EQ is high, it becomes a transformational experience. But even too much EQ can have a downside if you lose sight of boundaries or begin to take on someone else’s emotional load. Striking that balance is key. And remember, perfection is not the goal. Coaches who embrace their own imperfections, who lead from a place of humility and connection, often build the strongest bonds and achieve the best results.

Get Started with Guidance

If you’re serious about becoming a better coach, I want to share something that has helped our team at Giant Leap Consulting. It’s a resource we use internally before any coach begins work with a client. It outlines our best practices for building trust, listening deeply, and asking the kinds of questions that unlock growth. Whether you’re just beginning your coaching journey or looking to deepen your practice, this is a valuable tool.

Download your free copy of the GLC Coaching Team Guidance and bring more purpose, clarity, and courage to your coaching.

The post Coaching with Courage: Best Practices for Unlocking Growth appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

My work with leaders has convinced me how immensely difficult is to get leadership right. Leading other people is really, really hard. Indeed, the sheer glut of leadership books may be the best evidence of how hard leadership truly is. If it were easy, budding leaders wouldn’t be so thirsty for leadership advice. Rather than try to glamorize the topic, I tend to strip it down so you can have a more grounded, authentic, and reality-based view of what it takes to lead at all stages in your career.

As a leader, your development is well underway, but nowhere near complete; you are formed but not finished.

Leading from the Middle Place.

People forget about the middle. It’s overlooked because it’s not flashy; there’s typically no fanfare after your promotion there. Instead, it’s where leaders grind it out five days a week often without too much appreciation. This is the point in your leadership career where nothing is certain, and everything is up for grabs. As a leader, your development is well underway, but nowhere near complete; you are formed but not finished.

Much of what makes mid-career so challenging is that everyone wants a piece of you. Your employees want your time, guidance, and recognition. Your boss wants your loyalty, diligence, and competence. Both groups want your leadership, but each toward different aims.

Your employees want your leadership to be devoted to giving them opportunities to grow and excel. For them, your influence as a leader should be aimed at making their jobs more fulfilling, stable, and secure. How you treat them—emotionally, developmentally, and financially—will have a direct impact on how hard they work, and how loyal they are to you and the organization. It’s in your best interest to meet their needs. After all, where would you be as a leader without their hard work and loyalty?

Advancement as a mid-career leader requires minimizing, mitigating, and controlling risk.

Your bosses’ needs are different. First, it’s important to be clear about what they don’t want: surprises. Nothing will get your boss more steamed than bringing her a problem well after the time she actually could have helped resolve it. Handing her the ticking problem precisely at the time when it is set to explode is the surest way to damage your relationship with your boss and, it follows, your career. Advancement as a mid-career leader requires minimizing, mitigating, and controlling risk. When it comes to pleasing the people above you, heed these words: no surprises!

Give ‘em What They Want.

What else do your bosses want? Results. How you care for your employees, generally, means less to them than how you care for the organization and its goals. If taking care of your employees furthers the organization’s, have at it. But if doing so slows down progress or harms results, they prefer that you direct your attention elsewhere.

It’s hard to argue with the logic; without sustainable results, people don’t have jobs. As a good leader you:

Want to care for your peopleEnsure they have stable jobsHelp them make more money

Put getting results first.

Sounds easier than it really is, but such is the life of a leader in the middle. You must walk the delicate line of satisfying your direct reports and satisfying those to whom YOU report. Ain’t leading grand?

How can you stay true to your leadership values when the needs above and below you pull in opposite directions?

Want to learn more about leadership struggles and how to combat them? Check out these related topics:

A Tip For Coaches – Learn to Inspire Courageous ActionPersonal Fidelity: The Leadership Skill You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Updated August 2025

Image by Giovanna Orlando from  Pixabay

The post Mid-career Leadership Is Harder Than You Ever Expected appeared first on Giant Leap Consulting.

If you had to choose between employees who comfortably played it safe and those who consistently acted with courage, who would you rather have on your team? The answer ought to be obvious. In today’s world of constant change and uncertainty, courage isn’t optional; it’s essential. The future doesn’t belong to the fearful. It belongs to the bold. But here’s the rub: when uncertainty rises, so does fear. And when fear takes the driver’s seat, courage tends to get stuffed in the trunk. But how do you mitigate fear with safety?

Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of leaders, and I’ve noticed a troubling trend: people are afraid. Afraid of change, afraid of failure, afraid of losing their job, afraid of disappointing the boss, and afraid of being too honest. And most dangerously, afraid of taking initiative.

Fear is terrible for business. It’s expensive. If you could quantify the Total Cost of Fear (TCF) inside most organizations, the number would be staggering. Fear causes people to withhold ideas, to stay silent when they should speak up, to play small when they could play bold. It leads to mistakes being hidden instead of fixed, and to innovation being smothered before it even takes its first breath. It also leads to good people walking out the door in search of workplaces where they’re allowed to show up with their full selves.

And yet, too many leaders still try to motivate through fear.

Let me say it plainly: fear might drive short-term compliance, but it will never inspire long-term excellence.

Fear or Courage: Which Culture Are You Building?

I once had two bosses. One ruled by fear. The other led with courage.

The first boss would assign me an important task and immediately outline all the disastrous things that would happen if I failed. She’d say things like, “This is your problem now. Solve it… or else.” What was going on? She was transmitting her own fear straight into me. She was afraid that if I messed up, it would reflect poorly on her judgment. Fear was her way of controlling the outcome.

The second boss—the one I directly reported to—was different. When he gave me a challenging assignment, he framed it as an opportunity. He’d ask what I thought a successful outcome looked like. He’d share what was at stake, not in a scary way, but in a way that highlighted the potential to make a real impact. And most importantly, he told me he believed in me and made himself available as a resource.

Guess which leader got more out of me?

Leaders who encourage courage don’t sugarcoat challenges, but they don’t catastrophize them either. They help their people believe that they can rise to the occasion, and they provide the support to do it.

The Irony: Safety Promotes Risk

Here’s the leadership paradox: the best way to get people to stop seeking safety is to actually create it.

I’m not talking about safety from hard work or high standards. I’m talking about psychological safety—an environment where people feel safe enough to take interpersonal risks. That means they can ask questions, challenge ideas, admit mistakes, and propose bold solutions without fear of ridicule or punishment.

When people feel safe, they act bravely. They step up, they speak up, they grow.

If you want your team to be more courageous, start by checking your own emotional composure. Are you reacting out of fear? Are you short-tempered under pressure? Or are you unknowingly creating an atmosphere where your people are walking on eggshells?

In my book Courage Goes to Work, I talk about the concept of “enfearing”—when leaders unconsciously transmit fear to their teams. It often sounds like this: “Don’t mess this up,” “Whatever you do, don’t drop the ball,” or “Heads will roll if this doesn’t go well.”

Fear-based messages like these don’t motivate. They paralyze.

On the other hand, encouraging leaders say things like: “This is a great opportunity,” “I’m confident in your ability to handle this,” or “I’ve got your back.” These words build trust and create a foundation where people can operate with courage.

Your Legacy as a Leader

At the end of the day, your success as a leader won’t be measured just by what you accomplished, but by what you inspired others to accomplish. Did you lift people up or hold them back? Did you make your team braver—or just more cautious?

The best leaders make it safe to be bold. They know that courage isn’t something you demand—it’s something you draw out. And you draw it out by creating conditions that encourage it.

Are you the kind of leader who ignites fear, or the kind who inspires courage? The choice is yours. And so is the legacy.

Interested in learning more about helping others grow through leadership? Check out these related topics:

Living LeadershipA Tip For Coaches – Learn to Inspire Courageous Action

This post was based on an excerpt from Leadership Two Words At A Time. Find it here.

 

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Years ago, when I learned that I sucked at leading, I was a nomad, traveling and hurling myself off 100-foot towers into small pools at amusement parks throughout North America. I had just become the captain of the U.S. high-diving team and was responsible for leading a troupe of young, high-flying athletes and ensuring they consistently performed in tip-top shape. It was my first leadership role, and I was a damn good leader—or so I thought. The team was performing decently, and after all, I was the captain! However, it was courageous honesty I needed most.

“You call that diving? You looked like flying polka dancers!”

Each day, my teammates and I would perform an aerial exhibition for amusement park patrons. We’d start by performing Olympic-style dives from the 3-meter springboard. Next, we’d do a comedy routine in which an audience member (a diver we planted in the audience) challenged one of our teammates to a diving competition. After that, we entertained the crowd with clown dives. The show culminated with a diver scaling a 100-foot-high diving ladder and hurling himself toward the water, traveling at speeds of more than 50 miles an hour before hitting a small pool that was 10 feet deep.

We were young and arrogant, and I had the biggest ego among us.

Trying to Lead with Fear

One day, after what I thought was a lousy performance, as the park guests exited the aquatheater, I let the team have it. “That show was a total disaster,” I barked. “You call that diving? You looked like flying polka dancers! If this is the kind of team I’m saddled with, I have serious concerns about the park extending our contract.”

“Listen up. The next show better be the best one we’ve ever done, or I’m going to start cutting the team,” I threatened. “I’m not going to let you embarrass me like that.” 

There, I thought. That’ll teach ’em.

A Dose of Courageous Honesty

After what I thought was an impressive display of leadership and grit, a fellow diver came up to me and reasonably tried to explain that maybe my approach wasn’t as sensational as I’d thought. But, being stubborn, I endeavored to argue. The next words from his mouth, though at the time stung, I am forever grateful for. He said, “Treasurer, you suck at leading.”

Leadership change often requires a startling blow, and these words were the jolt I needed and deserved. I was utterly humiliated. After licking my wounds of embarrassment, I set out to become a better leader. I started reading books on leadership, observing leaders I admired, and trying different leadership approaches. Respect, I learned, can’t be forced. It has to be earned. Eventually, I decided to go to graduate school, and I did my thesis on the relationship between leadership style and effectiveness.

What makes the experience of being humiliated so valuable to a leader’s development is that it is through humiliation that one gains humility.

Humiliation is powerful, meaningful, and revealing. It strips away the layers of defensiveness that our egos devote so much time to building and fortifying. To be humiliated is to be vulnerable, exposed, and defenseless—all things the ego vigilantly guards against. What makes the experience of being humiliated so valuable to a leader’s development is that it is through humiliation that one gains humility.

Finding Gratitude in the End

Sometimes it’s hard to find gratitude in the painful lessons in life. However, it’s time to deeply reflect on a time when you learned a lesson the hard way.

 

Did you benefit from someone telling you the truth? How did it make you a better person? I’ll never be able to thank my teammate enough for his courageous honesty and how it shaped my life today.

 

Want to learn more about courage? Check out these related posts:

The Day I Wasn’t CourageousA Tip For Coaches – Learn to Inspire Courageous Action

Updated July 2025

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I’ve spent my career helping leaders grow into their fullest potential, and here’s something I’ve learned the hard way: If you want to be a strong leader, you’ve got to love business.

Now, before your eyes glaze over and you start thinking about spreadsheets and quarterly reports, let’s be clear—I don’t mean loving profit margins or memorizing financial jargon (though those things matter). I mean loving the challenge, the structure, the problem-solving, the people, the processes. Loving the entire ecosystem of business.

Because if you don’t love it—if you don’t truly understand it and appreciate the wild, wonderful, unpredictable animal that is business—you’ll never lead well in it.

Business Is Everywhere

Whether you’re leading a for-profit company, a nonprofit, a government agency, or a local food co-op, guess what? You’re in the business of business.

Business isn’t just about selling widgets. It’s about how your organization works—how money comes in, how decisions are made, how teams are built, how risks are managed, how people are treated. Even the $24-billion-a-year federal agency my firm has coached? That’s business. Complex, vital, messy, beautiful business.

So yes, business is busy. It’s full of moving parts and hidden connections. You’re not expected to know it all on Day One. But you are expected to care enough to learn it.

I get it—at first, business can feel overwhelming. Especially when the folks around you are tossing around buzzwords like “EBITDA,” “synergy,” or “dimensionalize.” It’s easy to feel small.

Don’t let the vocabulary scare you off. Most of it can be said in plain English, and the substance underneath it is learnable. More importantly, it’s worth learning. Because as your understanding grows, your confidence will grow too. And then, almost like magic, so will your passion.

When you start to really see how the gears turn, how different departments rely on each other, how the right decision at the right time can ripple out across an entire organization—that’s when leadership gets fun. That’s when business becomes an adventure.

The Payoff

You know what happens when you love business?

You stop dreading the grind and start looking forward to the game. Your judgment gets sharper. You recognize patterns faster. Problems don’t paralyze you—they energize you.

You earn respect from your peers. You become the one people look to when things get shaky, because they know you get it. They know you care.

And best of all, you get to do what great leaders are meant to do: build people up. You help your team exceed their own expectations. You give them the tools and support to stretch into bigger, bolder versions of themselves. And you find real joy in watching them grow.

That’s not just business. That’s leadership.

Love Business Enough to Lean

Until you retire, you’ll spend most of your waking hours at work. So why not treat work like the ultimate leadership university?

Every day is a lesson—if you’re willing to be a student. Strategy, forecasting, culture, customer service, motivation, innovation, risk… it’s all there for the learning. The more you engage, the more your curiosity is rewarded.

And here’s the kicker: Curiosity turns into caring, and caring turns into passion.

I’ve coached hundreds of leaders, and here’s something they’ll tell you: Passion is the X-factor. It’s what separates the good from the great. Passion can’t be faked. It comes from being all-in. From rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty, and saying, “I’m here for the long haul.”

Interestingly, the word passion comes from the Latin passio, meaning “to suffer.” Because true passion isn’t always comfortable. It’s not always fun. Sometimes it means giving more of yourself than you thought you could. But it’s in that effort that mastery is born.

If you’re willing to suffer for something—to wrestle with it, grow through it, lead through it—then you’re on the path to becoming a truly great leader.

Passion Helps You Love Business

One of the best leadership moments I’ve seen came during the early months of the pandemic. I was coaching a VP named Lynn. She told me, “It’s been chaotic, exhausting… but it’s also been energizing. I’ve loved watching our leadership step up and actually live the values we always talk about.”

There it is again: Passion. Even in chaos. Maybe especially in chaos.

If you want a fulfilling leadership career—not just a title or a paycheck—you’ve got to love the game you’re playing.

The more you love it, the more it gives back.

Now go lead with passion.

Want to learn more about leading with purpose? Check out these related posts:

Living LeadershipCresting as a Leader: Turning Transitions into Triumphs

 

 

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Executive, leadership, and life coaches want what’s best for their coachees. Helping others succeed is, after all, why we picked this profession. Or in some cases, how it chose us. It’s been my experience over 20 years that imparting and nurturing the ability to behave courageously has been the most powerful gift you can give those with whom you work. It’s something they won’t forget and a skill they’ll use for the rest of their lives. But how do you inspire courageous action?

Before starting my own company, I worked for Accenture, one of the world’s largest and most respected management and technology consulting companies, as its first-ever internal executive coach. Before moving into the coaching role, however, I remember being petrified by the prospect of coaching the senior executives. 

Safety for me meant preserving the positive reputation I had worked to establish. Moving into a new coaching role, I feared, might threaten it.

As a middle manager, I had reported to a few of them and knew how intimidating some of them were. I feared my lower rank would cause my coaching suggestions to be discounted and that eventually my role would be marginalized. Nearly all of the senior execs had more business experience than I did, yet I would be counseling them. Safety for me meant preserving the positive reputation I had worked to establish. Moving into a new coaching role, I feared, might threaten it.

Failing does not Inspire Courageous Action

I was so worried about failing that I strongly considered forgoing the opportunity, despite the fact that I wanted it badly. Now, admitting to your boss that you’re scared of failing is hard to do in any company. It is particularly hard to do in a company made up of hotshot consultants. But I was fortunate to be working for Hines Brannan, a seasoned and level-headed senior partner. Hines had a way of lifting my head up past the speed bumps of the moment so that I could view my career as a winding journey.

I went to him and said, “Hines, I think you should consider placing someone else in the new coaching role. I’m okay with coaching people at my level, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to coach people who are more senior than me. I mean, I’ve reported to some of these people in the past. The thought of coaching them is too intimidating.” Hines listened patiently. Then, instead of telling me what a wuss I was being, he simply said, “But Bill, you coach me.”

Unlike some bosses I had worked for, Hines didn’t make me feel small so that he could feel big.

He was right. Like many of the senior executives I would be coaching, I reported to him. And over the years, I had become a bit of a confidant to him. In the process, I had grown comfortable offering Hines my perspective on issues and challenges that he was grappling with. I’m sure that Hines had far more impact on me as a coach than I ever had on him, but in the moments when I had coached him, he had drawn value from it. By pointing out the obvious, Hines permitted me to see the opportunity in a different way. The confidence I had already established in coaching him could be extended to working with the other executives. His words helped me to cut myself a break. Moreover, his words helped put my courage to work. 

Armed with this knowledge, I was able to build up a thriving internal coaching practice, eventually coaching thirty Accenture executives on a regular basis.

Permission to be Courageous

The most important thing that Hines did was permit me to express my fears without embarrassment. Unlike some bosses I had worked for, Hines didn’t make me feel small so that he could feel big. With him, I never felt dismissed or patronized. He never disrespected me by multitasking when I talked with him, despite his pressing schedule. To the contrary, when I approached him, I always had his full presence and attention. I felt valued, not intimidated. Had I reported to another executive, I would have been much more reluctant to express my fears and concerns.

More tangibly, Hines gave me permission to be courageous by pointing out where I already was doing the very thing I was afraid of. This was incontrovertible proof that I could indeed meet the challenge—because I already was meeting it. Armed with this knowledge, I was able to build up a thriving internal coaching practice, eventually coaching thirty Accenture executives on a regular basis.

Now, as a professional coach who trains coaches, I emphasize that the most powerful action you can take to provoke courageous behavior is to give coachees permission to be courageous. How you carry yourself will make a significant impact on how safe they feel and, thus, on how expressive they will be. By giving them your full presence, they’ll feel valued and free to talk about their current and future fears. When they do, you’ll be better able to address their concerns and shift their thinking to all the ways they are prepared to meet their next challenges.

How will you inspire courageous action?

Want to learn more about inspiring others? Check out these related topics:

How To Inspire Workplace CreativityCultivate Growth

Image by PixelAnarchy from Pixabay

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