The alignment of your inner and outer leadership has a huge impact on your effectiveness and efficiency as a leader.

Inner leadership is your personal leadership model. It is composed of your chosen principles and methods (leadership values) that underpin your approach to leadership. Building this personal leadership model is the primary subject of my first leadership book, “Strategic Pause: Stop. Think. Lead.”

Outer leadership is the application of your inner leadership. It is how your chosen leadership principles and methods are manifested. It is your visible leadership, to your team and everyone. Outer leadership is comprised of the routines and structures you put in place. It is your behavior and management cadence.

Does your outer leadership match your inner leadership? Are you striving to make the most important aspects of your inner leadership real via those routines and structures? For example, if the principle of empowerment is part of your inner leadership, are you conducting meaningful one-on-ones at least quarterly where you discuss results and recognition, goals and their alignment to the bigger picture, introspection and professional development, and performance evaluation and mutual feedback. In my personal leadership model, meaningful one-on-ones are a key “how” I use in striving to make empowerment real. If key aspects of your inner leadership are not represented in your routines and structures, why?

The usual explanation I hear for alignment gaps is not having enough time. But, if particular leadership principles or methods are foundational to your inner leadership, they are mandatory in your outer leadership. It is important for you to understand which components of your inner leadership MUST be represented in your outer leadership. If your outer leadership is not appropriately representing your inner leadership then you are compromising your leadership values. Not living by your values is not a viable long-term option.

Outer leadership representing your inner leadership falls on a spectrum. That is why I use the words “appropriately representing.” There will be a temptation to pursue perfection or be fully comprehensive. Circumstances rarely exist where you can put your full inner leadership into effect. That is the reality.

Manifesting your inner leadership as outer leadership comes in two forms. The first is new routines and structures that you explicitly put in place. The second is you aligning aspects of the existing operating model to your inner leadership. This is adding meaning, depth, and alignment to the management structures already in place. For both, it is critical to be on message reinforcing the connection between your routines and management cadence with the bigger picture. For example, it is the difference between in your staff meeting just discussing current status and your staff meeting discussing status, alignment to the long-term objectives, and whether or not adjustments are needed to the current path.

Again, the connection between inner leadership and outer leadership is on a spectrum. If you get absolutely everything in place, that is the ideal. But, that is very rare. Don’t be disappointed if you can’t fully get there. Instead, understand the minimum level of outer leadership that needs to be in place so that you can stay true to your inner leadership. That is your starting point. You build up from there based on the circumstances.

Outer leadership is the primary subject of my upcoming second leadership book. The working title is “Leadership Islands: Countering Corporatism with Outer Leadership.” View it as a pragmatic and prescriptive extension of my first leadership book focused on inner leadership.

What do you think?

Does your outer leadership appropriately represent your inner leadership? Is your inner leadership defined in explicit and simple terms that allow you to translate it into outer leadership? Where are the gaps? Are you trying to do too much? What resonated most with you? What am I missing?

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Thank you for reading my leadership blog post. I hope you found it interesting and thought provoking.

Check out “Strategic Pause” on Amazon. Follow me on X (@DonThinks).

© 2025 Don Graumann. All Rights Reserved. Other than personal sharing, please do not redistribute without permission.