# Leading Sapiens > Master the Art, Science, and Practice of Leadership. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [About](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/about.md) - Hi, this is Sheril Mathews and welcome to Leading Sapiens! LS is a coaching, consulting, and training practice, focused on leadership development. It is primarily oriented towards practicing managers, leaders, and executives. If you are an aspiring leader, you will find value here as well. This sit… - [Archive](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/archive.md) - [Authors](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/authors.md) - [Contact Me](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/contact.md) - Did one of the articles resonate with you? Wondering what might be the best approach to a vexing challenge you are facing? My offerings vary between coaching, consulting, and training based on your needs. You can set up a 20 minute, no obligation strategy session where we can discuss potential opti… - [Effective Leaders: A Complete Guide](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/effective-leaders.md) - What makes some leaders effective while others flounder? Why do certain people navigate organizations with ease, while others stall despite talent and hard work? These are the perennial questions I try to answer in my articles. While the questions aren’t new, the answers most leadership advice offe… - [How I Work](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/how-i-work.md) - My focus is on increasing your capacity vertically, rather than trying to improve your competency, capability, or horizontal capacity. These gains tend to be more impactful, resilient, and sustainable over the long term. They leave you self-correcting and self-generating, instead of being dependent… - [Leadership Coaching – A Guide](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-coaching.md) - There's a plethora of coaching options in the marketplace along with a range of methodologies and outcomes. This piece cuts through the noise to examine what leadership coaching actually is, when it works best, and how it creates lasting impact. Throughout I’ve linked to other articles that go deep… - [Newsletter](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/newsletter.md) - The Leading Sapiens Weekly Get curated, actionable ideas on careers, work, and organizations. Brain food for your leadership. I publish a weekly newsletter to help you navigate the often confusing terrain of work, careers, and organizations. It's designed to cut through the typical BS you come acro… - [Privacy & Terms](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/privacy-terms.md) - The short version Before you take a deep dive into the legalese here’s the long and short of it: * This site is a one person operation so you don’t have an entire trope of people looking at “your data”. * The only data this site collects is your email address, only if you decide to subscribe to the… - [The Savvy Sensemaker™ - A Leadership Coaching Program for Mid-career Professionals](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/savvy-sensemaker-leadership-coaching-program.md) - If you're on this page, you're likely considering leadership coaching. Below, I'll address some key challenges mid-career professionals face, why conventional approaches often miss the mark, and how my leadership coaching program — the savvy sensemaker — can help. If any of this resonates, set up a… - [Articles](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/tags.md) - Below are the main topics I write about. Click on any of them to see all the articles. ## Posts - [Evidence: How Real Confidence Is Built](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/confidence-comes-from-evidence.md) - If you follow sports, you probably heard the news of Sabastian Sawe's superhuman feat of becoming the first person ever to run a sub 2-hour marathon. Following the win, Sawe’s coach sent a note to Brad Stulberg that ended saying: "Confidence is based on evidence” has been a guiding concept in the l… - [From Amtrak to Antarctica: Intention - Perception - Strategy](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/intention-perception.md) - I used to ride the Amtrak train from DC to New York City regularly. The train has a “quiet car”—a section where everyone is supposed to be quiet so you can sleep or get some work done. People use the quiet car because they want serenity, but it was astounding how often it backfired. When you expect… - [Why Words Fail: The Hidden But More Important Layer in Effective Interactions](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/relationship-level-of-communication.md) - You just don’t seem to “click” with this new manager. Or despite trying different tactics you just can’t seem to connect with your teenager. All of us have been in some version of this dynamic both at work and home. Invariably this leads us to try and “get better at communication”. Unfortunately, m… - [Ethos: The Art of Building Trust and Credibility](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/ethos-building-trust-and-credibility.md) - In leadership, your persuasiveness is contingent upon one question people are always asking: Can I trust the person behind the message? That’s the key idea behind the ancient Greek concept of Ethos. Originally meaning "habitat" or "character," Aristotle considered ethos, or the appeal to credibilit… - [Three Axioms of Effective Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/axioms-of-effective-leadership.md) - Recently, a client asked for a book recommendation on leadership. I asked what problem she was trying to solve. Leading effectively is one thing. On the other hand, if she aimed to get ahead in the career game, leadership is only but one of many factors. The problem with run-of-the-mill leadership… - [Logic of Self vs. Logic of Role (And Why Confusing the Two Is a Trap)](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/logic-of-self-vs-logic-of-role.md) - Consider a recent difficult experience at work. Perhaps it was a meeting where your idea was criticized, even dismissed. Or a performance review that was less feedback and more an indictment. “Nothing personal, just business” they say. But it sure hurts. How we process these frustrations fundamenta… - [The Philosophy Behind the Johari Awareness Model](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/philosophy-johari-awareness-model.md) - Why is it that, despite claims to be otherwise, organizational life remains so persistently messy, even stupid sometimes? In his now forgotten classic Of Human Interaction, Joseph Luft, one of the originators of the Johari Window model, highlights some key assumptions and the philosophy behind it.… - [Active Listening: What It Originally Meant](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/active-listening.md) - Sensitive, active listening is exceedingly rare in our lives. We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know. — Carl Rogers Listen, or your tongue will make you… - [Leading Imperfectly: Less Intervening, More Being](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/imperfect-leadership.md) - If you were to believe all the ChatGPT generated slop on LinkedIn, you’d be convinced that to lead effectively, you must maintain a certain image that’s calm, authoritative, and in control. ALWAYS. From this perspective, leadership, and so-called “executive presence”, is a performance you put on. I… - [Aristotle's Pathos: An Ancient Remedy for Modern Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/pathos-in-leadership.md) - It’s common to associate effective leadership with a cool, detached rationality. We assume that if the facts are right and the plan sound, people naturally follow. Yet, how often have you presented a perfectly reasoned plan only to see it met with indifference? Why is it that logic so often fails t… - [Legitimate Power: Authority and Power are Not the Same Thing](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/legitimate-power.md) - Consider for a moment the last time you followed a directive at work that you privately questioned, or disliked. Why did you comply? Was it the fear of reprimand, or was it a more reflexive sense that the person giving the order had the right to do so? This difference between using force vs. the ac… - [Decisional Self vs Performative Self: Why Decisions Don’t Translate into Actions](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/performative-self-bandura.md) - Most of us have facets of our lives where things are just not up to the mark. We’d like things to be different, but somehow it hasn’t panned out. And equally likely, we already know what needs to be done and how to go about it. Yet, we falter. Why? To state the obvious: knowledge per se doesn’t tri… - [The Five Johari Leadership Archetypes](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/johari-leadership-archetypes.md) - Joseph Luft in his now forgotten classic Of Human Interaction, has a section on leadership archetypes I found particularly useful, and entertaining. He based these archetypes — ancient patterns in how we influence others — on the work of anthropologist Merrill Jackson, which explains why these are… - [The Power of Congruence](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/congruence-carl-rogers.md) - Why do we feel an instinctive sense of trust when interacting with some people, while others leave us with a vague sense of unease, as if interacting with a polished but hollow shell? This is especially relevant to effective leadership —you might be saying all the right things, but others experienc… - [Four Levels of Communication](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/four-levels-of-communication.md) - Why is it that the most critical information is often the very thing that remains unsaid? Leaders tend to operate under the illusion that communication is a simple, linear process of "telling"—setting direction, articulating values, and dispensing expertise. Or at best an “exchange”. Yet, the highe… - [Hope vs. Realism: The Stockdale Paradox](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/stockdale-paradox.md) - Are you an optimist or a pessimist? In the movie A House of Dynamite, an unidentified nuclear missile is inbound towards a major city in the United States. The defense systems designed to stop it have already failed once. Whatever happens next to millions of people hangs on whether the last remaini… - [The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition — A Deep Dive](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/dreyfus-model.md) - The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition is one of the most enduring explanations of how human beings develop mastery. We think of experts as people with all the answers — those who can explain, justify, and systematize what they know. But in practice, the most skilled performers often can’t explain… - [Experiential Learning Cycle](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/experiential-learning-cycle.md) - It’s easy to assume that you learn from all experiences. Not always. Those who adapt and learn the fastest are actually using a deeper process that turns experience into compounded learning. David Kolb called this the experiential learning cycle thats consists of Concrete Experience (experiencing),… - [ICs vs Managers vs Leaders: Why Real Leadership is Rare](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/ics-managers-leaders-why-real-leadership-is-rare.md) - It should be considered that there is nothing more difficult to handle, more doubtful of success, or more dangerous to carry through than to initiate a new order of things. For the innovator makes enemies of all those who prosper by the old order while only lukewarm support is forthcoming from thos… - [How's Your Adaptive Capacity?](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/adaptive-capacity.md) - In nature, species that survive aren't the strongest or smartest. They're the most adaptive. When the environment shifts, they don't just work harder, they evolve. Our work lives follow the same brutal logic. The question isn't whether we're the most talented or hardest working. It's also whether w… - [Transformative Learning in Leadership Coaching](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/transformative-learning-in-leadership-coaching.md) - Leaders today face complex challenges that can't be solved through skill development alone. Jack Mezirow's transformative learning framework, developed through three decades of research, is a useful tool to help leaders shift how they think and make meaning of their roles. In this piece, I explore… - [Core Practices of Adaptive Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/practices-of-adaptive-leadership.md) - The hardest part of adaptive leadership is practicing it when the system pushes back. Over decades of studying leaders in politics, medicine, and business, Ron Heifetz at Harvard found that those who made progress under pressure weren’t relying on brilliance or charisma. Instead, they were executin… - [Adaptive Leadership: What It Means and Why It's Essential](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/adaptive-leadership.md) - Most leadership models sound good until they’re tested in the wild. A crisis, a reorg, or conflicting loyalties can easily expose the gaps in any conventional playbook. It’s because many vexing problems aren’t technical, they’re adaptive: people must let go of something they value, learn something… - [On fishes, frames, and messes](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/lsw-70.md) - Knowing what they like I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. —Dale Carnegie All too often, we are so gung-ho on our own point of view,… - [McChrystal on Leadership Myth and Reality](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mcchrystal-leaders-myth-and-reality.md) - General Stanley McChrystal commanded forces in one of the most results-driven environments imaginable — yet his deepest insight about leadership has nothing to do with outcomes. If someone whose career depended on winning wars discovered that results aren't what leadership is about, what does that… - [Competing Languages of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/competing-languages-of-leadership.md) - Leadership advice often focuses on communication style: how to be clearer, more persuasive, etc. While valuable, these tactics eventually hit a ceiling. You learn techniques but revert to old patterns under pressure, or the improved "delivery" somehow doesn't create the changes you hoped for. That'… - [Career Myths: Lies We Are Sold](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/career-myths.md) - I recently wrote a piece on leadership myths. While writing, I realized these weren’t just organizational myths. They’re also personal myths about careers. The same cognitive leaps that make us believe in heroic CEOs also lead us to fall for formulaic career paths. The attribution errors that disto… - [Leadership Derailment: How Good Managers Go Bad](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-derailment.md) - The executive felt shell-shocked and feeling blindsided. Her boss had just asked for her resignation. How did it come to this? This scene plays out in organizations more often than we think. Leadership derailment — when a once-promising leader stumbles and falls — isn't limited to the C-suite. It c… - [Technical Problems vs Adaptive Challenges](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/technical-problems-vs-adaptive-challenges.md) - As a leader, you've likely faced a problem that refused to be solved by the usual methods. A problem that made you question everything you knew about leadership. Consider this scenario: You're a senior manager, known for solving complex challenges. But now, you're confronting an issue that's defyin… - [Multi-Frame Thinking](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/multi-frame-thinking.md) - We think effective leaders are great problem-solvers. That’s only partially true. What they’re really good at is multi-frame thinking. They help solve problems by changing how they are framed, operating one level upstream where the real leverage lies. Multi-frame thinking means deliberately shiftin… - [Leadership Myths that Persist](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-myths.md) - Why do organizations repeat the same leadership mistakes despite research showing they don't work? A key reason is pervasive leadership myths. When Boeing's board asked CEO Dave Calhoun to step down, it followed a familiar script. New leader, fresh start, problems solved. It was supposed to restore… - [Belief Triggers — Why Smart People Fail to Change](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/belief-triggers-marshall-goldsmith.md) - When it comes to change that sticks, willpower is overrated. So are tactics and techniques. In fact, most of our efforts fail, not due to lack of determination, but something more simpler, but also more insidious. Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world's most respected executive coaches, spent decade… - [Please Exceed your Authority](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/exceed-your-authority.md) - "I don't want to step on anyone's toes." This is a common and reasonable stance in organizational life. But this mostly logical approach often does more damage than good. If “that’s not my job” tops the list of career-limiting phrases, an overcautious respect for boundaries is equally limiting. It'… - [Leonardo’s Code: A Blueprint for Timeless Work](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leonardo-da-vinci-isaacson.md) - Modern organizations worship at the altar of efficiency, focus, and relentless execution. We follow suit at the personal level as well by trying to optimize everything to the hilt. While mostly helpful, this often misses the point. The same organizations that tout “innovation” also create environme… - [Work is Not School: Surviving Institutional Stupidity](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/surviving-institutional-stupidity.md) - For 16+ years, we master the rules of school. Study hard, get good grades, follow the formula and ultimately merit wins. Then we enter the workforce and none of it works quite like we thought. This becomes painfully obvious as you rise higher in the org. Even seasoned veterans forget this. Recently… - [The Leadership Shadow: When Strengths Backfire](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-shadow.md) - It's easy to assume that leaders derail due to obvious flaws like poor judgment, unchecked ego, toxic behavior. But that's not usually the case. Many derail because they lean too hard on the very strengths that got them there. Like a rope fraying one thread at a time, this happens slowly and invisi… - [Open Quadrant of the Johari Window: Beyond Transparency in Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/johari-window-open-quadrant.md) - "Radical transparency" is often touted as a leadership virtue. So why do leaders still struggle with openness? Using the Johari Window's Quadrant 1 (Open/Arena), I examine the complexities of leadership transparency and a nuanced approach to mastering openness in leadership. Through the lens of Qua… - [Schrodinger’s Cat at Work II: Building the Box of Limitations](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/schrodingers-cat-building-the-box-of-limitations.md) - "I'm just not strategic enough for that role," Joe told me, shaking his head. With fifteen years of stellar technical leadership and a track record of flawless execution, he seemed like an obvious candidate for the open VP position. But he wouldn't even consider applying. He disqualified himself be… - [Schrödinger’s Cat at Work: When Performance and Perception Collide](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/schrodingers-cat-at-work.md) - “You’ve lost your edge,” the new VP declared. Just eight months ago, the same contrarian thinking had earned my client the company’s innovation award. Same brain, same approach, different verdict. What changed? I’ve been on both ends of the performance/perception spectrum myself. One year I was the… - [Frustration Tolerance: An Essential for Surviving Large Orgs](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/frustration-tolerance.md) - In leadership and life, ambitions often outpace our ability to consistently execute on them. A hidden hurdle that trips up many is their level of “frustration tolerance.” This is particularly true in large organizations that are literally designed to frustrate ambitions and agendas. In this piece,… - [Self Efficacy: A Better Construct than Confidence](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/self-efficacy-in-leadership.md) - Confidence is overrated. A more effective, scientifically-grounded approach to improve performance is self-efficacy. We often hear about the importance of confidence. "Believe in yourself," the advice goes. Although intuitive, it's not as helpful. What exactly is confidence? Is it innate? Can you w… - [Cognitive Flexibility: Rewiring How Leaders Respond](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/cognitive-flexibility.md) - Why do some people thrive in complexity while others buckle under pressure? A key factor is the level of cognitive flexibility. In this piece, I examine what cognitive flexibility means, why it’s critical to leadership, and strategies for building it. A World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report… - [Impression Management: How Effective Leaders Balance Perception and Reality](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/impression-management.md) - Is leadership about substance or perception? The truth is, it's both. You must not only be effective; you must also appear effective. Impression management — first introduced by Erving Goffman — has been widely studied and researched. And it's especially relevant to leadership. In this piece, I dig… - [Fundamental Attribution Error: Why It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/fundamental-attribution-error.md) - Training in biases is standard fare these days. However, I see managers regularly fall for one particular bias: the fundamental attribution error. Unlike other biases, FAE directly affects several aspects of leadership. In this piece, I dive into what fundamental attribution error is, how it trips… - [Psychological Safety vs. High Standards: A Misunderstood Dynamic](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/psychological-safety-vs-high-standards.md) - The term “psychological safety” is often misleading. When managers hear safety, many dismiss it as a soft style that implies complacency. Meanwhile, psychology implies too much mumbo jumbo. High-profile figures like Elon Musk advocating for a “hardcore” style perpetuate this misconception. But this… - [Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles: The Multifaceted Nature of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mintzberg-managerial-roles.md) - Henry Mintzberg was one of the first to identify a comprehensive set of managerial roles that captured the reality of managerial work. Later, he updated this original list into an overall management model. In this piece, I examine the importance of Mintzberg’s managerial roles and management model,… - [Leading Loosely: Leadership in Loosely Coupled Systems](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-in-loosely-coupled-systems.md) - This is part II of a series on loosely coupled systems. Building on Karl Weick's notion of loose coupling introduced previously, I examine how leadership in these organizations differs from traditional command and control structures. Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier pioneered a radical organiza… - [Loose Coupling: Rethinking Control in Organizations](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/loose-coupling.md) - Traditional management emphasizes strict control, clear hierarchies, and uniform processes. This approach, rooted in industrial-era thinking, promises efficiency and predictability. However, loose-coupling is a compelling alternative to traditional tightly-coupled approaches. In this piece, I revis… - [Self-Disclosure: A Balancing Act in Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/self-disclosure-in-leadership.md) - In conventional leadership, competence is about maintaining composure, projecting strength, and exuding confidence. However, truly effective leaders do something more surprising: self-disclosure. They share their fallibility as well as strengths. Self-disclosure is a misunderstood skill of effectiv… - [Metaphors of Organization: Beyond the Machine](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/metaphors-of-organization.md) - Effective leadership hinges on the ability to view organizational challenges from multiple perspectives. Gareth Morgan's eight metaphors of organization gives leaders a versatile set of lenses to examine challenges. In this piece, I introduce each of the organizational metaphors, their significance… - [Humble Inquiry: How Asking and Situational Humility Create Psychological Safety](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/humble-inquiry.md) - Humility and inquiry aren’t usually associated with effective leadership. The traditional view is “loud”: vision, setting goals, and driving the team towards success. However, this overlooks a crucial but “quieter” aspect: asking questions and listening. Humble Inquiry, developed by Edgar Schein, c… - [Organizational Learning Disabilities: Responding as a Leader](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/organizational-learning-disabilities.md) - In coaching leaders across industries, I have observed a consistent pattern: highly capable individuals grappling with invisible organizational forces. These forces, some of which Peter Senge called 'organizational learning disabilities', remain as relevant today as when he first described them. Al… - [Project Aristotle: Implications and Challenges](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/project-aristotle.md) - Project Aristotle was a multi-year research initiative by Google to understand what made teams effective. Some of its findings, psychological safety in particular, were counterintuitive. It changed how companies viewed teams and performance. Yet, a decade later, implementation remains challenging.… - [Referent Power: The Subtle Tool of Effective Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/referent-power-in-leadership.md) - Traditional authority—titles, commands, and rewards—has lost its edge in the modern workplace. What compels people is trust, respect, and admiration. This is the essence of referent power—a subtle but effective form of power that inspires loyalty and performance without coercion. It is effective bu… - [Expert Power — How Knowledge Becomes Influence](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/expert-power.md) - Expert power, one of six key types of power, allows leaders to shape decisions and influence outcomes through specialized knowledge. This makes expert power as influential as formal authority. It's a subtle but potent way to increase your power, regardless of your position on the org chart. In this… - [Coercive Power: A Double-Edged Sword in Modern Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/coercive-power-in-leadership.md) - Understanding different types of power is crucial for effective leadership. Coercive power is a controversial yet sometimes necessary and effective tool. I delve into the nuances of coercive power, its applications, why leaders shouldn’t avoid it, and Elon Musk as an example of coercive leadership.… - [The 6 Types of Power: A Guide for Leaders](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/types-of-power-in-leadership.md) - Understanding and using power is key to effective leadership. The French-Raven model of power bases is a good primer on the different types of power. This post introduces this foundational framework of power and the 6 types: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, referent, and information power. In… - [The Symbolic Frame of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/symbolic-frame-of-leadership.md) - Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of organizations and leadership is a versatile tool for managers. This article delves into the symbolic frame of their 4-frame model — its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the symbolic aspect. These ins… - [The Human Resource Frame of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/human-resource-frame-of-leadership.md) - Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of organizations and leadership is a versatile tool for managers. This article delves into the human resource frame of their 4-frame model: its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the human resource aspect… - [The Political Frame of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/political-frame-of-leadership.md) - Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of organizations and leadership is a versatile tool for managers. In this article, I delve deeper into the political frame of their 4-frame model: its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the political aspe… - [The Structural Frame of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/structural-frame-of-leadership.md) - The structural frame is one of Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of leadership and organizations. In this piece I delve deeper into the structural frame of leadership: what it entails, its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the structural… - [Is it up to you? The Stoic Dichotomy of Control.](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/dichotomy-of-control-stoicism-leadership.md) - In today's business landscape, leaders often struggle with uncertainty and lack of control. The Stoic concept of "dichotomy of control" is a practical framework to address these challenges. When done consistently, this can help focus your energy effectively and make better decisions. I explore how… - [Circle of Control, Influence, and Acceptance: Where to Focus Your Energy](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/circle-of-control-influence-concerns.md) - How do effective leaders maintain their composure when everything seems out of control? They’re adept at discerning what they can control vs what they can’t, and what they can influence. The circle of control, influence, and concerns (acceptance) framework or CIA — is a “leadership triage” tool tha… - [The Trust Triangle of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/trust-triangle-frei-morriss.md) - How can I be more trustworthy? How do I show up more authentically? Leaders at all levels grapple with this fundamental challenge of leadership. The answer lies in Aristotle's 2,000+ year old framework of ethos, logos, and pathos or what Harvard prof Frances Frei and Anne Morris call the Trust Tria… - [Sources of Power in Organizations](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/sources-of-power-in-organizations.md) - What makes some folks and certain teams more powerful than others in organizations? What is the source of their power? In contrast, why do others despite having competence and positional authority are ineffective? This is one of a series on power in organizations. I focus on Gareth Morgan’s classic… - [Assertive Inquiry](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/assertive-inquiry.md) - Can balancing advocacy with inquiry be implemented at an organizational level? Turns out, you can. Roger Martin is one of the world's foremost experts on strategy and a former dean of the Rotman School of Management. He shares an example at P&G where giving equal importance to inquiry in addition t… - [Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Modern Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/ethos-pathos-logos-modern-leadership.md) - The framework of ethos, pathos, and logos was developed in the 4th century BC by Aristotle. It’s a simple but also robust model for effective persuasion and communication that has withstood the test of time. And yet most leaders are either unaware or it, or don’t really know it's importance and seq… - [Balancing Advocacy and Inquiry](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/advocacy-and-inquiry.md) - Most advice on leadership communication focuses on getting better at advocacy – crafting the message, effective delivery, and so on. What leaders forget is to balance their advocacy with equal amounts of inquiry. How are the two different and why does it matter? I take a closer look at the critical… - [Filters in Communication](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/filters-in-communication.md) - When we communicate, there are several layers of invisible filters that can muddle the message. Knowing the most common communication filters we use can help avoid the traps of miscommunication and make sure our message gets across. 👋 Get my new articles in your inbox 👇 Why we use filters One key… - [Locus of Control: A Leadership Perspective](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/locus-of-control.md) - Locus of control refers to how we view circumstances in terms of the amount of control we have over situations and the experiences that affect us. I look at locus of control specifically in the context of leadership and management: how locus of control impacts leadership performance, and how it pla… - [20 Leadership Capacities based on Systems Thinking](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-capacities-systems-thinking.md) - Understanding systems thinking is a must for modern leaders. In Reading the Room, David Kantor outlines a list of leadership capacities based on systems thinking and structural dynamics. They are particularly useful as a reference for developing your own leadership philosophy, practice, and model.… - [The Systems Thinking Iceberg](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/systems-thinking-iceberg.md) - The systems thinking iceberg is a useful thinking model for leaders when dealing with intractable problems that never seem to go away. Part of the challenge is what the model calls “events” — surface level issues that are constantly on your radar — which are essentially fire-fighting, but that neve… - [Cognitive Distortions that Undermine Clear Thinking](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/cognitive-distortions-leaders.md) - Leaders are paid to think clearly. And a big impediment to clear thinking is what CBT/REBT calls Cognitive Distortions: errors in thinking or thinking traps we commonly fall for. Most high-performers are not pathological, but instead fall for them when upset or in high-stress situations. In this po… - [7 Principles of Effective Constructive Feedback](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/effective-constructive-feedback.md) - Most managers suck at giving effective, constructive feedback. Equally, most of us are bad at receiving and processing constructive feedback. This is a lost opportunity for everyone. Edgar Schein, professor emeritus at MIT, was one of the foremost experts in organizational behavior and interpersona… - [The Johari Window: A Guide for Leaders](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/johari-window-complete-guide-for-leaders.md) - The Johari Window is used to understand how we communicate based on self-knowledge and how others see us. It’s a disclosure-feedback model of awareness based on principles of feedback and learning. It can be used for increasing levels of openness, self-awareness, and self-discovery. This makes the… - [Ground rules for effective meetings](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/ground-rules-effective-meetings-groups.md) - How can you run more effective meetings? One way is to study folks who are masters at running effective meetings, and get paid for it — professional facilitators. Roger Schwarz is one of the world’s leading experts on facilitation. He has a set of what he calls ground rules for effective groups tha… - [If Vincent van Gogh Was Your Career Coach](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/vincent-van-gogh-quotes-careers-leadership.md) - Most of us have heard of Vincent van Gogh the artist but not many are aware that he was an equally prolific writer. The most well known are his letters to his brother Theo, and they are a treasure trove of wisdom on art, life, work, and everything in between. This made me think — if you were to “co… - [Building vs Buying Complexity: the Pleasure of Process](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/building-vs-buying-complexity-the-pleasure-of-process.md) - Increasing entropy is the natural state of the universe — everything disintegrates to lower levels of order, especially living things. But when it comes to human choices, we are always moving toward higher states of order, or what some might call “taste”. Our tastes tend to evolve over time, and be… - [Amazon's Leadership Principles: A Deep Dive](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/amazon-leadership-principles-deep-dive.md) - Whether you're preparing for an interview at Amazon, or a leader wanting to get better, there’s something for everyone to learn from Amazon’s leadership principles. In this article, I explore all 16 of Amazon’s leadership principles. I link it with Bezos’ own words, and also with other articles tha… - [The Laws of Systems Thinking](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/laws-of-systems-thinking.md) - In The Fifth Discipline, there's a useful primer on systems thinking that I keep going back to. Senge calls it the laws of the fifth discipline, or in other words, laws of systems thinking. [1] Senge's ground-breaking book was published in the early 90s, and yet in the ensuing decades, things have… - [The Amazon Management and Decision Making System](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/amazon-management-and-decision-making-system.md) - Just as the Toyota Production System revolutionized manufacturing, Amazon revolutionized the world of e-commerce. But unlike Toyota's system, Amazon's system has not been as widely studied. However, there are plenty of clues that can be found between Bezos' shareholder letters, and their leadership… - [Herzberg Hygiene Factors vs Motivators — Why People Leave Managers, not Jobs](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/herzberg-hygiene-motivation-theory.md) - How true is the statement that "people leave managers, not jobs"? Should you prioritize compensation, or is it team cohesion you should focus on? These are challenges leaders face daily. In modern workplaces, confusion still abounds around the impact of money on motivation, and how to balance it wi… - [Creative Breakthroughs and Insights — Busting Common Myths and How to Get Better at It](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/creative-breakthroughs-and-insights.md) - Everyone recognizes the importance of creative breakthroughs, but it continues to be a misunderstood phenomenon. Our need for creativity and insight also means a profusion of perpetrators promising easy solutions, and plenty of misconceptions. How do we increase the likelihood of insights? What can… - [Viktor Frankl’s Laws of Dimensional Ontology and The Fallacy of the Dominant Dimension](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/viktor-frankl-laws-dimensional-ontology.md) - Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor and the founder of Logotherapy, is most known for his classic book Man’s Search for Meaning. The construct of meaning forms the core of his philosophy. He identified an important framework that’s not as widely known — his laws of dimensional ontology. Al… - [Problem-Solving is Overrated. Problem-Setting is More Critical.](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/problem-setting-problem-solving.md) - Almost everyone has the term “problem-solving” featured prominently in their resumes. Conversely, barely anyone uses the term “problem-setting”. Except in complex domains like leadership, problem-setting is often more critical than problem-solving. What is problem-setting, how is it different from… - [Thinking Long-Term in Work: Careers as Practice and Art](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/long-term-thinking-careers-practice-art.md) - Our culture is obsessed with speed. Success is often measured in how fast you get somewhere, rather than where you end up, how you got there, or who you become in the process. But this default criteria of speed is detrimental to our development, especially in careers. Instead, thinking of it as a l… - [The Type of Courage Needed in Modern Leadership and Organizations](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/courage-modern-leadership-organizations.md) - We don’t usually think of courage in the context of careers and organizations. But this is a mistake. Courage is more fundamental than we think, and equally relevant. The key is to understand the specific type of courage required, and how it applies to an ordinary work life. Ordinary courage What d… - [The Deliberate Amateur](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/deliberate-amateur.md) - Would you rather be a pro or an amateur? How about choosing between sophistication and naiveté? Most of us choose to be sophisticated pros. But consider the fact that expertise comes with its own pitfalls, while deliberately staying an amateur has its counter-intuitive upsides. The trick is in bala… - [Conceptual vs Experiential learning](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/conceptual-vs-experiential-learning.md) - Do you consider yourself an effective leader? What about parenting? When you think of getting better at something, what's your first instinct? Our default approach is to look outside for help. But an equally fruitful and often better approach is to look inside — the natural process of learning from… - [How Double-Loop Learning Improves Performance](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/double-loop-learning-leadership-performance.md) - Our actions, and by extension performance, stem from thinking that is based on a set of hidden mental models. How do you uncover these mental models and change them? One way is to understand and practice the concepts of single-loop and double-loop learning. Professional sports teams use postgame fi… - [Bolman Deal Four Frames Model of Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/bolman-deal-four-frames.md) - Organizational life can be a confusing muddle, especially if you are trying to get better at playing the game. Take the leadership genre for example. You might come across books that cover any of the following: power, building better teams, culture, emotional intelligence, war and strategy, psychol… - [Authentic leadership as knowing what your people actually do](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/authentic-leadership-knowing-what-people-actually-do.md) - There are scores of tomes written on “authentic” leadership, but all too often in practice they come across as farce. People simply don’t trust managers — perhaps the reason why authentic leadership is a cottage industry of its own. A primary reason for this mistrust is the disconnect between the r… - [The Power of Framing in Creating Psychological Safety](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leaders-framing-psychological-safety.md) - Over the past two decades, psychological safety has gotten significant traction both in academia and in real world applications. It’s one of the few frameworks coming out of research that’s been widely proven as critical to team performance. A crucial aspect of this research is the role leaders pla… - [How Leaders Botch OKRs and Strategy](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leaders-mistakes-okr-strategy.md) - OKRs and strategy are considered key responsibilities of leadership. But more often than not, managers end up doing more harm than good. Here are four common ways they screw it up: #1. Expecting OKRs and people to "do their job". #2. "Big picture only" managers. #3. Confusing goals with objectives.… - [Wisdom and Insight are Not Quite Portable](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/wisdom-insight-profound-simplicity.md) - Experts promise hacks and easy formulas, but actually succeeding at something often is much harder, sometimes even impossible. Is it just us, or are the experts plain wrong? Understanding how knowledge evolves into wisdom can help explain this discrepancy. How understanding evolves Consider this al… - [Mental Models - A Subtractive Approach](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mental-models-subtractive-approach.md) - Most common discourse on mental models takes an additive approach. But this tends to be half-baked, often useless in practice. There is equal value, even more so, in a subtractive approach to mental models. The key is in understanding the difference between hard and soft mental models. How is the s… - [The Best Leadership Style - There Might Not be One](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/best-leadership-style.md) - If you're the ambitious type, you've probably had your fair share of leadership books and management training. More than likely you've come across two stalwarts of the leadership literature and their models : emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. A key thrust of these models, including m… - [Blake Mouton Leadership Grid - A Model on Leadership Styles](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/blake-mouton-leadership-grid-styles.md) - Most leaders and managers tend to fall into patterns in how they choose between prioritizing people concerns vs needs of the organization. Not being aware of these biases creates imbalances. Understanding different leadership styles opens up potential areas for improvement. * Blake Mouton Leadershi… - [Design Principles for Practicing Reflection](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/design-principles-reflection-leadership.md) - For leaders and managers, the art and practice of doing regular reflection is essential to functioning at peak levels. The challenge is that the environment surrounding them enables anything but reflection. It's designed to do the exact opposite. Are there basic guidelines that can help to reflect… - [Do Leaders Have to Be Confident?](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leaders-confidence-effectiveness.md) - What's the role of confidence in leadership? Is it a requirement for being an effective leader? How confident are you about your confidence? Confidence, on sale Looking at the brochure of one leadership program, it seems confidence is necessary to be an effective leader and that all successful lead… - [Why Netflix Leads with Context not Control](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/netflix-leads-with-context-not-control.md) - Control was the dominant management paradigm in early twentieth century industrial factories. A century later, in many modern workplaces it continues to be dominant and mostly goes unquestioned. Often we don’t even realize that this is the case. But in knowledge work, context is a far more effectiv… - [MBWA : The Lost Art of Managing by Wandering Around](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mbwa-managing-by-wandering-around.md) - Managing effectively using data is all the rage today. But most of it is shallow "hard data". The real challenge is to get so called “soft data”. How do you get the real pulse of your teams, or your customer’s true opinion? There’s a simple method that can tell you more than any amount of data. Mos… - [Still In Search of Excellence — Attributes of the Best Run Companies](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/in-search-of-excellence-attributes-best-run-companies.md) - According to one estimate, around 12,000 business books are published every year. But back in 1982 this was not the case. That was the year In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies was published, long before the terms “business bestseller” or “business guru” became commonp… - [The Stupidity of My SMART Goals - Mistakes and Learnings](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/stupidity-of-smart-goals.md) - SMART goals is a widely accepted framework coming out of goal setting research. Every other organization uses it in some form with countless articles written on it. We don’t want to be dumb either, so we go about setting "smart" goals in personal areas as well. This includes yours truly. But lookin… - [Why We Copy Leaders — A Complexity Point of View](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/why-people-copy-leaders-complexity-view.md) - Leaders are often cautioned to watch their actions and behavior because it sets an example and gets replicated through the organization. Which begs the question: why do people copy leaders? The common explanations tend to be psychological. But it goes beyond simple carrot and stick notions from beh… - [Warren Bennis on Self Invention and Authenticity in Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/warren-bennis-self-invention-authenticity-leadership.md) - Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. — Leo Tolstoy Leaders are often mentioned in the context of change in organizations. What often gets forgotten is the evolution of leaders themselves. A common impediment to peak performance in executives is a lack of int… - [Leadership as More a Decision than Skill or Ability](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/leadership-and-creativity-as-decision.md) - The default way of looking at leadership ability is in terms of skill, style, or talent, which in turn drives actions and behaviors. But skills and talents are not sufficient for effective leadership. There’s another simpler but necessary step — the decision to lead. In this view, leadership is a p… - [Andy Grove on Balancing Top-down vs Bottom-up Approaches to Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/andy-grove-balancing-top-down-vs-bottom-up-approaches-leadership.md) - Ever wonder why that particular initiative of yours never got traction? Organizational politics kills more initiatives than people realize, and happens both at leadership and individual contributor levels. Understanding some of the dynamics can help to better navigate the terrain. Three organizatio… - [Gen. Stan McChrystal: The Leader as Gardener](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/mcchrystal-leaders-as-gardeners.md) - How do you view your role of leader or manager? Is it as a chess master or a gardener? The lure of control Often unknowingly, leaders and managers suffer from the myopia of control. The underlying ethos is of knowing everything, solving problems directly and having everything under control. It's wh… - [James MacGregor Burns on Self-Actualization, Self-Esteem and Effective Leadership](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/james-macgregor-burns-leadership.md) - Can you teach leadership? What is the link between self-esteem, or the lack thereof, and effective leadership? What about Maslow's notion of self-actualization? These are some of the many questions that American historian and leadership authority James MacGregor Burns explored in his seminal classi… ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.leadingsapiens.com/llms-full.txt)