The Question That Changes Everything

Ready for a challenge?

Fair warning: it's uncomfortable.

"If the people you work with most closely were asked to describe what it's like to be in your orbit; not your strategic capability, not your results, but the actual experience of working with you, what would they say?"

Not what you hope they'd say. Not what you think they should say. What they would actually say.

Leadership Beyond the Org Chart

We all understand, leadership development matters.

Most organizations invest in it for people with teams. Some don't invest enough. But at least we recognize it belongs on the agenda.

What we're slower to recognize: leadership isn't reserved for people with direct reports.

If you're protecting a $15M territory, you're leading, even if all seventeen people you depend on report to someone else.

If you're founding a company and building your first team, you're leading, even if you've never managed anyone before.

If you're a VP who rose by hitting numbers and now realizes spreadsheet management isn't the same as leading people, you're still leading, and you deserve support in developing that capability.

These aren't edge cases. This is how most critical work actually gets done.

And if you're responsible for developing leaders in your organization? This means everyone. Because everyone touches outcomes, influences decisions, builds relationships, and orchestrates results.

What Becomes Possible

When we expand our definition of leadership, when everyone, regardless of title or org chart position, operates from "it starts with me":

Culture transforms. Accountability becomes something people own, not something that's enforced.

Numbers improve, Collaboration becomes natural instead of negotiated.

Relationships deepen. Cross-functional friction transforms into genuine momentum.

Personal fulfillment returns. Work stops feeling like an endurance test and starts feeling purposeful again.

This is infrastructure.

The kind that changes how decisions get made, how teams actually function, and whether your most talented people stay or start quietly looking.

The Foundation We Skip

Most of us skip the foundational work.

Not because we don't value it. Because it's uncomfortable. Because it's ongoing. Because it never feels finished.

The work of leading yourself first, the interior work that makes leadership magnetic instead of something you have to manufacture.

This month, we are exploring what that actually means and why it's the most valuable investment any of us can make in our leadership, regardless of where we sit in the organization.

When leadership becomes a "starts with me" mindset, (not just for a few people at the top, but as a cultural foundation) that's not incremental improvement. That's transformation.

And it begins with one person willing to ask the hard question.

So, what would they actually say about you?