Leadership Lately is for those of you who are sick of the same old vanilla-flavored leadership ideas, passed around so often they've started to feel more like noise than anything useful.
Here you’ll find short articles, notes, and my thoughts on the tensions of modern leadership, delivered with a side of psychology. My hope is that Leadership Lately will feel different, maybe even refreshing to read, and might just change the way you approach life … and leadership.
Because I’m not a fan of the light-touch pseudo-wisdom we seem to be drowning in these days. “Lead with more vulnerability”, “just be authentic”, and “transparency matters”. What does any of that really mean anyway?
It might speak to you if you work alongside humans, lead humans, live with humans, and want to be the best human you can be. It’s for those who have a natural desire to look into things more closely, who love getting to the “but why?” beneath the clutter, and who still hold the belief that we together can do great things.
If you don’t know me, I trained as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist in New Zealand (yes, I’m a Kiwi), before moving to the USA in 2013. Since then, I’ve been practicing as an Executive Coach, Leadership Speaker, and Facilitator … and honestly, it’s a privilege. I spend my days hearing leaders’ unfiltered stories about the real challenges of leadership, and woah, have I learned a lot from listening over the years. (And if you're nosy, and want more of my background, you can find that on LinkedIn)
I now realize that this experience has helped me hone my own thinking. I feel passionately about the impact good leadership can and does have, and am a believer in that old adage that good ideas are the only thing that has ever really changed the world.
I see the real tensions of modern leaders up close day in and day out. I inevitably end up filtering them through my psychology-loaded mind and what I know about humans, and that’s probably what gives whatever I say its unique kind of flavor.
And ultimately, it’s led me to a few deeper questions, namely:
What do we actually need from leaders as we navigate this ever-evolving and rapidly changing world?
And how is the next evolution of leadership going to show up (cause goodness knows we need better leaders!)?
And how can we be the ones who help create that?
You could sum this Substack up as a mix of deep thinking on leadership, put through the lens of applied psychology, while considering the messy reality of what it means to lead in the real world.
You’ll get a short note every Tuesday, free. If you upgrade to a paid subscription, it helps me keep doing this, and I’m grateful for it. But if you’re here simply to soak up what you can, you’re every bit as welcome! I know the fight for our attention is fierce these days, and it’s an honor to have a little bit of yours.
One fair warning: if you’re looking for the “5 hacks to optimize your morning routine” or you want life to feel like a nice cozy cup of tea in front of a fireplace most days, and are looking for the last little insight that will have it all fall into place - this might not be for you. But if you can handle some nerding out, and like to be challenged a little with a bit of straight talk, and know that doing the hard things is usually where the best bits of life live, we’ll get along just fine.
So please hang around! The subscribe box is right below - why not give it a go, and see what you think. Hopefully one of these notes will be insightful enough that you’ll even feel compelled to share with a friend or colleague, and together we might just be able to make the conversation about what it takes to lead well in a complex world just a little more useful.
