The Practionable Leader

Practical, Actionable Strategies to Cultivate Your Inner Leader for Outer Impact

PLN 49: Unmotivated Team? What 12,000 Diary Entries Reveals

Time to Read: 3 mins "My team just needs to be more motivated." I hear some version of that sentence a lot, from leaders, business owners, managers... sometimes even from team members themselves. And when I ask what they've tried, the answers are usually pretty similar: a team-building event, a ...

Oct 07, 2026

PLN 48: The Leadership Blind Spot Shaping Your Team's Culture

Time to Read: 4 mins For years, I worked under a senior leader who unleashed a toxic weekly tirade on me. His fits came on the heels of our all-hands meetings, just like clockwork. And it was always the same… The meeting would end, everyone would head to their next thing, and he'd storm down the...

Sep 30, 2026

PLN 47: What the U.S. Army Can Teach Leaders About Self-Leadership

Time to Read: 5 mins I don't follow U.S. Army publications. It’s just not the type of leadership content I enjoy. But this one showed up in the sidebar of something else I was reading, and the title grabbed my attention: Mental Readiness for Future Operating Environments. It felt like it could b...

Sep 23, 2026

PLN 46: When Your Leadership Style Stops Working

Time to Read: 4 mins Last week, one of the CEOs in my mastermind group approached me to chat about a challenging leadership situation. "Susan" had been one of his best divisional leaders. She grew her region at a record pace, never missed a target, and had a team who continually sang her praises...

Sep 16, 2026

PLN 45: Self-Leadership Under Pressure: How to Protect Your Judgment

Time to Read: 4 mins I’m the first to admit I’m obsessed with self-leadership. But it’s for good reason! I spent decades looking for a proven framework to help me step into the life I wanted and become the leader I aspired to be. Self-leadership was that solution. But my experience with it is no...

Sep 09, 2026

PLN 44: The One Thing a Leader Should Never Delegate to AI

Time to Read: 4 mins I'm not against AI. Not at all. I use it on the daily for different tasks. But I'm seeing more and more instances of leaders outsourcing their judgment along with their tasks, and it's creating real business and leadership challenges. A colleague of mine, "James," spent the...

Sep 02, 2026

PLN 43: The Feedback Habit That Builds Team Trust

Time to Read: 4 mins When "Feedback" showed up on the training agenda, the leadership team made some assumptions about what our session would cover. They couldn't have been more wrong. 😆 A bit of context first… A CEO reached out about leader development for his team. They had hit a plateau, grow...

Aug 26, 2026

PLN 42: How to Live Your Values as a Leader

Time to Read: 4 mins Family! That was the first word out of “Marcus’s” mouth when we sat down to explore his values. He didn't even have to think about it. It was the value he talked about during leadership meetings, the first value listed on his company's mission page, and the thing he'd tell y...

Aug 19, 2026

PLN 41: How to Find Your Best Thinking Time as a Leader

Time to Read: 4 mins Getting exercise in Vegas, in the heat of the summer, either has to happen early in the morning or indoors. I love nature, so here I am, at 5 am, on the trail before the desert heat gets hostile. No notifications (thank you, “Do-Not-Disturb” mode). No open tabs. No inbox vy...

Aug 12, 2026

PLN 40: Self-Leadership in the Age of AI: Why the Inner Work Still Matters Most

Time to Read: 4 mins I was recently at a leadership event, and I did the thing we all pretend we don’t do. I eavesdropped. (Shhhh… don’t tell anyone.) 🤫 I was listening to a group of senior leaders who were deeply immersed in an AI conversation. And I was fascinated! They were talking about whic...

Aug 05, 2026

PLN 39: Content vs. Context: How the Best Leaders Listen

Time to Read: 4 mins A client of mine had an awkward and tense conversation with one of their employees. 😬 As is often the case with these types of situations, it was actually the thing below the thing that was getting in the way. You see, my client left the conversation certain that they knew e...

Jul 30, 2026

PLN 38: The drift nobody warns you about

Time to Read: 5 mins I once worked with a leader we'll call "Rob." Rob started with nothing but an idea and tons of grit. Over the decades, he grew his idea into a profitable and highly respected company. It was a place where talented people lined up to work, and competitors clamored for his tra...

Jul 22, 2026

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Practical, Actionable Strategies to Cultivate Your Inner Leader for Outer Impact

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