Design Thinking In Leadership

Most senior leaders expect their team to perform like elite athletes. But the training provided is amateur, at best. Image credit to my friend Kobi Omenaka In sports, the playbook is obvious: Train more than you compete. Recover on purpose. Review performance and adjust. That’s how championships are won and performance becomes predictable instead of accidental. In most workplaces, it’s the opposite. High performers get promoted because they execute well. Then the job changes overnight. Suddenly they’re expected to: • Lead teams instead of contributing • Make judgment calls with incomplete info • Manage conflict and emotion • Translate strategy into execution • Deliver predictability under pressure All while performing every single day. Almost no practice. No warm-ups. No recovery. No coaching. Just: “Congrats — here’s a team. Go.” It’s not a talent problem. It’s a training problem. The higher you go, the more expensive that gap becomes: • Burnout • Turnover • Decision drag • Frozen execution • Culture drift Elite athletes would never survive a schedule like that. But leaders are expected to — indefinitely. The ones who sustain high performance treat leadership like a craft, not an innate trait. They build reps into their work week: • Asking for feedback and acting on it • Reviewing decisions instead of sprinting past them • Training core skills (self-awareness, prioritization, trust) • Protecting recovery so judgment stays sharp When leaders work this way, consistency improves. Execution speeds up. People stay longer. Teams perform higher. If you’re not sure where to start, I built a quick diagnostic for this. The Executive Health Quiz highlights where you’re strong, and gives you a personalized roadmap on where you need some more training. Free here: bit.ly/ExecutiveQuiz Curious — what kind of training do leaders actually get in your org on? ➕ Follow Ben Sands for practical leadership insights. ♻️ Repost this to challenge how your organization thinks about performance and development. 📬 5,000+ leaders get one practical leadership insight every Saturday in my newsletter, High Growth Leadership. Join here: https://lnkd.in/eXiRx-HZ

The career cheat code no one talks about: Make your CEO's life easier. After 25 years of working with executives, I've learned this: CEOs don't want perfection.  They want leverage. If you can make their problems go away, You can make yourself indispensable. Here are the 11 problems every CEO faces: "I can't hire great people fast enough." → Become a talent magnet. Hire exceptionally even when it's not your job. Sell candidates on mission, not just role. "People don't care enough." → Be visibly all-in. Show ownership and urgency—it's contagious. Help your team connect emotionally to the mission. "Execution is too slow." → Drive momentum. Shorten cycles. Remove blockers. Default to action and make it safe for others to do the same. "My leadership team isn't a team." → Become the connector. Build cross-functional trust. Translate between departments. Think enterprise-first, not just your lane. "I'm the only one who sees the big picture." → Think like an owner. Anticipate second-order effects. Frame decisions in company terms, not department terms. "We're not keeping pace with change." → Be the tech translator. Stay current on AI and automation. Turn buzzwords into practical use cases. "There's no accountability." → Create follow-through culture. Be clear on who owns what by when. Give peers feedback when they drop the ball. "We keep solving the same problems." → Fix systems, not symptoms. Notice recurring issues and codify solutions. Push for root-cause analysis. "Our culture's getting diluted." → Be a culture carrier. Translate values into daily behavior. Help onboard people into how we do things. "Everyone wants my input on everything." → Earn trust through judgment. Make decisions with clear reasoning. Keep the CEO informed, not involved. "Nobody wants to take smart risks." → Normalize intelligent risk-taking. Frame risks as experiments. Protect people who try bold things. The core insight: Most people focus on doing their job well. The smart ones focus on making their CEO's job easier. ♻️ Share this to help others. 🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more leadership insights.

𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖-𝘿𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝘿𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙈𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝘽𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣-𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙙. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 Someone once told me, "You're a Research Analyst? Must be all numbers and no creativity." I smiled because that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the deeper I’ve gone into data, the more I’ve realized: Creativity isn’t optional — it’s what separates insights from noise. Here’s why creativity is critical in data-driven roles (and how I use it every day): 📍𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼 Anyone can pull numbers. But turning those numbers into insights that matter to stakeholders? That requires framing, context, and narrative — aka, creative thinking. 📍𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺-𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 I’ve worked on projects where the real insight came not from the expected dashboard… …but from asking a different question, slicing the data differently, or visualizing it in a new way. 📊 Creativity is what turns static dashboards into strategic tools. 📍𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 = 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Spotting anomalies. Connecting dots across markets. Forecasting trends. These aren’t robotic tasks — they’re acts of creative judgment built on logic + intuition. 📍𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 You can have the smartest dataset in the room but if your visuals confuse or bore people, your insight is lost. I use creativity to design dashboards, visuals, and reports that stick. A McKinsey study found that companies that prioritize creativity outperform peers in revenue growth by up to 2x. Even in research. Especially in research. So no, creativity doesn’t belong outside of data, it belongs at the center of how we interpret, communicate, and act on it. #CreativityAtWork #DataStorytelling #ResearchMindset #InsightsThatStick #AnalystLife

𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗔 𝗧𝗘𝗖𝗛 𝗩𝗣: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 Securing a seat at the executive table is often glorified, yet the true essence of this role is seldom understood without experiencing it firsthand. Here are some of the unspoken realities of this prestigious but demanding role. 1. The Non-Stop Energy Demand Every interaction with your team demands energy—immense, unwavering energy. Imagine returning from a 16-hour redeye flight and heading straight to the office for forecast calls. No matter your personal exhaustion, your team looks to you for cues on the state of the business. Even when you think you're having a moment alone coming out of the bathroom, and someone in the company sees you - you give them your full attention to say hello and ask them about them. This is what it means to lead: to serve selflessly, regardless of your personal reserves. 2. The Talent Pipeline As a senior executive, scouting for talent becomes a daily endeavour. You don't just pipeline for your own organization but for the entire organization—it's an unspoken responsibility. You’re creating roles and opportunities that may not yet exist but are crucial for business growth. 3. Cultivating a Collaborative Environment Creating an environment that people are eager to be part of involves building genuine connections. Behind the scenes, you are a connector—I found every excuse to bring people together. It’s vital, also, to do this with peers, as leadership can be lonely. Spontaneous invites for steamboats, where everyone collaborates on the meal, are invaluable for fostering team spirit and collaboration. 4. Mastering the Art of Communication You are privy to a breadth of confidential information that impacts every arm of the organization, from marketing to operations to sales. The challenge lies in your ability to filter and communicate this information judiciously—ensuring that your team is informed and prepared without being overwhelmed. 5. Connecting the Dots In each meeting, you're inundated with information—some new, some confirmatory. At the executive level, the ability to quickly connect these dots is crucial. This allows you to preemptively reach out to those who need to start moving on certain tasks, preparing for what's ahead. This foresight also shapes the messaging in your communications, from urgent emails to town hall speeches, where you prepare your team for future challenges without revealing uncertainties. 6. The Responsibility of Power At the senior leadership level, wielding power responsibly is a paramount lesson. True power comes from empowering others. Every day, it’s crucial to consciously consider how you are giving away your power by enabling your team to make decisions and take action. At the end of the day, the goal is to not just sit at the table but to set an example and pave the way for others to join. Was anything in this post unexpected?

Ever wondered how you can transform seasoned mid-level leaders into visionary senior leaders right within your organization? Here’s a compelling case study that might inspire you to rethink your approach. Imagine leading an executive presence intervention for a top-tier manufacturing unit within a global engineering giant. With 12 leaders, each boasting over 20 years of stellar performance, the challenge was clear: ignite their passion for growth and elevate their executive presence for high-stakes meetings and CXO conversations. The goal? Beyond refining their skills, we aimed to instill the gravitas needed to drive the organization’s vision and foster authentic leadership from the inside out. Here’s what we did: 1. Crafted a Six-Month Leadership Odyssey: Dynamic group coaching sessions fostered stronger bonds and deep trusting conversations. Leaders felt safe to open up and share their vulnerabilities, creating a powerful foundation for growth. A 100-day support process bridged virtual gaps. 2. Customized Coaching: Each leader received personalized coaching, enriched by insights about Fortune 100 CXOs. We focused on Executive Presence and applied innovative communication techniques to enhance their gravitas and presence in critical meetings. The Result? These leaders didn’t just evolve—they underwent a profound transformation into change agents who propelled the organization towards sustainable change and new heights of employee and customer-centric excellence. They embraced authentic leadership, leading with confidence and authority in every high-stakes meeting. What Can You Take Away? 1. Foster Deep Trust: Create an environment where leaders can open up and share their vulnerabilities. Deep trusting conversations are essential for authentic leadership and sustainable change. 2. Enhance Executive Presence: Equip your leaders with the skills and confidence needed to handle CXO conversations and high-stakes meetings with gravitas. Tailor interventions to build their presence from the inside out. 3. Embrace Inside Out Leadership: Focus on nurturing leadership qualities from within. Authentic leadership starts with understanding oneself and extends to how leaders engage and inspire others. 4. Drive Sustainable Change: Ensure your leadership programs are designed to create lasting impact. Invest in ongoing support and personalized coaching to facilitate long-term growth and transformation. Here’s to unleashing the incredible potential within your organization! #LeadershipDevelopment #SuccessionPlanning #ExecutivePresence #AuthenticLeadership #InsideOutLeadership #CXOConversations #HighStakesMeetings #TransformationalLeadership #SustainableChange #Impact #Gravitas

Have you ever wondered why some leaders leave behind extraordinary teams while others leave behind only impressive résumés? As I reflected on last month's It's Personal Stories, A Hospitality Podcast interviews, I realized each guest answered that question in a different way. Whether talking about listening, building trust, empowering others, or broadening perspective, they all described leadership as something far greater than personal achievement. Here are a few lessons that stayed with me. Robert Ambrozy, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at GBTA | Global Business Travel Association, reminded us that influence begins long before you present an idea. "Don't start pitching. Go to the meeting, ask questions, and listen first." In a world where everyone wants to be heard, Robert showed that the leaders who earn the greatest trust are often those who listen the most. Genuine relationships are built by understanding others before asking them to understand you. Ben Brunt, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer at Noble Investment Groupp, offered a powerful lesson about culture and loyalty. "When you find people you love and trust, you ignore the opportunities to leave." That statement says far more about leadership than employee retention. Great leaders create environments where people feel valued, challenged, and connected to a purpose larger than themselves. When they do, commitment becomes a choice rather than an obligation. Indy AdenawAdenaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Upscale Brand Division at Choice Hotels International, challenged us not to become prisoners of past success. "One of the most dangerous things in our industry is believing the way something was done before is the way it should be done in the future." The hospitality industry continues to evolve rapidly, and leaders who cling to yesterday's playbook risk falling behind. The willingness to question assumptions is often what separates those who adapt from those who merely react. Gyan Manohar Khurana, Assistant Vice President at Dusit Hotels and Resorts, shared a leadership principle that immediately resonated with me: "Think two up and two down." The best leaders don't focus only on pleasing their boss or managing their direct reports. They understand the priorities of senior leadership while remaining deeply connected to the people closest to the guest. That broader perspective leads to better decisions, stronger teams, and more meaningful leadership. These conversations reminded me that titles and accomplishments may open doors, but the leaders we remember most are those who elevate the people around them. Their legacy isn't measured by what they achieved alone, but by what others achieved because of them. Which of these leadership lessons resonates most with you? #Leadership #Hospitality #LeadershipDevelopment #Culture #ItsPersonalStories

Many leadership lessons do not emerge from success stories. They emerge from pressure. Today’s PHOENIXUS Breakfast Club workshop with Dr. Anne Phey 彭子宸 博士 used CORE™ as a framework to place us inside a boardroom scenario that felt uncomfortably familiar to many senior leaders: A strategy session escalates. Voices rise. A CEO feels psychologically unsafe. A director accuses the CEO of intimidation. Another threatens resignation. Six months later: The Chair steps down. A director exits. Leadership fragments. Decision-making slows. And the most confronting realisation? No single catastrophic event caused the breakdown. It was the accumulation of tension left unmanaged overtime. We examined the case through the CORE™ framework: • Clarity — Were expectations, boundaries and disagreement protocols ever truly defined? • Ownership — Who took accountability for the emotional temperature in the room? • Resilience — Could leaders regulate themselves under pressure? • Elevation — Could conflict be transformed into growth rather than fracture? Psychological safety without accountability creates dysfunction. When safety becomes protection from challenge instead of protection for honest dialogue, organisations slowly drift into fragility rather than excellence. We also explored something more personal: Executive triggers. What activates us most as leaders? Micromanagement? Silence? Passive aggression? Lack of ownership? Public challenge? Politics? Feeling ignored? The exercise was deeply reflective because the conclusion was clear: Triggers are not weaknesses. We can use them as data to grow! Every disproportionate reaction reveals something unresolved in our own leadership story. The most self-aware leaders are not trigger-free. They simply know their triggers well enough to choose a response instead of unconsciously reacting. Another insight that stayed with me: High-performing teams are not conflict-free. They are repair-capable. That distinction matters enormously. Because avoided tension does not disappear. It accumulates quietly beneath the surface until it eventually surfaces at the worst possible moment often disguised as disengagement, politics, mistrust or burnout. Leadership today is not simply about strategy and execution. We need emotional stewardship. The room mirrors the leader. And emotional instability at the top inevitably creates systemic anxiety throughout the organisation. What struck me most was how universally human these conversations became despite the seniority in the room. Behind every title is still a person navigating pressure, identity, uncertainty and responsibility in real time. And that is where the real work of leadership begins: Not in controlling the room but in learning how to regulate ourselves within it. Do you feel the same way?

In traditional leadership thinking, senior executives are expected to stay focused on strategy — setting vision, allocating resources, and delegating execution. But a compelling analysis in Harvard Business Review challenges this long-held belief. In their article, Scott Cook and Nitin Nohria argue that many of the world’s highest-performing companies succeed because their leaders are not just strategists — they are architects of how work gets done. “The most senior leaders spend an inordinate amount of time … architecting the way work gets done.” — Cook & Nohria, HBR Drawing from companies such as Amazon, Danaher, RELX, and Toyota, the authors show that a hands-on approach — rooted in systems thinking, process discipline, and operational depth — can be a powerful driver of long-term performance. Five Principles of Effective Hands-On Leaders Based on the HBR article by Cook & Nohria, high-performing hands-on leaders consistently follow these practices: 1. Obsess over customer-value metrics They track — and personally shape — the indicators that reflect real value delivered to customers. 2. Architect how work gets done They design processes, operating rhythms, decision frameworks, and norms that enable teams to execute predictably and consistently. 3. Use experimentation and learning to guide decisions They rely on testing, iteration, and evidence — not assumptions — to refine both strategy and execution. 4. Teach the tools and methods Rather than delegating and hoping for the best, they equip teams with the capabilities and toolkits required for excellence. 5. Hard-wire continuous improvement They embed “better, faster, cheaper — every year” into the culture, making improvement a discipline rather than an event. As Cook and Nohria emphasize, hands-on leadership is not micromanagement. Instead, it’s a disciplined, system-building approach that ensures: 1. Strategy connects seamlessly to execution 2. Success becomes scalable and repeatable 3. The organization internalizes high standards and better ways of working 4. Continuous improvement becomes a cultural reflex 5. Hands-on leaders don’t just define what must be done — they shape how it gets done. That distinction, HBR argues, is what separates good companies from enduringly great ones.

Don’t quit your job yet. Leverage it to build your creative empire. Most artists see their 9-5 as creative prison. But what if it's actually Artist Business School? Here's the 3-part framework that transforms corporate burden into creative asset: 🎯 1. The Translation Method • Budget reports → pricing strategy for your art • Quarterly forecasts → planning your next exhibition • Performance metrics → tracking commission success rates • Client presentations → polished gallery pitches • That boring spreadsheet? It's teaching you how money flows. 💡 2. The Network Amplifier • Your manager = potential first collector • Client meetings = practice pitching your vision • Team building events = networking without the pressure • Corporate holiday parties = warm audience for your work • Every handshake builds your future buyer base. ⚡ 3. The Skills Stack • Deadline pressure = exhibition timeline management • Difficult clients = preparation for gallery owners • Budget constraints = resource creativity • Stakeholder alignment = getting buy-in for your artistic vision • Professional communication = doors opening everywhere. The mental shift changes everything. From "this job drains me" to "this job trains me." Your corporate skills aren't holding you back. They're building your creative empire. ♻️ Share this with an artist who needs to reframe their day job 🔔 Follow Kabir Sehgal for frameworks that turn corporate experience into creative advantage

Creativity in B2B: Insights from Cannes Lions 🦁 One of the highlights of my year was serving as Jury President for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Creative B2B category. In my next few posts, I’m reflecting on some of the themes and lessons from the work we awarded; insights I believe are reshaping how we think about B2B creativity. Small Business, Bold Creativity and Lasting Impact 🚀 This year brought a marked increase in work aimed at small business audiences; a segment that is often underrepresented in large-scale creative work but forms the economic backbone of many industries and communities. The best of this work showed real understanding and care. These campaigns didn’t talk down or oversimplify. Instead, they acknowledged the nuance and hustle of small business ownership and offered practical solutions; from digital financial tools to education initiatives and content platforms. These weren’t just product messages. They were acts of service, designed to empower and support. ❤️ Strategically, this shift is telling. It reflects a growing recognition among B2B brands that market leadership isn’t just about scaling to the enterprise. It’s about showing up where trust is earned; acknowledging relevance is everything, and that relationships are built long before procurement decisions are made. A brilliant example is 'Estibadores' by Circus Grey awarded a Silver Lion. 🦁 You can watch the work here: https://lnkd.in/gtdBtbhj This campaign not only created an entirely new media channel that enabled the brand, Mibanco, to reach an expanded audience; but also supported these small business owners, by opening up this channel to other brands; generating ongoing revenue for the small business community. This is work with clear purpose; opening a new business model, promoting financial inclusion, and turning work equipment into mobile advertising channels. What a powerful example of creativity that manages to do well and do good; creating opportunity not just for one brand, but for an entire community. ❤️ A very well deserved Lion. 🦁 Benjamin Yung Junior Irene Kugelmann Hana Kovacevic Luis Madruga Enriquez THEMBEKA NGUGI María García Herranz George Bryant Lisa Maxwell Rolo Cordova Simon Cook Lisa Berlin Ryhn Lee Philip Thomas Paul Coxhill Paul Hirsch Tom Stein Andisa Ntsubane CM (SA) FCXP (CX-I)