The difference between a leader people follow and one they merely tolerate often comes down to a single internal posture.

There are a lot of tensions in leadership. This is a big one.

There are moments in leadership when you cannot fix the outcome. In these moments, the opportunity lies in your response.

I was really looking forward to my first basketball officiating camp of the summer. They moved it up a week this year. No problem. Adjust and go.

So I packed up, made the trip, even came down a few hours early to connect with a friend and former client. Our dinner fell through at the last minute. Not ideal, but it happens.

Then came Saturday morning.

Pressure is not the enemy of leadership.
It’s part of what makes it all work.

I pulled out of my driveway onto Route 116 and felt a rumble on acceleration. Nothing dramatic. But definite. Noticeable.

After a couple of miles it smoothed out. Still, something felt off. A quick glance at my mileage reminded me I was due for a tire rotation anyway, so I stopped in to see my friends at East Peoria Tire and asked them to take a look.

Turns out, one of my tires was running on 12 pounds of air.

Twelve.

There is a reason the most important truths in life are repeated so often. Not because we forget them, but because we have not fully learned them yet.

There are seasons in leadership when the hardest thing you will manage is not your business… It’s life itself.

At some point, every senior leader faces a moment where life doesn’t just interrupt the work – it overwhelms it.

Life happens.

Major events in the lives of people close to us. Sometimes our own. Events that demand incredible time, energy, and gut-wrenching navigation of uncharted waters.

But…you still have a business to run.

For all our progress, data, and discovery…
we are still leading into the unknown.

There is a clip making the rounds right now where Bill Maher asks a medical expert a simple but piercing question: “How much do we really know?”

The implication is unsettling. With new discoveries arriving daily, perhaps we are operating with partial understanding…maybe half?

His guest did not hesitate. He suggested it is far less than that.

Closer to ten percent.

This past Sunday I opened my message by reflecting on two of the wisest men I have ever known.

Both were well into the later seasons of their lives. Both carried a depth of perspective that could only come from decades of walking with God, leading people, making hard decisions, and learning from both success and failure.

When they spoke, people leaned in. Not because they were loud. Not because they were flashy. But because they were wise.

Wisdom. It’s different than knowledge or insight.

Knowledge can be acquired quickly. Insight may arrive in a moment. But wisdom develops…over decades.

The higher you climb in leadership, the harder it becomes to keep learning – unless one critical posture remains firmly in place.

I deal in the world of development: personal, professional, spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical.

After years in this field as both a practitioner and facilitator, I have come to believe there is one critical element that sits at the foundation of every kind of forward progress.

It is absolutely necessary. In every case. (And as a general rule, I don’t speak in absolutes.)

Without it, growth eventually stalls, no matter how intelligent, experienced, or successful the leader may be.

That ingredient is… Humility.

Many executives work tirelessly to protect what exists, when they were designed to cultivate that which is not yet.

Muscles are the primary energy source for the movement of our bodies.

Yes, they work in tandem with other systems that are also quite necessary. But without a healthy and developed muscular system, outside forces (e.g. gravity) take over.

This is why regular training is so important. It is why “Every Day Is Training Day” remains the primary mantra of The H3 Leader.

Because “muscles,” the drivers of positive, intentional movement, exist across the spectrum of our lives. They are not only physical. They are present in our mental, emotional, and spiritual realms.

Healthy, purpose-driven leaders work to develop and engage these drivers across that entire spectrum.

Today I want to focus on one of the lesser discussed leadership muscles: Creativity.

There is a form of capital in your organization that never shows up on a balance sheet, a currency that influences your culture beyond measure.

Recently, a CEO I deeply respect said something that stuck with me. He said,

“If I am honest, I did not enjoy this exercise. I did this for you – because you asked me to.”

There was something in the way he said it. It was clear: He trusts me more than he trusts the process I am leading him through.