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Context Matters
We all know leaders who misread the room because they ignored the context.
That leader may have been you.
The result? Broken trust, missed opportunities, and relational fallout.
The same principle that makes our Camp Curry (Yosemite Valley) pizza the absolute best in the world applies to people leadership.
Context matters.
A Scary Word
It’s a scary word every senior leader must own at a certain level.
The Church. The State. The Home. They’re all accused of using it for nefarious reasons.
That’s an unfortunate realty, though. IMHO, I think this word, when used with care, is a vital component of leadership.
Because if the leaders of these organizations aren’t doing it, someone else will!
But as soon as you read it, many will recoil. If you would bear with me for just a tic…
Step Into the Circle
The difference between those who watch leadership happen and those who make it happen is one simple act: a willingness to step into the circle.
At this year’s Global Leadership Summit, Bradley Rapier invited us into the powerful metaphor of “the circle” drawn from hip-hop street dance culture.
Living in the Hyphen
Being fully integrated doesn’t mean you never adapt. It means you never lose your center.
We’ve Lost It!
We have absolutely lost it.
Not just the ability to hold civil discourse, but something even deeper – a baseline respect for our fellow humans (neighbors, friends, and sojourners on this earth).
It’s gone.
The ire simmering just below society’s surface is ready to pounce on anyone with a differing perspective, and today’s culture is loving it.
Plenty of people talk about the problem, using it to justify their own irritation and fury. But if we truly hated this dynamic, we would do something about it.
Don’t Stare!
What if the most dangerous thing in your organization isn’t the problem itself, but your obsession with it?
As leaders, we are trained to identify issues quickly.
Spot the bottleneck. Diagnose the dysfunction. Call out what’s broken. That’s good. It’s necessary.
But if we’re not careful, we can spend so much time staring at the problem that we begin to drift right toward it.
That’s not just a metaphor. It’s also Motorcycle Safety 101.
Polls, Popularity, and Principle
It’s 6a and the news crawl is already barking fresh approval numbers: “Sixty-two percent disapprove… Consumer confidence dips… Employee engagement tumbles…”
If you’re not careful, those constantly shifting digits can feel like a recalibrating GPS for every choice you’ll make today.
They’re everywhere.
And when they tend to the bias of the source’s messaging, they are presented as if they are sacrosanct.
Seasoned for the Singularity
When a cashier can’t make change even with a calculator, what does that say about tomorrow’s ability to challenge an algorithm?
The Leadership Pendulum
What if the healthiest org chart isn’t ruled by age, but rather by a form of shared leadership across generations?
A recent LinkedIn post from a bright early-thirty-something billing herself as a “CEO Consultant” sparked what I hope was a healthy internal debate within me.
Young leaders bring undeniable upside: agility, digital fluency, and the courage to break things that need breaking.
As Simon Sinek notes, “the next generation’s impatience for progress keeps the rest of us honest.
But impatience has a shadow side.