Over the course of my military career, I learned early on that uncertainty was part of the fundamentals of strategic planning. The prominent military theorist Carl von Clausewitz described it this way: “No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Conditions shifted. Sometimes the ground literally shook beneath our feet. But what stands … Read more
The Question Leaders Keep Asking: “Why does this feel so much harder to navigate than disagreements used to?” I hear this all the time. It’s not that we suddenly discovered disagreement—we’ve disagreed, sometimes fiercely, through every chapter of our national story. But something has changed. The disagreements feel sharper. The emotional temperature is higher. And … Read more
Why Trust Has Become Today’s Leadership Imperative The Trust Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About Something fundamental has shifted in how people relate to authority, to information, and to each other. Trust—the foundation of every high-performing team I’ve ever led or studied—has become fragile. And in many organizations, it’s broken entirely. This didn’t happen overnight. … Read more
Polarization and the New Leadership Reality Over the past several years, I’ve repeatedly heard a similar question from leaders across industries: “Why does everything feel harder than it used to?” It feels that way, not because people are less capable or because markets are tougher. It‘s because the social environment around us has fundamentally shifted. Polarization has … Read more
From Concept to Culture: Building Organizations That Practice Adaptive Leadership Your leadership team gets adaptive leadership. They’ve read the books, been to the workshops, had the conversations. But understanding something and actually doing it when the pressure is on? That’s a different game entirely. The gap isn’t about knowledge. Your leaders already have that. … Read more
The latest Level Five Associates book, “The Power of Being All In,” is now available! One of the key aspects covered in the book is Adaptive leadership … the skill set of taking leadership principles and applying them to the world that we’re in now, not the world that we used to be in. The … Read more
