Strong leadership shapes every organization, but the best practices often come from watching what works and what doesn’t in real situations. This article draws on observations and insights from experienced leaders across different industries to identify practical patterns that drive success. The following lessons offer concrete approaches to building trust, making better decisions, and creating teams that perform under pressure.
- Share Timely Honest Updates in Crises
- Model Uncertainty to Surface Problems Early
- Welcome Dissent Then Decide and Execute
- Underpromise Overdeliver Align Words With Deeds
- Cultivate Curiosity and Build Complementary Teams
- Render Yourself Progressively Less Indispensable
- Set Boundaries and Respect Your Time
- Make People Feel Genuinely Valued
- Sell Vision and Align Believers
- Choose Calm Clarity Over Constant Pressure
- Pair Decisiveness With Candid Doubt
- Explain Decisions so Judgment Scales
- Stay Cool and Address Issues Directly
- Own Failures as Readily as Wins
- Praise Publicly Correct Privately Enable Candor
- Protect Trust and Uplift Quiet Talent
- Adapt Leadership to Each Person
- Value Fast Feedback Over Perfect Plans
- Reject Empires and Prioritize ROI
- Convert Setbacks Into Forward Momentum
- Shape the Emotional Climate With Composure
- Balance Ambition With Empathy for Durability
- Prefer Steady Authority and Invite Challenge
- Rename Pause as Executive Discernment
- Lead by Example With Integrity
- Reward Thoughtful Risk and Quick Lessons
Share Timely Honest Updates in Crises
I learned this lesson by watching another founder fail at it spectacularly during a breach incident.
A few years ago, someone I knew well ran a SaaS company with a distributed team across four countries. Their production database got compromised on a Friday night. By Monday morning, the team had no idea what happened. No Slack update. No email. Just silence. The founder was trying to fix it quietly before anyone panicked. That lasted about six hours before screenshots started leaking in private channels, and by Tuesday the team was openly speculating about whether the company was shutting down. Half the engineers started updating their LinkedIn profiles.
What stuck with me was not the breach itself—those happen. It was the information vacuum. People filled the silence with worst-case scenarios because no one was saying anything real. The founder thought he was protecting morale. He was destroying it instead.
When we had our own security incident two years later—a malicious admin account showed up across multiple sites in our network—I remembered that. I wrote a message to the team within an hour of confirming it. No spin. Here’s what happened, here’s what we don’t know yet, here’s what we are doing right now, here’s when I will update you next. Sent it on Slack and followed it with a thread every four hours even when the update was just that we were still auditing.
The difference was immediate. No one panicked. A couple of team members asked if they could help. One person flagged a suspicious plugin we had not checked yet. That tip saved us a day. The crisis got contained faster because everyone knew what was happening and trusted that I would keep telling them.
I stopped trying to manage perception during crises after that. Transparency, even when the news is bad, always lands better than silence. People can handle hard information. They cannot handle being kept in the dark.
Ankush Gupta, Fractional CMO, Fameninja ORM Management Company
Model Uncertainty to Surface Problems Early
The most useful leadership lesson I ever learned came from watching a leader I admired do one thing badly. He was gifted at the technical side of the work and genuinely respected, but he could never let anyone see him be uncertain. Every answer had to arrive finished. Every decision had to look inevitable. In a room, it was impressive.
What I noticed over time was the cost of it. His people slowly stopped bringing him problems while the problems were still small. Raising an unfinished worry to a person who only ever showed certainty felt like admitting you were not good enough, so people waited until they had it solved, or until it had grown too large to hide. By the time he heard about something, it was rarely a question anymore. It was already damage.
That observation shaped my own leadership more than any book did, because I run a firm where the raw material is other people’s money and their standing with the IRS. In that setting, a problem caught early is a routine correction, and the same problem caught late can be real harm to a client. I cannot afford a culture where people hide the small version.
So I deliberately do the opposite of what I watched. I say plainly when I do not know something yet, and then I show how I go about finding out, because I want my staff to see that not knowing is the start of good work rather than a confession. When someone brings me a bad number or an error they made, my first response is to thank them, before we fix anything, because the instinct to raise it is the exact instinct I need protected. I treat a mistake surfaced early as a save, not a failure, and I say so in front of others.
The change in me was subtle but real. I used to believe a leader reassures people by having every answer. Now I believe a leader reassures people by making it safe to say the answer is not ready yet. The first version protects the leader’s image. The second version protects the work, and in my profession the work is someone’s livelihood.
The leader I learned this from taught me the most by accident, and never knew he was teaching it. That is its own lesson about how closely people watch what we do rather than what we say.
Pellumb Kabashi, Founder and CEO, Tax Expert Today LLC
Welcome Dissent Then Decide and Execute
After more than twenty years working through transformations and restructurings, one lesson stands out: silence is often more damaging than disagreement.
I have watched senior teams remain polite while almost everyone in the room knew that a target was unrealistic, an investment case was weak, or a business unit was destroying value. The meeting ended with apparent alignment. The problem remained. A few months later, the cost of that silence appeared in cash, margin, lost time, or exhausted people.
The strongest leaders I observed behaved differently. They created room for people to challenge the idea, then required the group to make a decision. They could be demanding on the issue while remaining respectful toward the person. That distinction matters.
It changed the way I lead. I invite disagreement early, especially from the people closest to the operation. I ask what we may be missing, which assumption is least reliable, and what evidence would change our view. Once the debate has run its course, I make the call, assign clear accountability, and move.
I do not judge leadership by how comfortable the meeting feels. I judge it by whether the real issue was discussed, whether a decision was made, and whether everyone left knowing what happens next.
Luciano De Castro Carvalho, Chief Transformation Officer
Underpromise Overdeliver Align Words With Deeds
The sharpest leadership lesson I ever took came from watching someone do it badly. In the early years of EV Cable Hub I dealt with a supplier whose owner would promise anything to win the order, delivery dates, stock levels, turnaround, and then miss most of it, and watching the trust drain out of every relationship he had shaped how I lead.
What struck me was that his product was fine. It was the gap between what he said and what he did that finished him, with me and with others. He was not lying so much as chronically optimistic, telling people what they wanted to hear in the moment and leaving the disappointment for later. He missed the promised date on a batch I was depending on 3 times running, and that was the last of it, not over the delays themselves but because I could no longer trust a word of the plan.
That observation set the rule I run the shop by now: under-promise and over-deliver, and never let what I say outrun what we can do. We quote conservative dispatch and stock estimates and then beat them, and if something is going to slip I tell the customer before they have to ask. It is less impressive in the moment than a bold promise, and it is the reason people come back.
The wider point I took is that a leader’s credibility is just the running total of promises kept, and it is spent far faster than it is earned. I would rather set a modest expectation and clear it every time than dazzle someone once and let them down twice. I learned that from a man who did the opposite, which is sometimes the most useful teacher there is.
Jake Wardle, Founder, EV Cable Hub
Cultivate Curiosity and Build Complementary Teams
One of the most important leadership lessons I’ve learned came from observing two extraordinary leaders who couldn’t have been more different.
One was highly analytical and methodical. The other was naturally charismatic and visionary. Their personalities, communication styles, and approaches to decision-making were almost opposites.
Yet they shared one characteristic that separated them from many other successful leaders I’ve worked with.
Neither believed they had to have all the answers.
Instead, they surrounded themselves with talented people whose strengths complemented their own. They asked reflective questions, listened carefully, and gave their teams permission to challenge ideas. Their confidence wasn’t rooted in being the smartest person in the room. It came from building a room full of smart people.
I’ve also observed leaders who believed their experience meant they should have every answer. Over time, many stopped asking questions. They became less curious, more certain, and increasingly disconnected from the people around them. Their organizations didn’t struggle because they lacked intelligence. They struggled because they stopped learning.
That observation fundamentally changed my own leadership.
Early in my career, I thought leadership meant projecting certainty. Today, I believe leadership is about cultivating a place where the best ideas can emerge, regardless of who brings them forward.
Curiosity has become one of my most valuable leadership disciplines. The quality of my questions often determines the quality of our decisions. Instead of asking, “How do I solve this?” I ask, “Who sees something I don’t?” or “What perspective are we missing?”
That mindset has strengthened trust, strengthened decision-making, and fostered more innovation than trying to have every answer.
The leaders who have the greatest long-term impact aren’t those who convince everyone they’re right.
They’re the ones who remain curious long enough to discover a better answer.
Leadership isn’t about being complete.
It’s about building a team that makes each other stronger.
The moment leaders believe they know everything is often the moment they stop growing. The leaders who last never lose their curiosity, because they understand that learning isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s one of the greatest strengths a leader can possess.
Gearl Loden, Leadership Consultant/Speaker, Loden Leadership + Consulting
Render Yourself Progressively Less Indispensable
The lesson that stuck came from watching leaders who treated being busy as proof they mattered. They were always in every meeting, always the bottleneck, always needed, and you could see the whole thing slowed to their pace. It looked like dedication but it was really a refusal to let go, and their teams stayed oddly junior because nobody around them got to own anything real.
It made me protective of the opposite. I try to measure myself by how much runs well when I’m not in the room, not how indispensable I feel. Practically that means handing over decisions before I feel ready to, and biting my tongue when someone does something differently than I would but the outcome’s fine. The leaders I learned the most from were the ones who’d made themselves a little bit unnecessary on purpose, and it’s a much harder thing to do than being the hero who’s needed everywhere.
Alice Humble, Co-Founder & CEO, Shortlists
Set Boundaries and Respect Your Time
One of the biggest leadership lessons I’ve learned came from watching my dad build his own business. He had an incredible work ethic and genuinely wanted to help people, so he almost always said yes to every opportunity, favour and request. While that earned him respect, it also meant he was frequently overworked, undervalued and taken for granted. I could see how difficult it was to maintain healthy boundaries when your instinct is to always be available.
That experience has had a significant impact on my own leadership style. It taught me that saying yes to everything doesn’t necessarily make you a better leader. Instead, I’ve learned the importance of recognising my own value and holding myself to higher standards. That means being selective about where I invest my time and energy, setting clear boundaries, and understanding that not every opportunity is the right opportunity. I’ve realised that people often respect you more when you respect your own time and expertise.
As a business owner and coach, I want to lead in a way that is sustainable rather than driven by obligation. Saying no when something doesn’t align with my goals or values allows me to give my best to the clients and projects that truly matter. For me, leadership is about making intentional decisions, protecting your wellbeing, and creating a business that reflects your worth rather than constantly proving it.
Megan Nicholls, Founder and Business English Coach, Mega Language Coach
Make People Feel Genuinely Valued
One of the biggest leadership lessons I have picked up from watching others is how much it matters to make people feel genuinely valued, acknowledged, and heard, not just managed. Not every leader is capable of doing this well and the difference in team output is stark. The leaders I have observed who consistently do this get far more from their teams.
It translates to not just hard work, but more initiative, honesty, and willingness to go beyond the minimum. What stood out to me is that this recognition was not performative. It showed up in small, consistent moments, like remembering someone’s specific contribution or checking in without an agenda.
On the flip side, I have seen leaders who were technically skilled but overlooked this and their teams complied without ever fully investing. That contrast shaped my own approach. I try to make acknowledgment a habit rather than an occasional gesture, especially in the everyday moments that are easy to skip past. I have also learned that valuing people is not just about praise, it is about listening closely enough to understand what actually matters to them. As a result, I have become much more intentional about creating space for people to feel seen, because I have seen firsthand how directly that translates into trust and performance.
Simone Sloan, Executive Strategist, Your Choice Coach
Sell Vision and Align Believers
I worked with a CEO/founder who cared so much about the company, it was his baby. He cared so much that every detail mattered. Trying to get him to approve a website was impossible because every word, every color shade mattered to him. I realized he cared so much because he saw his company as a fulfillment of his life’s purpose. Most people in our company didn’t see it that way so they were just annoyed with him and felt he was too particular or a control freak. The other people on the board and investors eventually turned on him and it turned into a dispute that ruined the entire company and the only people to win were the lawyers.
This taught me that the most important thing a CEO/owner/founder can do is sell their vision. If they can get the board, the other C-suites, the employees and even the customers to believe in their vision then everyone will head the same direction. But if they don’t get people to see and believe in their vision they will have to drag them everywhere and it will frequently result in turnover, disputes, and dysfunction.
I now have owned multiple companies of my own and I always consider it my main responsibility to have people working with me that believe in my purpose and in my vision of what the company can become and what it can do for them individually. If people can’t buy-in to this vision then they don’t fit and it’s better to not hire them. They can disagree on how to get it done but they must believe in the same end vision.
Garrett Gundestrup, Owner, Prime Grit
Choose Calm Clarity Over Constant Pressure
One leadership lesson I have learned from observing both strong and weak leaders is that clarity beats intensity. Some leaders create motion, but not direction. The best leaders I have worked with or studied create clear expectations, repeatable systems, and enough trust that people know how to make good decisions without waiting for permission every time. That lesson has shaped how I lead Beverly Boy Productions. In video production, there are too many moving parts to rely on urgency alone. Crews, producers, editors, clients, deadlines, travel, creative decisions, and logistics all need alignment. My job is not to be the loudest voice in the room. It is to make the goal clear, put the right people in position, and build systems that let the team execute consistently. Over time, I have learned that calm clarity creates better outcomes than constant pressure.
Tavares Beverly, Founder and CEO, Beverly Boy Productions
Pair Decisiveness With Candid Doubt
One lesson I learned from watching other leaders is that decisiveness is not the same thing as certainty. The leaders who lose people fastest are often not the slow ones. They are the ones who act confident long after reality has changed, because admitting uncertainty feels like weakness.
That stuck with me. I try to be very clear about which parts of a decision are firm and which parts are still provisional. A team can handle a hard call. What wears people down is pretending the tradeoffs are obvious when they are not, then quietly changing direction later without acknowledging it.
Leadership gets better when people can trust the frame, even if the answer evolves. I would rather say, here is the call, here is why, and here is what would make us revisit it, than project false certainty.
Clarity builds confidence. Performance theater does not.
Kenneth Shen, CEO, Founder, Pigment
Explain Decisions so Judgment Scales
The most useful lesson came from watching a leader who was exceptional at making decisions but poor at explaining them. The decisions were usually right. The team’s ability to execute them was consistently undermined because nobody understood the reasoning well enough to make good judgment calls in the spaces between directives. Competence at the top doesn’t transfer automatically to the people below it. The gap between a good decision and a well-executed one is almost always a communication problem.
It changed how I approach any significant call. The decision itself is only part of the work. Explaining why — what was weighed, what was deprioritized, and what would cause the decision to change — gives the team enough context to act with judgment rather than just compliance. Teams that understand the reasoning behind a direction can adapt when conditions shift. Teams that only know the directive have to wait to be told what to do next. The difference in execution speed and quality is significant, and it costs almost nothing to close.
Daniel Haiem, CEO, AppMakers USA
Stay Cool and Address Issues Directly
The lesson came from watching a contractor I respected early in my career. He never raised his voice on a job site, even when things went wrong. Problems got addressed directly and calmly, which meant his crew actually listened instead of getting defensive. I noticed his people stayed with him longer and made fewer repeat mistakes. That observation shaped how I handle issues now. A calm correction in the moment carries more weight than frustration. People follow leaders who stay steady when things go sideways.
Jeff Matchen, Owner, Masters Roofing
Own Failures as Readily as Wins
I once worked under a leader who readily took credit for the success of a campaign or a project, but was quite evasive on the subject of their contribution when the project flopped. The wins were “we,” while failures were somehow always the fault of the team.
The experience showed me one of the most valuable lessons that I try to apply all the time: whenever I am willing to claim success, I should be equally ready to claim failure.
As leaders and managers, it gives us so much pride and joy when things go exactly as planned or, even better, exceed our expectations. But what if they don’t? Do you own the losses or do you shift blame? This is a pitfall many leaders make. And even though it helps you avoid any responsibility, does it help you to gain the respect of your team?
These are the questions that have stuck with me ever since. I have come to realize that, as a leader, building trust isn’t about always winning. It’s what you do the moment after something goes wrong.
So now, if I’m willing to take the credit, I’m just as willing to take the blame. It’s a small shift, but it changes how a team works with you. When people know you won’t disappear the second something goes sideways, they stop hiding problems from you. This approach helped me avoid a lot of stress and headaches over the years.
Kyleigh Pries, Marketing Manager, Boesen & Snow Law
Praise Publicly Correct Privately Enable Candor
I am Ryan, Founder of Paint Pro Painting.
I learned a valuable lesson from a General Contractor that I subbed for a few years ago. Always correct mistakes in private and give credit in public. In other words, if you make a mistake at a homeowner’s home, own up to the mistake immediately and deal with the employee making the mistake later. Conversely, give credit in public where all can witness. Do not allow a homeowner to witness you dress down an employee on your crew.
Now I try to correct in private, Credit in public and try to never have to reprimand a painter in front of a Client. If a mistake occurs in front of a Client then I own up to it and can reprimand the Painter after the fact.
In early 2025, one of our painters in Franklin, TN discovered a section of newly primed exterior siding that was not drying properly. The painter, correctly, called the project manager for that job. Inspection of that area revealed a small roof leak that had created moisture that had been trapped behind a few damaged sections of siding. Those sections were removed and replaced, and we returned to painting the next day. If we had continued to paint that area, we would have had to repaint approximately 600 square feet of siding, a very expensive mistake, or risk a warranty issue on a completed job.
Information speed is money. A small problem on a two day job is a touch up. A small problem on a 6-day job is a repaint of nearly 600 square feet of siding. The way to avoid these costly problems is to have your people bring you information about problems quickly. And they have to be willing to bring you bad news. Our average field employee has been with us over 3 years. That’s the kind of trust and communication that prevents small problems from becoming expensive. The harder discipline is building a crew that brings you bad news while it’s still cheap.
For me, It’s harder to build a team that brings you problems while they are still inexpensive to fix.
Ryan Ezzell, Founder, PaintPro
Protect Trust and Uplift Quiet Talent
I’ve experienced working with controlling bosses who walk into meetings and take over the whole room. I honestly thought that was just what confident leadership looked like, but it really doesn’t take long to realize that kind of constant criticizing and micromanagement completely kills team trust over time because people just stop trying when they feel like they can never win.
However, I’ve also worked with these amazing reliable people who just do their jobs perfectly every single day without making a fuss, but they always get totally ignored, passed over for promotions, or stepped on by the loudest voice in the room because they don’t speak up to claim their space.
Seeing both sides of that completely changed how I try to handle things now in my own approach. It made me realize you have to find a healthy middle ground where you aren’t loud or acting like a dictator, but you still have enough backbone to stand your ground, defend your team from outside pressure, and manage meetings so that the quiet, smart people actually get a real chance to speak without being silenced.
Carole Hansen, Franchise Owner, Groovy Hues
Adapt Leadership to Each Person
The best leaders I’ve observed have a fantastic ability to adjust their own leadership “style” for each person. They quickly read people’s behaviour and allowed themselves to have the flexibility to meet each person where they are at, on their level.
This became especially obvious to me when I observed leaders who seemed to have a lot of confidence in their unique “style” of leadership but were completely lost when some people in the team weren’t responding well to this style. In some cases this led to very effective employees quickly being identified as the “difficult” ones in the group, eventually creating a lot of unnecessary frustration and conflict in the team.
This really shaped how I lead and manage people, especially now that many of my employees work remotely. Remote and hybrid work brings a whole lot of fresh challenges to leadership, and using the same inflexible style or approach simply doesn’t survive contact with reality.
While it might feel easier for me to ask everyone to adapt to my way of doing things, I’ve learned this rarely produces the results (or the culture) I want in my teams. In the remote work environment, what might feel like “enough” support or communication for one team member feels like “neglect” for another. They need different things to operate at their best and I’ve tried to continuously develop the ability to adapt my own natural style and especially the way I communicate to accommodate this when possible.
Chris Schutte, Managing Director, InterACT-Global
Value Fast Feedback Over Perfect Plans
One clear lesson I learned from observing other leaders is that fast feedback loops matter more than perfect initial direction. In chaotic, client-driven environments I saw slow feedback lead to costly late changes, so I now reduce the distance between decision makers and execution. I apply this by working closer to actual user behavior and by analyzing raw data rather than relying only on summaries. That shift has made my leadership more focused on rapid correction and on enabling teams to adjust quickly instead of waiting for a single perfect plan.
Vitaliy Kononov, Co-Founder & CTO, Atty
Reject Empires and Prioritize ROI
The most toxic leadership trait I’ve observed is founders optimizing for ego instead of efficiency.
Early on, I watched a lot of CEOs brag about their massive headcounts or the sheer number of internal initiatives they were running, all while their cash runways vanished.
That completely shaped how I lead at Spendbase. We’ve grown to 180 employees since 2022, but I actively fight against that kind of empire-building every single day.
Because our fintech platform literally hunts down and kills corporate software bloat for a living, my leadership style has to be just as ruthless internally.
If a team or project isn’t driving undeniable ROI, we cut it.
Andrew Alex, CEO, Spendbase
Convert Setbacks Into Forward Momentum
One lesson I learned from observing other leaders is to keep moving after a setback. Early in my career, I reported to a CFO I admired, and one thing that stuck with me was how he never let setbacks slow him down. He would accept what happened and move forward as quickly as possible rather than let it drain his momentum. He was able to consistently take the energy from a negative event and use it to push even harder. Now, because of the lessons I’ve learned from him, when something goes wrong, I don’t waste time dwelling on it. Rather, my instinct is to process it quickly and then redirect that energy into the next action.
Jack Perkins, Founder & Managing Director, Adaptive Capital Partners
Shape the Emotional Climate With Composure
What sticks with me most is that leaders create the emotional climate of their organisations, whether consciously or unconsciously. I have seen people who created such a level of stress with everything they did that soon, everyone in the organisation was acting out of fear, not out of confidence.
In this case, I have become more mindful of my presence, particularly during tough times. This does not necessarily imply that I act like everything is going fine. What it means is that I stay cool enough for people to sort out their issues without having to be concerned about them.
In situations where things do not go as planned, optimism becomes very crucial. It means that everybody has an opportunity to take a deep breath and think. Another thing that I need to remember is that my decisions show the team what’s acceptable. Culture isn’t built overnight. It’s shaped by everyday interactions. That’s why I see leadership less as a title and more as a chance to set the standard.
Deepak Shukla, Founder and CEO, Pearl Lemon Leads
Balance Ambition With Empathy for Durability
One leadership lesson that has stayed with me is that ambition without empathy usually creates short term results and long term fragility. Some leaders are excellent at driving performance, but leave behind burnout, poor judgment, and a team that disengages quietly. The strongest leaders understand that high standards and human understanding are not competing ideas.
I have taken that as a reminder to pay attention to context, not just output. People do their best work when expectations are demanding but fair, and when they feel understood rather than managed like a spreadsheet. In consumer facing businesses, that balance matters even more, because internal culture eventually shows up in the customer experience.
Jonathan Stiebel, Director, The Hairy Pill
Prefer Steady Authority and Invite Challenge
One leadership lesson I have learned is that the best leaders do not need to be the loudest person in the room. The leaders I have admired most listen carefully, give people the confidence to share ideas and create an environment where it feels safe to challenge decisions.
I have also seen the opposite. When leaders believe they must always have the answer, teams can become hesitant, less creative and afraid to make mistakes.
This has shaped my own leadership style by reminding me to lead with curiosity rather than ego. I try to be clear about expectations while giving people the autonomy and trust to do their best work. Leadership is not about proving you are the smartest person in the room. It is about creating the conditions for everyone around you to contribute, grow and succeed.
Rebecca Hunter, Founder & CEO, Jolene
Rename Pause as Executive Discernment
The lesson came from a specific line I overheard from a senior leader: “we can’t be incentivizing our team to pause. This year is too challenging.” She meant it kindly. She thought pause was a wellness luxury the moment did not allow.
Watching leaders across industries over the past few years, I have seen that same pattern in different forms. Pause gets dismissed as slowness, hesitation, or a soft skill someone will get to when the quarter calms down. In cultures where speed is a virtue, “pause” sounds like the opposite of leadership.
The counter-observation is what shifted my thinking. The leaders I have watched make the fewest strategic errors are, without exception, the ones who create structural space between input and response. They pause, they just do not call it that. They call it discernment, judgment, thinking before deciding. Because they name it as a leadership competency rather than a break, that pause has status. It gets protected on the calendar and gets modeled to the team. It becomes a signal of maturity.
The lesson I took: pause has a naming problem more than a functional one. It is one of the highest-leverage capabilities a leader can develop, and it deserves language that reflects that. I encourage leaders to rename it as: Executive Discernment, Strategic Pause Capability, Deliberate Decision Discipline, Cognitive Agility & Thoughtful Restraint. Any of those names carry weight in a boardroom.
The observation changed how I lead the work I do with executive teams. I stopped presenting breath as a wellness practice and started teaching it as a named executive competency. The mechanism is identical, but the framing determines whether it gets adopted at the level where it matters. The tool for training this capability is already in every leader’s body. Most of them just do not know how to use it under pressure.
One last thing I have taken from watching the current wave of leaders. AI already does the automatic. What it cannot replace is the human capacity to discern, pause, and decide with clarity. That is a trainable competency, and the leaders who build it will run circles around the ones who kept treating pause as an indulgence.
Sandra Campuzano, Breathwork Facilitator for Corporate Teams & Executives, Regreso a Respirar
Lead by Example With Integrity
One leadership lesson I’ve learned from observing other leaders is the value of leading by example. Positive leaders demonstrate integrity, accountability, and a strong work ethic, which inspires their teams to emulate those behaviors. On the other hand, leaders who fail to model these qualities can inadvertently undermine their authority and credibility.
This observation has influenced my own leadership style by emphasizing the importance of consistency between words and actions. I aim to set a positive example through my behavior, knowing that it encourages others to follow suit and fosters a culture of trust and respect.
Aleina Almeida, CEO, Meridian International Sourcing Group
Reward Thoughtful Risk and Quick Lessons
Early in my career, I worked for a leader who had little tolerance for failure. When an initiative didn’t work, the conversation often focused on who made the decision rather than what the organization could learn from it. Over time, I noticed people became more cautious. They stopped taking calculated risks and started choosing the safest path instead.
That experience had a lasting impact on my own leadership style. I’ve always believed leaders should hold people accountable for preparation, judgment, and execution, but not punish thoughtful risks that don’t work out. If every unsuccessful idea is treated as a career-limiting mistake, people stop bringing forward innovative ideas. I’d rather have a culture that learns quickly than one that simply avoids failure.
Demos Parneros, Founder of CityPark Investments and Retail Advisor of Office Depot / OfficeMax
Original article:https://gritdaily.com/leadership-lessons-insights-from-observing-other-leaders/
