Connecting to Admired Leadership

• Two contrasting leadership stories: One showing how a senior admiral responded with grace when David made a career-threatening mistake with VHS tapes during a high-stakes presentation, and another where David's own reactive response to a difficult colleague cost him $50,000 in bonus and a promotion opportunity
• Moving beyond conventional wisdom: Traditional advice like "count to 10" treats symptoms rather than root causes - the best leaders develop consistent behaviors that create natural space between triggers and responses
• The power of inquiry over immediate answers: Develop the habit of asking 1-3 questions before responding, using phrases like "Tell me more about that" or "Say more about why you're feeling that way" to create thinking space
• Throwing problems back strategically: When someone brings you an emotionally charged issue, ask them for more context about how and why they feel that way - this gives you time to reflect while helping them process their emotions
• Judicious shows of emotion can be motivational: Sometimes a look or controlled display of frustration can be effective feedback, but only when built on a foundation of clear expectations and strong relationships

• "Leadership is what you do. It's how people react to you that's most important. Everybody else that engages with us is grading our papers based on our engagement."
• "Our goal isn't really to eliminate our emotional reactions because we are first human beings. What we want to do is develop consistent behaviors that create a space between the trigger and the response."
• "What we're not trying to do is automatically equal an answer in the immediate. What we're trying to do is become an excellent problem solver."
• "You owe them a response, not necessarily an answer to their question. Think about the difference in the frame with those two."
• "If you respond smartly, you can diffuse or derail a negative situation versus reacting immediately and viscerally and creating a kerfuffle."

• Field Note: "Learn to Respond Instead of React"

• Leadership resides in behavior, not personality: Excellence in any domain comes from what you do, not who you are - leadership is a composite of choices, routines, and actions rather than innate traits or psychological dispositions
• Self-assessments can create self-limiting beliefs: Tools like Myers-Briggs, DISC, and others risk becoming excuses for behavior rather than catalysts for growth, leading people to say "this is just who I am" instead of "who do I want to become?"
• Focus on commonalities over differences: Great teams function because of what they share - values, standards, expectations - rather than constantly highlighting how members are different from each other
• Better alternatives for building awareness: Use direct feedback, smart questions, and honest conversations rather than formal assessments - ask "What's it like to be on the receiving end of me?" or "How do I get to the next number on a 1-10 scale?"
• The Venn diagram approach to development: Focus where two circles intersect - things you're not good at AND things others need you to be great at, discovered through conversation rather than assessment

• "Leadership resides in behavior. Who you are as a leader is a composite, a stained glass window of lots of things that you do or don't do."
• "I'm much more interested in teams about what we have in common than what we have in difference. Great teams don't function because they all talk about each other's differences all the time."
• "What a shame that I know what your DISC profile is, but I don't know why you asked your wife to marry you or where you asked her to marry you."
• "Don't work on what you want to get better at - work on what people need from you most that you're not good at."
• "The question is, who do you want to be? Not who are you today. I think that's the wrong question."
• "My job is to hold up a mirror that other people won't hold."

• Field Note: "When Self-Assessment Harms Your Personal Development"

• The four-ingredient framework for compelling visions: Strong purpose (why do we exist?), vivid imagery (people can see and imagine the destination), credibility (prevents eye rolls), and cultural resonance (uses language that connects with your specific team)
• Strategic planning trap revealed: Most organizations develop strategy first, then try to communicate it - but once language gets "baked" into planning documents, it becomes nearly impossible to change the clunky management-speak
• The eye roll test: Before launching your vision, identify every policy, practice, or behavior that contradicts what you're saying - either eliminate them publicly or explain why you can't change them yet
• Leadership fatigue phenomenon: Leaders spend 6 months developing their vision and strategy, then get bored with it just as they need to start communicating it - "the song is in their head but not in anyone else's head yet"
• Making visions actionable: Your vision must be something your average team member can actually do something about in their daily work - if they can't see how they personally contribute, you won't create intrinsic motivation

• "You gotta keep the main thing the main thing" - everything you communicate should connect back to your vision and strategy
• "People will believe what you do before what you say" - contradictory actions will undermine even the most compelling vision
• "Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth" - Mike Tyson's wisdom on why 5-10 year strategic plans may be foolhardy in today's world
• "Great place for great people to do great work" - a vision so memorable that an employee could recite it perfectly 10 years later at a new organization
• "You need to look for signals that you're not serious about your vision and strategy" - identifying and eliminating contradictions is critical for credibility

• Carolynne Thomas is an Executive Coach and Partner at CRA | Admired Leadership, specializing in strategic organizational communication and leadership coaching. She spends her time helping organizations mobilize around vision and strategy, working across both the leadership and strategic communications practices of the firm.

• Field Note: "The Ingredients of a Compelling Vision"
• Four-question organizational messaging framework

• Redefining high potential: High potential does not necessarily equal ready to lead - the skills that make someone excellent in their current role don't automatically translate to leadership capability
• Two critical talent indicators revealed: - "Excellence Someplace Else": Look for people who've achieved excellence in any domain (sports, music, academics) as they understand the work ethic and commitment required to master skills - Deep Self-Awareness: True self-awareness means understanding not just your weaknesses, but how those weaknesses affect other people around you
• Strategic hiring approach: Don't overweight background and track record since you can't determine if success came from the platform, team, or market timing - focus on talent indicators instead
• Talent development principles: Leaders must get out of the way of talented people, remove obstacles, and focus on continuous feedback rather than annual reviews
• Making it systematic: Talent assessment, nurturing, and development should be a standing agenda item with quarterly conversations, not an annual afterthought

• "High potential does not necessarily equal ready to lead, or even fit to lead, for that matter."
• "Hiring and managing talent is one of the most strategic and symbolic acts you can do as a leader."
• "True talent finds a way to win in good times and bad, high tide, low tide. They tend to operate well in different contexts, and even different organizations."
• "When's the last time someone misperceived you? And why? Because true self-awareness is understanding weaknesses and also knowing how that rubs off on other people."
• "If they're truly stars, you got to provide direction and guidance... but then get out of the way. You're never going to know their job as well as they know their job."
• "If talent is the most important thing, then we need to make time for it... it needs to be a standing agenda item."

• John Cook is an Executive Coach & Partner at CRA | Admired Leadership, specializing in talent assessment and leadership development. As a father of four and avid fly fisherman, he brings both professional expertise and personal perspective to helping senior leaders identify and develop talent within their organizations.

• Field Note: "High Potential for What? Exactly"
• Nine proprietary talent indicators framework
• 10-minute coaching conversations with Admired Leadership coaches

• Distinguishing between three key concepts: - Leadership style: How you express yourself verbally, non-verbally, and contextually - Executive presence: The energy you project when entering a room or engaging with others - Gravitas: Verbal precision and fluidity that makes others hang on your every word
• Understanding style as developable: - Like a singing voice, everyone has a natural range they can expand - Most people can improve their style by 20-30% while remaining authentic - Focus on small changes in verbal, non-verbal, or contextual elements
• Practical development strategies: - Collect and intentionally use more intense vocabulary - Increase lexical diversity to avoid overused words and phrases - Adjust your approach based on audience (more attractive markers with junior staff, more power markers with senior executives) - Start with power markers and then back off rather than starting too attractive
• Common coaching scenarios: - The "bull in a china shop" who needs to add more attractive markers - Leaders who struggle when changing contexts or industries - Those who need to balance being powerful enough to be listened to while attractive enough to be followed

• "Style is a set of behaviors or habits, and it's more about what you do than who you are on the inside. Therefore, everybody can flex their style and they can do so authentically."
• "Style is the largest contaminator of your competence. No matter how good you are, negative style can take away from your competence."
• "To have real executive presence would be to be powerful enough to be listened to, but have enough attractive markers to be followed and for people to want to be around you."
• "Much easier to start a little bit more powerful and then back off versus coming in more attractive and trying to go power from there."
• "When you enter any situation, you have to ask, how do I want to be seen?"

• Dr. Suzanne Peterson is a Partner at CRA | Admired Leadership and a leading expert on leadership style, executive presence, and gravitas. She specializes in helping leaders understand how their style impacts their effectiveness and how to make strategic adjustments to expand their range.
• Mallory Stacey is a Managing Director at CRA | Admired Leadership who partners with Suzanne on style code coaching and programming. She brings practical experience having transformed her own style from management consulting to leadership coaching.

• Previous webinar recording on leadership style
• Style Code coaching program
• Power markers vs. attractive markers framework

• Understanding delegation as a strategic decision: - Delegation is itself a decision, not an abdication of leadership - Effective delegation serves as a performance multiplier for organizations - The best delegators view it as a developmental tool, not just time management
• What leaders should never delegate: - Strategy and strategic direction - Talent decisions for direct reports - Material legal or regulatory matters - Anything related to organizational character and values - Delivering bad news
• Framework for effective delegation: - Consider the strategic importance of the decision - Assess the urgency and reversibility of the decision - Evaluate team member capabilities and experience - Identify learning opportunities for team development
• Follow-up cadence after delegation: - Adjust based on the importance and urgency of the decision - Consider the experience level of the person you're delegating to - Focus on process over outcomes when evaluating results - Create psychological safety when mistakes happen

• "Deciding to delegate a decision is still a decision. You're not giving up decisiveness by delegating."
• "You're robbing yourself of free time to think strategically, robbing yourself of the force multiplier of other perspectives, and robbing individuals of developmental opportunities by not delegating."
• "As you get further in your career, you really start to have more of a focus on what your legacy is going to be, and your legacy is going to be the people."
• "Don't focus on the outcome. Focus on the process and how we got to this point."
• "The number one thing you never want to do to your leaders is give them work to do. You want to be taking work off their desk."

Bryan Downey is an Executive Coach and Managing Director at CRA | Admired Leadership with over 20 years of experience as a corporate executive, including roles as CEO and President in both public and private organizations. He specializes in helping leaders develop their decision-making capabilities and maximize their impact through effective delegation and team development.

• Field Note: "When to Delegate a Decision"
• Jeff Bezos's approach to delegation using "one-way door" vs. "two-way door" decisions
• Style Code Webinar Series on executive presence
• Alex - Admired Leadership's AI executive coach

• Distinguishing problems from dilemmas: - Problems are solvable issues where you have control or influence - Dilemmas are situations largely outside your control that must be managed - Recognizing the difference changes your approach and energy allocation
• Hallmarks of a dilemma: - It's 90-100% out of your control - Attempting to solve it often makes things worse - It has a "long tail" with cascading effects - When you zoom out, you see it has many tentacles across the organization
• Effective approaches to dilemmas: - Reframe as "not yet" rather than "never" - Focus on what you can control rather than what you can't - Document potential solutions for when circumstances change - Choose effectiveness over being right
• Leadership communication strategies: - Help teams recognize dilemmas without becoming demotivated - Validate past work when implementing change - Involve people in data collection and analysis - Redirect energy toward solvable problems

• "Do you want to be right or do you want to be effective? Pick one."
• "Just because the answer is 'not yet' doesn't mean that it's 'never'."
• "You can't just only talk about the new legacy going forward because that erases what everyone else has done so far."
• "Think of yourself as a precious resource here... focus on the places where you're going to get the biggest return on your investment."
• "The measure of success is nobody's talking about it anymore."

Diana Hong is a Partner and Executive Coach at CRA | Admired Leadership with over 20 years of experience advising on strategic communication, change management, executive visibility, and stakeholder relationships. She specializes in coaching leaders and teams through complex organizational challenges and has worked with clients across numerous industries. Diana is known for her practical approach to leadership development and her ability to help leaders distinguish between problems they can solve and dilemmas they must manage.

• Field Note on the distinction between problems and dilemmas
• Upcoming Style Code webinar series on executive presence
• On-location events in New York and other cities
• Option to schedule 10-minute coaching sessions with Admired Leadership coaches

• The Trust Equation: Understanding trust as a formula of credibility + reliability + intimacy divided by self-orientation
• Actions speak louder than words: The four loudest things in leadership (in order):
  1. What leaders do (behaviors and actions)
  2. What leaders measure
  3. What leaders decide in crucial moments
  4. What leaders say
• Building trust through the trifecta of relationship development:
  • Congratulations - recognizing what matters to others
  • Gratitude - expressing specific appreciation
  • Invitation - bringing others into your world
• Trust is gained in inches and lost in miles - the importance of consistent, intentional behaviors
• Relational closeness leads to clarity - understanding what truly matters to others
• The five levels of trust (referenced from a Field Note) as a framework for assessing relationship depth

• "When it comes to trust, everybody's from Missouri - they're from the 'Show Me' state."
• "What gets modeled gets mirrored."
• "The things that somebody says are actually the fourth loudest thing that you will see from them."
• "What gets measured gets done. The problem with that statement is, it's usually the only thing that gets done."
• "Closeness leads to clarity."

Eric Springer is an Executive Coach at CRA | Admired Leadership. He brings a unique perspective from his background as a retired Air Force Colonel with experience in special operations. Eric specializes in helping leaders build high-trust environments that drive both team performance and followership. His military experience in high-risk environments has given him firsthand insight into the critical importance of trust in leadership.

• Field Note: "The Five Levels of Trust" - framework for assessing trust in relationships
• The Trust Equation - credibility + reliability + intimacy ÷ self-orientation
• The "Circle of Trust" concept from the movie "Meet the Parents"

• Moving beyond typical reflection patterns: - Most organizations limit reflection to annual planning, quarterly reviews, or post-mortems - The best leaders integrate reflection into regular routines and meeting cadences - Shifting from "fast and forward" to intentional slowing down
• Creating meaningful dialogue: - Reserve dedicated time (45+ minutes) for inquiry-based discussions - Focus on understanding rather than immediate action or solutions - Create psychological safety for all voices to be heard - Use provocative questions that encourage deep thinking
• Implementation strategies: - Set clear expectations before introducing new reflection practices - Provide pre-work and thoughtful questions to prepare participants - Establish ground rules to prevent premature jumping to solutions - Model reflection in your own leadership first
• Benefits of regular reflection: - Stronger team connection and understanding of diverse perspectives - Team members feel seen and valued when their voices are heard - Symbolic importance shows what the leader truly values - Better decision-making through deeper understanding

• "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast."
• "The quality of the reflection is directly correlated to the quality of the questions that you're asking."
• "The wisdom of anything is in the review or the wisdom is in the reflection."
• "Questions can often carry feedback."
• "It's super hard to slow down to go fast, but the payoff's worth it."

Katie Angstadt is a Partner and Executive Coach at CRA | Admired Leadership. She specializes in helping leaders and teams develop more effective communication and collaboration practices. Katie is known for her ability to facilitate meaningful dialogue and create spaces where teams can engage in productive reflection that leads to better outcomes.

• "It's Not About the Nail" video - illustrating the importance of listening before problem-solving
• Field Note: "Asking a Crafty Question Upward Can Carry an Indirect Message"
• Upcoming events in Philadelphia, Miami, and New York in April

• Understanding AI technologies: - Machine learning (advanced statistics for prediction) - Generative AI (creating new content based on probabilities) - AI agents (specialized tools using large language models)
• Leadership approach to AI adoption: - Presume AI is coming and will be hugely powerful - Anticipate human factors (skill erosion, skill development, judgment) - Welcome AI where it makes teams better - Maintain transparency and authenticity
• Practical applications for leaders: - Use AI as a critic and thought partner - Generate alternative perspectives and explanations - Enhance research capabilities - Improve decision-making processes
• Adoption challenges: - Most leaders have limited experience with AI tools - Confusion about different models and capabilities - Unclear use cases for general purpose technology - Organizational barriers to implementation

• "People overestimate the first wave of a technology, and they tend to underestimate the effects of the second wave."
• "Good leadership looks exactly the same in the world of AI as it did before AI."
• "The role of authenticity for leaders is going to be more important in this world."
• "My ability to learn and be facile on ideas is so much more powerful... you can learn anything you want to learn."

• Alan Nelson is Co-Managing Partner at CRA | Admired Leadership and spearheads the firm's efforts to integrate generative AI into their client work. With over 30 years of experience advising senior leaders, he brings a unique perspective on how leaders can adapt to technological shifts while staying true to core leadership principles.

• ALEX - Admired Leadership's AI coach built on Claude from Anthropic
• Confluence - Weekly newsletter on AI and communication
• Book recommendation: "Co-intelligence" by Ethan Mollick