“What If Your Team Doesn’t Need Certainty, But Clarity?”
“When certainty is manufactured instead of earned, trust erodes the moment reality contradicts it.” What if the most dangerous thing a leader can offer right now is false certainty? We are operating in an environment that changes faster than our forecasts. Markets shift dramatically, and AI evolves weekly. Data multiplies but doesn’t resolve ambiguity. Yet […]
Kevin McKenzie 
“What if Autonomy is Easy, But Alignment is the Real Work?”
“Great jazz isn’t random. It works because every musician shares the same key, tempo, and structure, even when improvising. Autonomy lets people play while alignment keeps the music coherent.” What if your biggest leadership challenge isn’t letting go, but keeping things coherent after you do? Many leaders have learned the hard lesson that control doesn’t […]
“What If Letting Go Is the Most Responsible Thing You Could Do?”
“Trust always feels riskier than control, until you see the results.” What if the biggest thing holding your team back isn’t lack of talent or effort, but your need to be in control? Most leaders don’t crave control because they’re insecure or power-hungry. They crave it because they care and feel accountable for outcomes. None […]
“What If the Impact You Have Is Greater Than You Think?”
“Put yourself last, and you’ll end up first.” The holiday season has always been a time of reflection for me, and this year was no different, though what I reflected on was different. Last summer, I lost one of my mentors, who had a profound impact on my career and leadership. Although I hadn’t seen […]
“What If the Hardest Part of Leadership Is Pacing?”
“People rarely admire leaders who move too fast or too slow. They admire leaders who move with intention.” What if the real challenge of leadership isn’t choosing what to do but choosing when to do it? Today’s leaders operate in a world of compressed timelines, noisy signals, and constant pressure to move faster. The mantra […]
“What If Curiosity Mattered More Than Competence?”
“What keeps you relevant isn’t what you’ve mastered, it’s how quickly you’re willing to unlearn and relearn.” What if the biggest threat to your leadership growth isn’t ignorance but expertise? Competence got you here. It built your reputation, earned your seat at the table, and established trust. Yet the same strength that propels you early […]
“What If Being Right Is Holding You Back?”
“When you sense your defensiveness rising, pause. That’s the moment when effectiveness begins, if you allow it.” What if the biggest barrier to your leadership growth isn’t being wrong — it’s needing to be right? Most leaders don’t set out to protect their egos. But somewhere between expectations, incentives, and image, “being right” starts to […]
“Why Excellence Inspires and Perfection Paralyzes”
“The truth is, excellence and perfection aren’t cousins; they’re opposites. Perfection is the evil twin of excellence.” We all admire excellence when we see it. It motivates, elevates, and draws people toward it. It makes us want to improve ourselves. But perfection? Perfection isolates, drains energy, erodes confidence, and stifles growth. Still, too many leaders […]
“What If This Is Your Moment?”
“Don’t aim for perfection. Aim to move from spectator to participant and, more importantly, from follower to boundary-setter.” What if the era you’re living through now becomes the defining moment of your generation and leadership? History shows us that a handful of catalytic shifts reset the game. They spark disruption, drive innovation, and transform industries. […]
“What If You Scored Every Decision By Its Reversibility?”
“Leaders often ask for more analysis. But what if the more insightful question is: how reversible is this?” What If You Scored Every Decision By Its Reversibility? What if the first question before any debate wasn’t whether we should do this, but how easy it is to undo? Most teams don’t see things that way. […]
“Decisions That Stick: Clarity, Courage, Conviction”
“Conviction is the difference between trying something and following through to completion.” Most teams don’t lack ideas; they lack sequence. We jump into action or chase consensus before we’ve named the bet, which creates half-commitments, polite hedging, and “pilot purgatory.” What if your next decision had to be crystal clear in just 30 minutes? Here’s how […]
“The Story. The Shift. The Strategy.”
AI may change the landscape, but you still choose how you lead across it.” Some leadership shifts arrive like a crisis. Others begin more quietly, like a question you can’t unhear. The best ones change how you see yourself and what comes next. Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked three such questions, sparked by […]
“What If Learning Was the Job?”
“Performance without learning is just repetition, and repetition in today’s world is a slow path to irrelevance. “ A CEO I recently spoke with asked, “What if learning speed was our most important metric?” That question resonated with me because I’ve noticed a subtle shift occurring in high-performing teams. It’s not about increasing output, optimization, […]
“What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years?”
What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years? What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years? What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years? What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years? What If You Were Obsolete in Three Years? “When faced with disruption, we tend to want to hold on tighter to what we have.” What if your job or […]
“What Do You Want Your Story to Be?”
“In the era of AI, the value of repeatable knowledge is dropping, as is the illusion of control, and the ability to hide behind what we know.” What Do You Want Your Story to Be? Now there’s a question I wish someone had asked me earlier in my career. Not about my goals, or how […]