Welcome to Leadership Insights! Each week, we curate transformative leadership insights and add our own expertise to help you lead with purpose and impact. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, you’ll find actionable wisdom in every edition.
This week’s insight came from a powerful conversation with one of my executive coaching clients, and I think you’ll find it as eye-opening as they did. It’s a leadership practice that will revolutionize your decision-making: assumption mapping.
Before your next important decision, write down every assumption you’re making—about people, market conditions, resources, timelines. Then ask: “What if this assumption is wrong?” Most leadership failures stem not from bad decisions, but from unexamined assumptions. The leaders who consistently succeed are those who question what everyone else takes for granted.
This insight emerged during an “executive triage” session—focused conversations that cut through overwhelm to identify what’s really driving impossible situations. When assumptions become invisible chains, the higher you climb, the more dangerous unexamined assumptions become. You’re making dozens of critical decisions daily under impossible time pressure. If you’re feeling trapped by competing priorities that all seem urgent, there’s likely a pattern you can’t see from inside the situation. The most dangerous assumption? “I should be able to handle all of this on my own.”
Sometimes what feels like a resource problem is actually an assumption problem. I’ve been working with executives drowning in exactly these situations. If you’re curious about what “executive triage” looks like and how it creates immediate relief, I’ve put together something that might help. What assumptions are you making about your current impossible situation that might not actually be true?
This Week’s Posts We Love
LinkedIn Spotlight by Zia Jaffrey
This is one of those graphics every leader should print and keep close—a daily reminder of what leadership actually looks like when no one is watching. Zia Jaffrey perfectly captures that real leadership isn’t built in big moments, but in the quiet, uncomfortable choices that reveal character. None of these show up on a dashboard, yet they’re what build trust, safety, and culture. A powerful question to sit with this week: which one of these moments stretches you the most right now?
Click Here to Check Out The Full LI Post
Podcast Spotlight from Coaching for Leaders, “How to See What’s Holding You Back, with Marty Dubin”
This week’s podcast spotlight is a new find I couldn’t wait to share: Coaching for Leaders with Dave Stachowiak, featuring Marty Dubin on how to see what’s really holding you back. One line that stuck with me: when leaders are asked what’s in their way, the most common answer is “myself.” The episode explores how identity blindspots—roles we’ve outgrown or labels that once helped us—can quietly limit our leadership today. I’d love to hear from you: did anything in this conversation challenge how you see yourself as a leader?
Check Out the Full Episode Here
Book of the Week
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
This week’s book keeps us grounded in how we think and decide: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It’s a great reminder that our quick, intuitive reactions often drive our choices—sometimes more than we realize—while slower, more deliberate thinking helps us see what we might otherwise miss. For us leaders, it offers practical insight into overconfidence, bias, and the mental shortcuts that show up in everyday decisions.
Must-Read Article of the Week
“The Psychology of Decision-Making: Overcoming Bias in Leadership” by WESTFORD for Business
This week’s article is a great reminder that even the most thoughtful leaders are still human, and our decisions are often shaped by hidden biases. “The Psychology of Decision-Making: Overcoming Bias in Leadership,” from Westford for Business, breaks down how cognitive shortcuts influence everything from strategy to day-to-day leadership decisions. We are sharing this quick-read to help all of you build more self-awareness, slow down your thinking, and make clearer, more intentional decisions.
From the CARE to Lead® Archives
Unlocking Organizational Success: The Power of Cross-Functional Communication and Succession Planning
This week’s archives post is a timely reminder that succession planning doesn’t fail because leaders don’t care; it fails because they’re stuck in constant firefighting. In this blog, I explored how weak cross-functional communication quietly drains leadership capacity and leaves pipelines thin. If you’ve ever felt too busy “putting out fires” to develop your people, this one will feel uncomfortably familiar. What might change if breaking down silos became a leadership priority instead of a “nice to have”?
Closing Thoughts
As you finish the content in this week’s newsletter and focus on your leadership insight, I’m curious about what you’ll discover when you try this exercise. Our assumptions are invisible until we make them visible. What assumptions are driving your current strategy, and how might challenging them reveal new possibilities?
Thank you for being part of our leadership community. We’re dedicated to helping you lead with Clarity, Authenticity, Responsibility, and Engagement. Until next week, keep raising the bar on your leadership journey!
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