Table of Contents

• Welome to November!

• Working With Me

• What Plantar Fascitis Reminded Me About Leadership …

  • 💡 When Leaders Treat the Symptom, Not the System

  • 🧭 Strategy, Meet Talent

  • ✨ A Leadership Takeaway

• 1%

• What I’m Reading

Welome to November!

What.a. month. October felt like running a marathon at a sprint pace. Conferences, dinners, meet ups- all amazing and fulfilling but my inner introvert has been begging for some more potato days. What is a potato day, you might ask? Exactly what it sounds like. Personally, I have found any (vaguely historical) drama about England or Ireland from 1865-1955 excellent viewing: House of Guiness, Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders, Call the Midwife. Not 100% why, but I know now significantly more about the irish famine and subsequent push for independence than I ever did before.

November feels equally busy with travel but for some reason feels less hectic- partially because I did a better job of carving time on the weekends to slow down. As we enter the holiday whirlwind, how are you scheduling intentional time for yourself?

Working With Me

I’m almost full for Q1 but have several slots open for smaller engagements, like executive onboarding, strategic sprints and facilitating leadership development sessions for your team. If that feels interesting or if you or your organization is looking for audits or fractional support in Q2, let’s talk. You can find some time with me here.

I’m also looking to do one more workshop- this time on leading effective performance management conversations. Debating between December and January…any thoughts Advice? What would you want to see me cover? Stay tuned for more (and be sure to follow me on LI or subscribe to be in the loop).

What Plantar Fascitis Reminded Me About Leadership

A month ago, I woke up with sharp pain in my foot. The kind that jolts you upright — confused, annoyed, and wondering, “Really? Now?” I somehow hobbled through my week of conferences and events.

I’d finally gotten back to a version of myself that could move again — yoga, Pilates, walks that cleared my head, even some run-walks. After years of dealing with a hamstring injury (that also was a staph infection, but that’s a whole other story), this felt like progress.

So waking up limping felt unfair and demoralizing. But experience has taught me: what seems simple on the surface usually has other implications.

Fast forward to my appointment at HSS: plantar fasciitis and nerve irritation from a heel spur. The fix wasn’t just stretching my foot — it was stretching my calf. It turns out, the source of the problem wasn’t where the pain was.

Our bodies are ecosystems. What affects one part often originates somewhere else.

Organizations work the same way.

💡 When Leaders Treat the Symptom, Not the System

When we’re leading through chaos or change, we tend to focus on the pain points that scream the loudest. But the real issue often lives upstream.

Here’s where I see this play out:

• Overrelying on your most competent people. You lean on your top performers because they can handle it — until they burn out and the whole system wobbles.

• Cutting or reorganizing “support” teams. On paper, they look like overhead. In reality, they’re the connective tissue that keeps your front-line teams functional.

• Making a strategic shift without talking to those closest to the work. The plan looks solid in a slide deck but falls apart in execution because the people who actually do the work weren’t in the room.

• Over-indexing on structure before culture. You roll out a new org chart or process, but without trust and clarity, old problems reappear in new boxes.

The visible pain — a missed deadline, a disengaged team, a turnover spike — is rarely the full story.

Like the body, organizations are interdependent systems. Treating one part without understanding the whole only leads to recurring pain.

🧭 Strategy, Meet Talent

A recent Harvard Business Review piece (October 31, 2025), “Your Transformation Can’t Succeed Without a Talent Strategy,” captures this perfectly.

It argues that most transformations fail because leaders focus on strategy without rethinking their talent. You can’t change where you’re going without changing who and how you bring people along.

✨ A Leadership Takeaway

Before you rush to fix what hurts most, pause and ask:

• What might be the “calf muscle” behind this issue?

• Who or what is connected to this problem that I’m not seeing?

• How can I widen my lens before prescribing the fix?

Because whether you’re dealing with a strained tendon or a strained team, sustainable progress comes from addressing the system — not just the symptom.

1%

• Spotlight micro-wins. End the week by naming one team moment that embodied your values — in Slack, email, or a quick huddle. Recognition shapes what gets repeated. Example: if yu have a value of continuous improvement, you might share “Noticing that Marcus asked for feedback on his presentation before sending it out — a small but powerful example of how we’re all practicing continuous improvement.”

• Narrate the “why”in your SOPs Review your existing SOPs- especially those that folks either don’t adhere to or do so grudgingly. Take one minute to explain why it matters. People don’t just need direction — they need context.

• Succession Planning/Prepping your next leaders- You likely have folks that you will be promoting- individual contributors to managers, managers to directors, etc. As capable as these folks are, they are entering a new role and will need onboarding to help them succeed. How to focus your energy? I’d have them self-evaluate (with your input) using the evaluation of their future role. Then think through with them 1-2 high-leverage adaptive or tactical leadership skills for them to start focusing on and ways to support them in that development.(Also? While I provide leadership coaching, I am also fortunate to know so many coaches and entrepreneurs focused on leadership development. If you need a rec on trainings or coaches, feel free to email me!)

What I’m Reading

• How to Lead when Conditions for Success Suddenly Change- In today’s world- where things change by the second- the conditions for success don’t stay static. This quick HBR article highlights that the leaders who succeed are ones who broaden their coalition, build resiliency, and reset expectations (this last one may be my favorite).

• How Remote-First CEOs can Stay Connected As Their Companies Grow- This is a question I’m often asked. Remote-first companies demand an intentional plan to build and sustain culture. This article highlights what this can look like.

• Five Organizational Transformation Killers- Research estimates about 75% of transformation fails. From my experience, it’s because the transformation fails to honor the ecosystem of the organization. The upside to this failure is that there are tremendous learnings we can all capitalize on. This article highlights five things that kill transformation- if you are busy working through a strategic plan or change, be sure to read this (and share with your teams)

• Building a Strong Company Culture: Advice from Founders: I contributed to this article, filled with actionable tips on what it looks like to build a culture intentionally.