You’re sitting in another quarterly planning meeting. The spreadsheet on the screen shows revenue targets that make everyone shift uncomfortably in their chairs. Someone from sales mentions they need more leads. Marketing says they need more budget. Operations says they need more people. Sound familiar? Here’s what’s really happening: You’re treating growth, people, and leadership like three separate problems. And that approach is quietly breaking your business. The Divide and

The CEO looked around the conference table at his leadership team. Every person in that room was talented. Experienced. Loyal. Some had been with him for five, seven, even ten years. They’d earned their seats. They’d proven themselves. Yet somehow, the business felt stuck. Growth had plateaued. Innovation was sparse. Meetings felt heavy. The energy that once drove momentum had faded into something else. Comfort, maybe. Or complacency. He couldn’t

The other day, I was sitting with an executive team talking about bench strength and high-potential talent. Nothing unusual. A familiar conversation in a familiar setting. But something landed differently. As the discussion unfolded, I realized we were talking about leadership the same way most organizations do – as if leadership were a noun. A thing. A label. A set of characteristics we can list, debate, and categorize. Directive leader. Participative