We assume stress comes from the size of the job. It doesn't — it comes from how much thinking is running while you do the job. Same role, same demands, radically different levels of stress, depending only on what's happening in someone's head.

Two leaders can carry the exact same workload — one burns out, the other doesn't. The difference was never the hours. It's how much of their thinking was spent resisting the hours instead of simply doing the work in front of them.

Boards don't remember the leader who had an answer for everything. They remember the one who thought clearly under pressure. Those are different skills, and only one of them can be rehearsed.

More rehearsal doesn't make you sound more in control — it makes you sound like you're reading from a script instead of thinking. The leaders who sound biggest in the room are usually the least prepared to sound scripted.

Leadership presence isn't something you build through posture and pacing. It's what's already there the moment you stop managing how you're coming across and let your actual thinking be seen.

A bigger role isn't an information problem, so gathering more frameworks won't solve it. What it actually takes is a quieter mind — one clear enough to access the judgment you already have.

The higher you climb, the less precedent there is to stand on — which is exactly why it feels less solid up there, not more. The leaders who move through it well stop treating that feeling as evidence against themselves.

"I keep waiting to feel like I've arrived," he said. "Instead I feel like I'm about to be found out."

This post is personal. I recently found out that someone that I trusted has been lying and stealing from me for years.

I’m pointing to universal laws that govern how we operate as human beings.

I was listening to an interview with Tom Cruise recently, where the reporter asked how he faced his fear in order to do brave things.

Beyond the Story: Rethinking who you are in leadership and life

When you’re feeling stuck, your best way forward is to give up. Here’s why.

Understanding who you truly are changes everything.

What if ALL your problems are made up?

Why everything you think about your relationship might be wrong

Just like the rumble strips on highways keep us in our lane, feelings tell us whether we've ventured off course. That's it. Stay in your lane.

Looking for happiness in a new career is like searching for your glasses while they’re already perched on your nose.