Why Your Manager Training Isn't Fixing Your Communication Problems (And What Will)

What 20 years leading teams at Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, and Google taught me about developing first-time managers

Finally Free: Choosing Presence Over Everything

Why "managing" your choices is exhausting you - and how to finally stop negotiating.

How to Actually Develop Your Employees: A Leadership Guide to Skills Development That Sticks

Why Most Employee Development Fails—and What Great Leaders Do Instead

The Scorecard You Should Burn in 2026

What my sister’s death taught me about the difference between a "successful" career and a life well-lived.

From Manager to Leader: The Day I Stopped Swimming

Why the Best Leaders Have Learned to Float Instead of Hustle

What Kerala Taught Me About True Reset

What happens when you stop driving, stop planning, and simply let yourself drift through life’s currents.

What Winning Actually Looks Like

I realized I was winning at the wrong game. Here is how I stopped chasing someone else’s scorecard and started actually living.

Three Leaders Asked Me the Same Question (Without Knowing It)

Three leaders. Three cities. One quiet question we all avoid until it won’t leave us alone. | The Activated Leader #025

📧 The one email I send every December (steal my template)

Every December, I send the same email to 15 people. | The Activated Leader #024

The Sunday Night Test: 5 Questions to Know If You're Past Your Activation Point

Take this 60-second Sunday Night Test to discover if you're experiencing work stress or chronic misalignment. Includes personalized action plans for leaders in transition. | The Activated Leader #023

The Cost of Performing Gratitude

The Activated Leader #022

Emotions Are Information: What 'Being Too Emotional' In Tech Actually Taught Me About Leadership

The Activated Leader #021

The Barrel Strategy: "I'll Meet Him by the Stage, on a Barrel If I Have To"

The Activated Leader #016

The Conference Room That Broke Me Open (And Why I'm Grateful)

Issue #15 | October 7, 2025

The Activation Tax: Why Your Next Level Costs Everything You're Comfortable With

Issue #14 | September 30, 2025

They hired someone else. Then asked me to train them. The humiliation that launched what was next....

The Identity That Almost Kept Me Trapped

Sitting in that old Toyota with everything I owned, I realized the identity that once saved me was now my prison... - The Activated Leader #012

The Question That Unlocks Everything (And Why Most Leaders Never Ask It)

Most leadership teams don’t struggle with strategy; they struggle with trust. The question that unlocks faster, smarter decisions isn’t about the business. It’s about the team.- The Activated Leader #011

The Promotion That Nobody Wanted (Including Me)

Ever been offered an opportunity that felt like a trap? I have, and I almost ran the other way. Here’s what happened when fear and excitement collided. - The Activated Leader #010

The 3 words that were stealing my power (until my 12-year-old called me out)"

What my daughter said next changed how I lead forever... and it can transform your results too - The Activated Leader #009

The Meeting That Almost Ended My Career

What happens when your most experienced employee calls you out in front of the entire team - The Activated Leader #008

The place between endings and beginnings

Where leaders are tested, shaped, and quietly transformed - The Activated Leader #007

The $36 moment that changed everything

I was broke, terrified, and sitting in a parking lot before the biggest interview of my life. What happened next taught me how to take bold action, even when nothing makes sense on paper.

The Real Reason You're Stuck (And It's Not What You Think)

A conversation I had with a CEO last month still keeps me up at night.

The VP who called himself 'behind”' (plot twist inside)"

"His career 'failures' led to the promotion he’d been chasing for years..."