“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” -Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
It’s easy to feel like leadership is being rewritten in real time. AI is accelerating decisions. Markets shift by the hour. Teams are spread across time zones and screens. Many senior leaders I speak with describe the same paradox. They have never had more tools but they’ve never felt less certain.
And yet, amid all the noise, one truth still holds: what you give through your leadership is still within your control. It is about giving the things that only you can offer: clarity, attention, empathy, perspective. The gifts that define the culture of your team and your work life.
This month, I invite you to take ten quiet minutes (or more if you can) to reflect on what kind of leader you want to be right now, with the current state of things, and what you still have to give.
Here are a few questions to guide you
1. Presence
When my team needs steadiness, do they find it in me? How often do I create the internal conditions (clarity, rest, attention) that allow me to lead with composure that is invigorating versus draining? What might shift if I treated presence as a strategic act of leadership?
2. Perspective
Am I giving people the bigger “why” behind the work, or only the “what” and “when”? Where might I enhance meaning and not just direction? Where might my perspective have narrowed to the immediate and how can I realign with my true contribution which is to expand the horizon?
3. Empathy
Do I pause long enough to see what people might be carrying inside and outside of work? What would change if I assumed, even briefly, that everyone is doing their best? What would shift if I truly embraced that idea?
4. Attention
Who around me has quietly gone unseen? Whose effort deserves acknowledgment? Where is excellence quietly occurring without amplification? What new possibilities may present themselves if I shift the focus to what is working and redirect my energy in this small, yet transformational way?
5. Courage
What conversations have I been avoiding because I’m too busy or too tired? What truth needs to be said kindly, clearly, and soon? What conversation could realign my team toward its next level of potential?
The most generous leaders I know understand they can’t control everything, but they always have something new to give. They know they can still give their best thinking. They know they can still give presence in a distracted world. They know they can still notice and have empathy when someone is facing a struggle. They know they are not perfect, and they step into that knowing consciously so others feel comfortable with their vulnerabilities.
They know so much and have taught me that when the world feels unpredictable, generosity becomes an act of stability.
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