Simon Sinek

“As leaders, we have no right to take our leftovers to people,” said Garry Ridge. Leftovers. It’s the perfect word for that negative energy we sometimes carry as leaders from one interaction to the next. The frustrating conversation that still echoes in our head when we show up to our next meeting. The disappointing news we haven’t quite processed. The rough morning we haven’t shaken off. Garry Ridge knows a lot about the impact what’s going in an a leader’s mind can ripple throughout a culture.

When we hold back in meetings—our ideas, questions, and perspectives—we’re doing more than limiting ourselves. We’re limiting our teams. The insight that could unlock a solution goes unheard. The question that could clarify confusion goes unasked. The perspective that could shift the entire conversation never surfaces. This struggle is more common than some of us might think. Last year, we asked our community what keeps them up at night.

Leadership in 2026 is an invitation to navigate uncharted territory. AI is opening possibilities we couldn’t have imagined a year ago. Global dynamics are shifting, creating new opportunities and challenges daily. The strategies that seemed solid last quarter are evolving into something better by lunch. And through it all, your team is looking to you, seeking that steady presence called confidence.

6 minute read Picture this: You’re sitting at your kitchen table, laptop open, staring at yet another job posting. You’ve sent out dozens, maybe hundreds, of applications. Each one carefully crafted, each one met with silence. The rejections sting. The silence stings more. And slowly, quietly, you start to wonder if anyone even sees you. We know this feeling. Working for Simon, we often hear from people in this exact moment who reach out for advice.

Leadership isn’t about org charts or management systems. It’s about people. Understanding them. Inspiring them. Creating spaces where they feel safe enough to be fully human. The leaders who built the most enduring companies—the ones who transformed entire industries—didn’t get there by studying tactics. They got there by understanding humanity itself. When you stop looking for leadership lessons in “leadership books” and start looking in human stories, something shifts. You stop managing.

Here’s a question for you: When was the last time you were truly bored? Not frustrated. Not waiting in line scrolling through your phone. Not filling every micro-moment with a podcast or email check. But genuinely, profoundly bored—staring at nothing, thinking about everything, with no agenda whatsoever. If you’re like most leaders, the answer is probably “I can’t remember.” And that’s precisely the problem. At Team Simon, we love studying what makes great leaders great.

You know that feeling when you leave work on a Friday and you can’t quite put your finger on why the week felt good? Or when Sunday evening dread creeps in even though nothing particularly terrible happened? Many of us spend years chasing the wrong things as leaders. We obsess over engagement surveys, invest in elaborate wellness programs, and architect perfect org structures.

Imagine a world where work doesn’t drain us, but fills us. Where Monday mornings feel like possibility, not punishment. Where we don’t just tolerate our teammates, we’d go to battle for them. That world exists. And it starts with the choice to stop building teams of stars and start building teams that trust. There’s a stat Simon loves to cite, and it reveals everything about what makes teams truly great: teams of average performers consistently beat teams of high performers. Not sometimes.

You know your stuff. Hand you a technical challenge, a system that needs fixing, a problem that keeps others up at night, and you’re brilliant. Your work speaks for itself. But then there’s the meeting. You walk in prepared. You have ideas. You know what needs to happen. But the moment the conversation starts, something shifts. Your mind races. Should I say this now? Will it sound stupid? By the time you work up the courage to speak, the moment has passed.

Every leader faces a choice: do we manage people, or do we develop them? Do we extract performance, or do we inspire it? Do we build teams that need us, or teams that don’t? The conventional wisdom has clear answers. Stay in control. Lead with data. Keep emotions out of it. Fix weaknesses. Beat the competition. But here’s what we’re learning: the path to extraordinary leadership oftentimes runs directly through practices that sound completely wrong. Practices that make us uncomfortable.