The Leadership Kompass

Why Most Leaders Build Institutions While History-Makers Build Movements The Five Elements That Separate World-Changers from World-Maintainers - A reflection on Steve Addison's "Movements That Change the World" The Uncomfortable Question Every Leader Must Answer Picture this: You're leading with excellence. Your team is competent. Your systems are solid. Your metrics are up. By every conventional measure, you're succeeding. But here's the question that should haunt every leader: Are you building something that changes the world, or are you maintaining something that once did? Steve Addison's Movements That Change the World doesn't offer gentle encouragement. It offers a mirror, and what most leaders see reflected back is sobering: We've traded movements for maintenance. We've exchanged transformation for transaction. We've chosen the predictable safety of institutions over the wild, unpredictable power of movements.  And in doi...

  The Invisible Architecture of High Performance: Why Your Best Work Depends on Better Boundaries We've normalized boundary erosion as dedication. But here's what the data actually shows: professionals who establish clear boundaries report 40% lower burnout rates and significantly higher productivity. The counterintuitive truth? Boundaries don't limit your career, they compound it. The Four Boundaries Most Professionals Never Set: Time Boundaries: It's not about leaving at 5 PM. It's about protecting your cognitive peak hours for deep work and refusing to fragment your attention across 17 simultaneous priorities. One executive I know blocks 8-10 AM for strategic thinking, no meetings, no emails, no exceptions. Her team's output doubled in six months. Emotional Boundaries: You can be empathetic without being a dumping ground. When a colleague vents for the third time this week, you're not their therapist, you're their peer. Compassion without bo...

  The Silent Epidemic: When We're All Home but Nobody's Really There Last Tuesday, I watched a family of four at a restaurant. Mom scrolling. Dad typing. Two teenagers with earpods in, eyes glued to screens. Four people, one table, zero conversation.  They stayed for an hour. We've perfected the art of being alone together. Here's what broke me: A CEO I know told me his daughter asked him, "Dad, do you love your phone more than me?" He laughed it off. She didn't ask again. She just stopped asking for his attention altogether. The math is brutal: The average person checks their phone 144 times daily. If you're awake 16 hours, that's every 6.5 minutes. We're present, but we're not there . We share space but not connection. We're in the same room, living in different worlds. And here's the kicker…we think we're being productive. We think we're "just quickly checking something." But our kids? They're le...