Senior Operations Leader | Embracing Unwavering Execution & Extreme Ownership Principles

I help organizations cut through complexity and turn operations into systems they can count on. With 20 years of experience, I have led cross-functional teams, managed a $200M contract portfolio, and delivered measurable results:

- $22M in savings through vendor management and strategic sourcing
- 25% profit margin gains through process improvement and operational efficiency
- 200+ corporate and endurance events produced over 15 years
- Large-scale budgets and project management across multiple functions

Core strengths: operations leadership, vendor management, contract management, strategic sourcing, process improvement, project management, budgeting, and event direction. I combine data-driven execution with a servant-leadership style shaped by Extreme Ownership and Echelon Front principles.

Outside of work, I am a runner, ultrarunner, GoRucker, and adventurer. The resilience and grit built on the trail inform every decision I make.

If you are looking for an operations partner who can optimize processes, manage vendors, and deliver events with measurable results, let’s connect.

“Jimmy’s integrity, bias toward action, and laser focus allowed our organization to scale…from the red into the black < 1 year, scaling >10X.” – Anoop Grover, COO

Jimmy Gabany

Most communication problems are not content problems.

They are leadership problems.

You can be right and still lose the room.

I have watched solid ideas get rejected because the tone was off. I have seen good feedback land wrong because it was delivered at the worst possible moment. I have done it myself. The message was fine. The timing was not.

Tact matters because respect matters. Tone matters because people read emotion before logic. Delivery matters because confidence and humility have to show up together. Timing matters because even the best point will fail if the person hearing it is not ready.

If you want alignment, slow down before you speak.

Ask yourself:

Is this the right moment?
Is my tone matching my intent?
Am I trying to win, or am I trying to solve?

Strong leaders do not just manage what they say. They manage how and when they say it.

That is where trust is built or lost.

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Extreme Ownership Muster 023

The OODA Loop

The Indirect Approach

Extreme Ownership Framework

Barriers to Extreme Ownership

 Creating a Culture of Extreme Ownership

How to Navigate Micromanagement

CSCMP Supply Chain Foundations: The Essentials Professional Certificate

Certified Ultrarunning Coach

Change Management Professional Certificate by LinkedIn Learning

ServiceNow IT Leadership Professional Certificate

Negotiation Professional Certificate by American Negotiation Institute

The Debrief

Global Procurement and Sourcing Specialization

Google Project Management Certificate

The Readback

EOS® Integrator™️ Masterclass Graduate

Extreme Ownership Muster 016

Safety and Risk Mitigation

Dichotomy of Leadership Foundation Course

Extreme Ownership Foundation Course

Technical Support Fundamentals

USSF D License

RRCA Certified Coach

USATF Level 1 Coach

NASM PES

NASM CPT

Metabolic Efficiency Training Specialist

Schwinn Cycling Instructor

Extreme Networks, Inc. (EXTR) is a leader in AI-powered cloud networking, delivering a unified platform that simplifies and secures IT operations. Our solutions help businesses address challenges and enable connections among devices, applications, and users. We push the boundaries of technology, leveraging the powers of artificial intelligence, analytics, and automation. Trusted by thousands of customers globally, our AI-powered cloud networking solutions and industry-leading support enable businesses to drive value, foster innovation, and overcome extreme challenges.

For more information, visit Extreme's website at www.extremenetworks.com or follow us on LinkedIn, YouTube, X/Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

The function didn't exist before I got there. Engineers were running their own contracts. Procurement wasn't in the room. Nobody owned the vendor relationships, the risk, or the outcomes.

I changed that. Built the operating system, the governance framework, and the accountability structure from nothing. I drive alignment across Finance, Legal, Procurement, InfoSec, and Insurance with no direct authority and no missed outcomes. Five stakeholder groups. Zero excuses.

The results: $200M+ portfolio under management, $22M+ in delivered savings, and contract cycle time cut from six weeks to three. AI-enabled workflows helped. Knowing what I needed before I walked into any negotiation helped more.

Senior Manager, Product Operations

Running B2B events at the executive level sounds straightforward until you're coordinating production across the U.S. and Europe, managing sponsors with six-figure commitments, and accountable to attendees who paid to be in the room.

Small core team. High standards. No margin for visible failure.

Margins up 25%. Vendor costs down 25%. Sponsorship revenue up 35%. CSAT above 95%.

In events, the product is the experience. If the experience breaks, everything breaks. It hasn't.

Event Director

Built the operating model from nothing. Repeatable systems, budget ownership, vendor strategy, and the rhythm that kept multi-location events from turning into chaos. Set the standard the Event Director role runs on today.

Head of Operations / COO

Running a business for 17 years alongside full-time executive roles isn't a side hustle. It's proof of capacity.

I built Elemental as an endurance athlete and coach because I understood the problem from the inside. That's still true. When you're timing 800 athletes at 5am on a mountain, everyone on the crew knows their job, owns their piece, and doesn't wait to be told what to do when something goes sideways. That's not an accident. That's the standard I set.

200+ road, trail, and track events. 99% timing accuracy. 30+ events a year. Clients come back because we show up and get it right.

Founder

Nevada's cannabis market expansion was the Wild West. New regulations, high stakes, no playbook.

I ran operations through all of it. Team of up to 200 people. Rapidly scaling, heavily regulated environment where hiring fast without lowering the bar wasn't optional, it was the job. I built the leaders inside the org who carried the standard when I couldn't be in the room.

Scaled wholesale more than 10x. Grew revenue 50%. Maintained less than 0.1% inventory variance across multimillion-dollar stock throughout the entire growth cycle. Managed capital projects from $10M to $50M including full facility builds and operational expansion.

One compliance miss could have shut the business down. Nothing did.

Head of Operations / General Manager

Fortune 500 clients. MGM properties. High-profile events where visible failure wasn't an option and nobody got to have a bad day when the client was watching.

15+ multimillion-dollar events. Production teams of 50+ per event. On time, on budget, 95%+ client satisfaction. We got called back.

Event Manager

SageWater specializes in large-scale residential repipe and rehab. I ran operations across 2,000+ projects in Nevada with crews and staff of 50+ running dozens of concurrent jobs at any given time.

Leading in high-volume construction means setting a standard and then building the supervisors and crew leads who carry it without you standing over them. You can't be on every job site. You build people who don't need you to be.

Senior Project Manager

Combat Engineer. Logistics Technician. Armorer. Schweinfurt, Germany.

I managed equipment ordering and supply chain for an armored unit, owned weapons accountability for the unit, and led soldiers in a zero-failure environment. Leadership in the Army isn't theoretical. You set the standard, you model it, and your people either meet it or they don't. There's no gray area.

It's where the standard got set.

Combat Engineer

Operations Leader | I Build the Systems That Keep Companies From Falling Apart | Extreme Ownership | Vendor Strategy | Event Execution

Strong leaders admit when they do not know.

Not because it sounds humble. Because it is efficient.

Pretending to have every answer slows the room down. People wait. They defer. They hold back ideas because they assume the leader already decided.

The moment you say, “I don’t know,” something shifts. The team leans in. Ownership spreads. Solutions get better.

Needing help is not weakness. It is awareness.

If you are the smartest voice in every conversation, you are probably talking too much.

I got a new tattoo last month.

Jocko's GOOD. Right on my forearm, where I see it every day.

It is going to grow. Eventually, it will include the end of that same piece:
"Get up, dust off, re-load, re-calibrate, re-engage. And go out on the attack."

People will ask why. Here is the honest answer.

It is too easy to slip into the negative. Things break. Plans fail. Races go sideways. Deals fall apart. The world will give you plenty of reasons to focus on what went wrong.

GOOD forces an interruption. The computer dies mid-race. Good. I already have a backup running. The event hits a wall. Good. Now I know exactly where the weak point is. The plan falls apart. Good. The plan was probably wrong anyway. The negotiation went sideways. Good. I learned a better technique.

This is not optimism. It is a discipline. And like any discipline, it has to be practiced until it becomes automatic.

That is why it is on my arm.

Because some days I need the reminder before my brain goes somewhere less useful.

As a leader, your mindset is contagious. If you spiral, the room spirals. If you reset and move, the room moves with you.

GOOD is the reset.

#leadership #operations

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50 plus pounds on my back. 75 minutes. Pavement.

Dragging that kind of weight around is not fun. I want to be clear about that. Nobody is out here loving every step of a ruck. You just do it anyway.

This is prep for the Ruck Race League March Challenge. 25 percent of bodyweight for 75 minutes. The Furnace. It is exactly what it sounds like.

I do it because discipline equals freedom. And because I cannot ask anything of my team, my family, or anyone in my chain of command that I am not willing to demand of myself first.

Here is the controversial part.

If you cannot lead yourself, you are not a leader. You might be a manager. You might be in charge. But leadership requires something more than a title or authority. It requires that the people around you actually want to follow you.

That starts with how you show up when nobody is watching. The early morning. The extra weight. The thing you do not want to do but are committed to anyway.

People are paying attention even when you think they are not. They are watching whether your standards apply to you or just to them.

Be the person people choose to follow.

Not because they have to. Because they want to.

#leadership

This is my amazing wife, Sandy.

New Year's Eve. End of her first 100 miler.

She did not finish because she felt good. She finished because she refused to stop.

Blisters. Aches. The kind of tired that sits in your bones and starts negotiating with your brain around mile 60. Every step after that is a choice. Not a physical one. A mental one.

The body will lie to you. It will tell you that you have nothing left. That stopping is reasonable. That you have already done enough.

Discipline is knowing the difference between actually done and just uncomfortable.

Sandy knows the difference.

I have watched a lot of people train for events like this. The ones who finish are not always the most fit. They are the ones who learned to keep moving when every reasonable thought says stop.

That lesson does not stay on the trail. It follows you into every hard thing after.

Grit is not something you have. It is something you practice until quitting stops feeling like an option.

She rang that bell.

#leadership #operations

It has been a while since I have actually run.

Torn quad in December took care of that. No regrets, though. It is not every day you get to play laser tag supervised by Navy SEALs/SpecOps guys.

Today, it is one foot in front of the other. No fanfare. No applause. Just moving.

That is how most things worth doing actually get done. Not with a grand moment or a perfect starting point. Just a decision to start and the discipline to keep going.

Dean Karnazes said it best.
"Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must. Just never give up."

That applies well beyond running.

Whatever you are working through right now, just keep moving forward.

#leadership

5,000 people. Wilmington. Last weekend.

My primary timing computer died mid-race.

First instinct is to react. Fix it fast, fix it loud, let the stress show. That instinct is wrong.

Detachment is not distance. It is discipline. You pull back just far enough to see the problem clearly without your emotions making it worse. Then you act.

I switched to the backup that was already running. Results slowed. The primary timing company stressed. I stayed calm, kept the team steady, and fixed it.

Nobody on that course knew anything went wrong.

That is what Echelon Front means by detachment in practice. Not checked out. Not cold. Just controlled enough to respond instead of react when something breaks in front of a crowd.

The job is not set up. The job is what happens when it breaks.

#leadership #operations

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”

What stands out to me is the second half.

Failure is part of the work. Projects stall. Events break. Decisions miss. Anyone operating at a real level will fail at some point.

The real danger is getting comfortable with it.

I have seen teams normalize underperformance. Deadlines slip, and everyone shrugs. Standards drift, and no one calls it out. Over time, that becomes the culture. Not excellence. Not urgency. Just acceptance.

There is a difference between learning from failure and settling into it.

One builds capability. The other builds mediocrity.

The leaders I respect do not panic when something goes wrong. They also do not ignore it. They dissect it, fix it, and reset expectations. Calm. Direct. Unapologetic about the standard.

Failure is not the problem.

Comfort is.

Courtesy of Echelon Front

Echelon Front

Nobody has ever left a meeting thinking "I wish that had been longer."

Corporate culture did not collapse overnight. It drifted.

One small compromise at a time. A missed conversation here. An ignored signal there. A push for output without a pause to ask what it is costing the people doing the work. Over time, that drift becomes the new normal.

There was a time when steady leadership and earned loyalty were not buzzwords. Managers knew their teams. Expectations were firm. Respect was mutual. If something went wrong, it was addressed directly. If someone did well, it was recognized without being turned into a campaign.

Now, too many environments feel transactional. People are treated like interchangeable parts. Pressure flows downhill. Recognition flows upward. Leaders talk about culture while quietly rewarding behavior that undermines it.

If you want to change the trajectory, start with yourself. Keep your word even when it is inconvenient. Set standards and hold them without shifting them to fit the mood. Protect your team when the pressure rises instead of using them as insulation.

Loyalty is not a perk. It is a response to consistent behavior. When people feel respected and treated fairly, they commit. When they feel used, they disengage.

Culture is not what you declare. It is what you tolerate and reinforce every day.

Timing in the mud and rain!

Elemental Race Timing

Elemental Race Timing

Detachment is not distance. It is discipline.

At Echelon Front, detachment means stepping back far enough to see what you cannot see when you are in the middle of it.

When you are too close, everything feels urgent. Every issue looks personal. Emotions rise. Decisions get reactive.

Detachment creates space. You pull back. You assess. You ask what actually matters right now. The problem often looks different from ten thousand feet.

I have had moments where staying in the weeds felt responsible. It was not. It made me slower and more emotional. The solution did not show up until I paused and looked at the situation without ego attached.

Detachment is not cold. It is controlled. It is choosing to respond instead of react.

If things feel chaotic, you might not need more effort. You might need more perspective.

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
Ralph Nader

If your only goal is to create followers, that is an ego problem.

Great leaders raise people up without worrying about being outgrown. They share what they know. They put people in positions to succeed. They celebrate when someone they developed moves past them.

Being part of the process that makes someone better than you says more about your leadership than any title or follower count ever will.
I have seen leaders hoard knowledge because they were afraid of being replaced. That is not leadership. That is insecurity with a job title.

The best leaders I have been around made themselves less necessary over time. Not because they checked out, but because they built people who did not need them for the basics anymore.

That is the goal.

If everyone around you is dependent on you for answers, you have built a following. If everyone around you is solving problems, growing, and pushing past where you found them, you have done the job.

One of those is leadership. The other just feels like it.

#leadership

Today I am cleaning up a mess that did not have to happen.

Someone went around the team. Skipped the people who could have helped. Made the move that looked good for them in the moment and left the wreckage for everyone else to deal with.

This is not a skill problem. It is a character problem.

Teams exist because no single person has every answer. Using your teammates is not a sign of weakness. It is how the work actually gets done without creating casualties along the way.

The people who go around the team are usually optimizing for how they look, not for the outcome. And it works, right up until someone has to come behind them and fix what they left.

I do not mind doing the work. That is part of the job.

What I mind is that it was completely avoidable.

Use your team. Ask for help. Let people do what they are there to do. The mission matters more than the moment you get to look like you handled it alone.

Do not be this person.

#leadership #operations

Meetings are not work.

They are either alignment or avoidance.

If you leave without a decision, an owner, and a next action, it was not productive. It was theater.

Fewer meetings.
More ownership.
Finish things.

Accountability is quiet.
Blame is loud.

If every mistake turns into a postmortem with twelve people defending themselves, you are not fixing the problem. You are just assigning fear.

Teams that feel safe owning mistakes fix them faster.

Teams that feel hunted get very good at hiding.

Choose which one you want.

Leadership is not a title. It is a ripple effect.

If the people around you are thinking bigger because of your example, that is leadership. If they are pushing themselves to learn more, take on more responsibility, and raise their standards, that says more than any promotion ever will.

I have worked for leaders who talked about vision all day. Few inspired it. The ones who did were consistent. They showed up prepared. They admitted mistakes. They held the line when standards slipped. You did not just hear what they believed. You saw it.

Inspiration is not hype. It is modeling.

If your team is growing, stretching, and stepping into more than they thought they could handle, you are doing the job.

If they are shrinking, playing it safe, or waiting to be told what to do, something needs to change.

Leadership is measured in who people become because you were in the room.

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

I like this because it shifts the focus away from optics.

Success is easy to measure on paper. Titles. Revenue. Followers. Awards. Value is harder to fake. It shows up in whether the team performs better because you are there. Whether problems get solved faster. Whether people grow under your leadership.

Chasing success often turns inward. How do I look? What do I gain? Being of value turns outward. Who benefits? What improves? What moves forward because I showed up?

In operations, value is not glamorous. It is fixing what is broken. Removing friction. Making someone else’s job easier without needing credit for it.

If you aim to be useful long enough, success usually follows.

If you aim only at success, you risk missing the point entirely.

Where are you adding real value right now?

The org chart says one person is in charge.

The group chat tells a different story.

Strategy is easy. Execution is where most teams stall.

Everyone loves the high-level plan. Brainstorms feel productive. Slides look sharp. Then the meeting ends and reality steps in. No one owns the next move. Deadlines slide. Momentum fades.

It is rarely a talent issue. It is rarely a resource issue. It is the gap between the idea and the next concrete action.

Big plans fail when no one translates them into work that real people can actually do.

I have seen this pattern too many times. A new process rolls out. Teams nod in the kickoff. Monday shows up and confusion sets in.

What works is not complicated.

Write the steps in plain language.
Assign tasks to names, not departments.
Set deadlines measured in days, not quarters.
Follow up without being asked.

One stalled initiative on my team sat untouched for months. We broke it down, assigned ownership, tightened timelines, and delivered in weeks. No magic. Just disciplined follow-through.

Operational strength is not about talking well. It is about finishing what you start.

Are you building plans, or are you building outcomes?

Kenny Bhosale

Executive Officer

Leadership & Team Development | PCC | EMBA | MSc | Member ICF, IECL and IoDNZ

🎖️Founder and CEO of The Bridge Leaders, an ex-Military Officer (18y active service), ex-Chartered Engineer, ex-Executive leader and Dad to two young boys.

🅱️ Here at The Bridge, our experienced team are here to help develop your leaders, teams, and organisations. We’re also one of the few companies blending evidence-based leadership with health and lifestyle coaching to help busy leaders bring their best selves to both work and home.

🔔 Follow for leadership insights; I post daily! Or better still, reach out for a coffee. 

📩 kenny@thebridgeleaders.com
📞 +64 21 99 2525
🅱️ www.thebridgeleaders.com

Founder | Leadership Coach & Consultant

Helping executive leaders who understand the value of good leadership, and are looking to create the rights leadership culture, systems and process to get the best out of their teams, get results and beat the competition.

“I am disappointed in you.”
It wasn't what I expected to hear 🤔
And it caught me off guard. 

It was 2005. I was 19y old.
Serving on a Navy Patrol Craft as an engineer.

I was tasked with refueling.
I got distracted chatting and lost focus.
That resulted in an unsightly fuel spill.

Whilst not a large spill, the sheen of fuel on the water on a calm day in harbour was visible for all to see. I was embarrassed.

In those days, this meant one thing.
You are going to get a decent bollocking! 
Plus we had a new boss.
So probably he was going to make an example.
And I happened to be the one to bear it.

I was called into his office.
I have had a bollocking before, more then once.
It didn't bother me too much. 
Water off a duck’s back.

But instead of a bollocking, 
I got something I didn’t expect.

“I am disappointed in you Kenny. I think you are better than this.”

It caught me off guard. 
I didn't know what to do with that. 
But I tell you what: it worked 💪 

I never made that mistake again. 
In fact, I worked my butt off not to disappoint him for the rest of the time we served together.

Because sometimes the thought of letting someone down who believes in you is far more powerful, than fear of consequence. 

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Founder & CEO, The Bridge | EMBA | MSc | PCC

I accidentally let something slip yesterday.
In a business podcast.
Something I seldom talk about openly 👀

At one point in 2024, I almost abandoned ship
And moved to Queensland.
I was looking at property and schooling there.
And I have family in Brisbane too.

But I didn't.

Those who know me
Know that courage isn't my problem
And taking a risk is not the biggest barrier/issue.

But something just didn't sit right.

We came to New Zealand as immigrants
Because... there was something about NZ.
And I am not talking about the nature and outdoors,
But about Kiwis and our values and beliefs.

We were like that level-headed kid in class
Who rises above petty squabbles
And sees the world through a grown-up lens.

When things get tough,
We roll up our sleeves,
Check in on our injured mates,
And we get on with it,
With a no.8 wire mentality if needed.

But lately, it feels like we've lost that essence.
Like we have decided to 'quiet quit' on NZ.
Not sure how you feel 🤔

The allure of moving never completely vanished.
But after giving most of my life in service of NZ,
Abandoning ship right now didn't sit right.

So last year, we re-shaped our mission and vision:
𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀.
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀.
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗭 𝗜𝗻𝗰.

For what it's worth,
We're in the fight for NZ business and economy.
With you, your leaders and your teams.

I didn't expect to feel this emotion as I write this post. But then again, running a business right now kind of feels like that! 😬😄

Shout out to Simon Bridges and the team at Auckland Business Chamber who share this sentiment, and are connecting business leaders who should be connected, on a shared mission.

Thanks for having me on your podcast Simon!

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Let's get REAL abut changing careers. 

Because it's less of a magical moment, and more about clarity, discipline, and planned actions.

That's what helps our clients in reality.
And that's what helped me, Make that pivot my career.

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CEO & Founder | Leadership Coach

Director of Partnerships

Leadership Coach

Advisor

Head of Leadership Development

A big shout out to all these awesome women who surround me at The Bridge! 🙌

From Shelley Smith, the OG and the first associate to join The Bridge 2.5y ago, and helping kick start what is today the Energy Lab for leaders.

To Victoria McDonald, without whom I am often lost and overwhelmed... and that is an understatement!

To Yumi Perkins, Coach and now helping keep the ship on track as our new Head of Client Success, helping clients get real results.

To Suzanne Moore, who can connect with people like no other, and continues to support us as Head of Partnerships.

To the steady and graceful coaching of Nikki Joyce, Emma Piggot, and the support of Antoinette Bradley.

Yes, we have blokes in the team too, before you wonder that. They were not in the photo, so 🤷

Five years ago there was nothing.
No business. No team. No clients. No impact.
It has been a heck of a ride.
But having good people onboard makes it more fun!

The mission remains unchanged:
Better Leaders
Stronger Teams
Proven Results
Strengthening NZ Inc.

Happy #InternationalWomensDay

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If you want to live without “self-doubt”
Then don’t be a leader.
Seriously.

Because people leadership is not a process.
People in general are irrational and emotional.
So despite your ability
You will get things wrong 
You will be pushed
You won’t have all the answers
And you will constantly face situations
That you have never faced before.
That’s part of the messiness of people leadership 💪

𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂.
𝗜 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂. 
From your own expectations of “confidence”
And of perfection, when it comes to leadership.

A bit of self-doubt is natural
When you are faced with something new.

Take it from me, I doubt myself all the time 
As I am always trying out new things 
And pushing the envelope a bit further! 

The only way to grow is to do it.
You might not get it right or perfect the first time,
But you will be better next time.
So might as well get on with it, eh?

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I am speaking at the WRPPA Conference next week.
They had me at the Conference title 👇

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲: 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱

My one term on the Board of Greenhithe Primary School was enough to give me a real appreciation for the challenges schools face in the education sector, especially with the raft of changes happening right now.

Leading through that level of complexity, and doing it at pace, is not always straightforward.

I am looking forward to sharing some insights and connecting with leaders from the 180+ primary schools across the Wellington region! 

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A small business 
Isn't a mini-corporate.
So stop copying
The big company leadership solutions. 

Too many founders and CEOs fall for this
Most "leadership solutions" come out of big corporate 
And too many 'experts' are ex-corporate, 
Thinking that's "best practice"

But most tools don't fit. 
They're either overkill or plain wrong.
You don't have the numbers, 
Nor the HR and L&D department to implement 

Plus, trying to force corporate rules 
Onto a fast-moving, tight-knit team? 
It's a recipe for friction, confusion, 
And wasting your time and money.

Leadership in a small business should be practical, 
Be flexible, rooted in daily reality. 
And part of your DNA.

Why do I say that?

Because we made that mistake early on, 
When working with startups and SMEs. 
We tried to apply the same playbook 
It didn't work. 
So we ditched it. 

Because we don't want to give you "best practice" 
We want you to get results, 
And do it without your company losing its soul, 
The thing that makes you, you.

So don't let big company playbooks stifle your growth.

And if this resonates, then let's catch up over a coffee or beer, and chat how you can help you drive business success through better leaders and stronger teams!

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🔔 Follow for daily leadership posts. 
🅱️ Head to our website to see how we work.

When chaos gets louder,
Leaders get quieter.

Because in chaos and complexity
𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.

This was 1 of the 5 key takeaways I shared in my keynote at the WRPPA Conference yesterday, on how to lead strongly in chaos and complexity.

Because in reality, many leaders do the opposite. They feel the pressure to step in, speak more, decide more, and direct more.

Hollywood style leadership stories have a lot to answer for, in shaped the false hero and saviour narratives many of us still associate with ‘good leadership’ today. 

But strong leadership in complex moments often looks different. It means creating the space for yourself and for others to think, speak and step-up.

And if you cannot go quiet in those moments, then it's worth holding the mirror up to yourself and asking:

𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗜 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀?

Confronting perhaps, but real.

I have asked that question many times.
And every time I had to confront that question,
Both my team and I came out better on the other side.

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Many leaders fall into this trap.
The confidence message is everywhere.

Podcasts.
Coaches.
Leadership books.
LinkedIn
Your colleagues.
Your boss.

If you are new to leadership
Or have just stepped up into a more senior role. 
And are feeling a bit of self-doubt  
Then these messages can feel very relatable.
So we buy into it.
And that can be a giant red herring.

Because, while confidence is important,
It is not the main indicator of leadership success.
Getting the best results through your team is.

𝗔𝘀 𝗮 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 '𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁'.
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲.

I have seen highly confident, charismatic leaders fail miserably because they could not get things done through their teams.

And I have seen leaders full of self-doubt and uncertainty, who gracefully navigate complexity and deliver strong results through their people.

Because leadership is not just about how confident you feel. It is about how effectively you lead others.

If you buy into the wrong measure,
You end up naval gazing.

You focus too much on your own feelings
And miss the real work of leadership.

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Conventional thinking 
Trains leaders to solve problems like this:
𝗔 → 𝗕

Identify the problem.
Explore options.
Create a clear plan.
Execute
Evaluate. 
A text book rational decision model

That works… until you move into senior leadership and start operating in the strategic space. 

In that space there are rarely simple problems.
Only wicked problems.
Problems that are complex, unclear, and shifting.
With shades of grey, and no certainty.

Everything is a trade off.
There are always competing priorities.
There is rarely a clear right or wrong answer. 
Simple solutions often create new problems.
There are many moving parts.
And you cannot force certainty where none exists.

But here is the good news, if you are a senior strategic leader, or aspiring to become one: 

Wicked problems are not solved by 'a leader'
They are worked on by a group of leaders.

As a team who can collaborate.
Disagree, challenge each other.
And still make progress.

That is the domain of strategic leadership.
𝗜𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁.
𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁. 

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🎓 Image Credit: businessillustrator.com

This is one mistake you might be making.
Trying to bring a bit of humour back into work!

Because somewhere along the way, workplace humour has picked up a bad reputation.

In our efforts to be “politically correct” and avoid offending people or worse - getting cancelled, we may have over-sanitised our workplaces. Do you agree?

What is apparent is that humour has become sensitive territory and many people just choose to avoid it now. 

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁, 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 it.

So how do you bring humour back without crossing the line?

Read more in Issue #𝟲𝟭 of 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗨𝗻𝗽𝗹𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱, our weekly newsletter, where I break down how to bring humour back into work, and what to watch out for. 

Not subscribed yet?

✉️ Join 5,000+ leaders getting real, no B.S. thinking on leadership, culture, and teams so you can get 1 percent better every day.

🔗 Link in comments.

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graphical user interface, text, application

Learning is a team ritual.
And it’s often the first thing to go 
When you get busy 😔

So you stop learning as a leader.
You stop sharing lessons with one another.
And stop growing as a team. 

In reality, it takes deliberate effort.
Someone to organise it.
To think of a topic for discussion.
And facilitate the learning so it's not just a chat.

It’s something we’re very aware ourselves  
As a team at The Bridge
Making space to stay sharp matters.
Both for us, and for YOU the leaders we serve! 

Yesterday we revisited Coaching Styles.

All coaches have a signature style.
Good coaches lean on it and niche down on it.
Great coaches don’t.

They adjust in real time.
Playing with pace and pauses.
Tone, energy and questioning style. 

Not based on what feels natural to them.
But what the leader in front of them actually needs.

Sometimes that means being a challenger.
Sometimes a cheerleader.
And other times just holding the space.

It’s a learned and practised skill.
And it gets rusty real quick!
As professional coaches, we have to keep it sharp.

Thanks Yumi Perkins for leading the session.
Good learning!

💡PS: If you want to create a learning ritual, we can help. Our 'lunch and learn' style micro sessions are perfectly designed for sharp, to-the-point insights and follow-up actions. 

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The Bridge

Career and Leadership Coach

A few years ago I lost my entire strategy presentation a few hours before presenting to the Board 😦

Weeks of refinement. Lost.

I had to rebuilt it, in under 2 hours
Sitting at a cafe at 6:45am in the morning. 

The presentation deck was messy.
Incomplete, and full of gaps.

I walked into the meeting expecting it to fall apart.

But instead, it ended up being one of the best strategy presentations I had made as a senior leader at the time. 

What was different?

Check it out more in 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲 #𝟲𝟬 of 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗨𝗻𝗽𝗹𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗱, our weekly newsletter. 

Not subscribed yet?

✉️ Join 5,000+ leaders getting real, no B.S. thinking on leadership, culture, and teams so you can get 1 percent better every day.

🔗 Link in comments.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jimmy Gabany's LinkedIn Performance

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