On Leading with Greatness

Slide 321 of the most exhausting PowerPoint I ever sat through taught me almost nothing about advising students—but it accidentally taught me much about leadership. So did a brilliant, infuriating Korean student who could humiliate me with grammar rules but couldn't write a single clean sentence. Both stories point to the same lesson: you can know everything and still not know how to do anything. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe

Why do we impose thoughtless, unnecessary, even harmful rules on ourselves and our organizations? Tradition, inertia, inherited habits, the hidebound predecessor whose practices nobody questioned. Over time these ad hoc rules harden into identity—"this is just who we are"—and can even manifest as what I call bureaucratic compulsive disorder.They're garbage rules that squander time, energy, and opportunity while we pretend they're values or identity.This week I draw on Bob Newhart, Viktor Frankl, Bob Dylan, and a hoary tale about a beef roast to make the case for a leadership practice as clean and resolute as the problem demands. The answer is simpler than you think—and harder than it sounds.Great leaders don't ask "what else can we do?" They have a better question ready. Get full access to On Leading With Greatness at jimsalvucci.substack.com/subscribe