My Leadership Philosophy After 30 Years of Work
I’ve spent more than 30 years working in and around organizations. I started as an HR assistant in the mid-1990s, worked my way through union environments and large corporations, and eventually left traditional leadership roles to write, teach, speak, and coach full time.
Today, I’m a writer, speaker, and career coach. I focus on leadership, work, labor, and career ownership. I teach millions of learners through LinkedIn Learning, deliver keynote talks for organizations navigating change, and coach professionals who want more agency over their working lives.
Across my books, courses, blog, podcast, coaching work, and keynote talks, I return to the same set of beliefs. These aren’t slogans. They are conclusions formed through experience, mistakes, and long observation of how work actually works.
What follows is my core philosophy.
Your work is not your worth.
Work matters. It deserves care and effort but it isn’t a measure of human value. When people confuse performance with identity, they tolerate bad treatment, stay too long, and make decisions rooted in fear. Separating worth from work is the foundation of any healthy and successful career.
No one can love your life more than you.
Employers will make rational decisions in their own interest. Leaders will prioritize outcomes. Systems will move on. That is not cruelty. It is reality. You are the only person who can protect your time, energy, health, and long-term wellbeing. And if your life isn’t working out the way you want it, only you can change it.
All adults are self-leaders.
Leadership isn’t a title. It is the ability to direct yourself and take initiative. Adults who wait to be managed, motivated, or rescued struggle unnecessarily. Self-leadership means making choices with intention, even when the environment is imperfect.
Emotional regulation is a personal responsibility.
Work can be stressful, unfair, and destabilizing. That doesn’t absolve anyone of responsibility for their reactions. Leaders and professionals who can regulate themselves make better decisions, earn trust faster, and avoid escalating unnecessary conflict. People say, “What happened to you isn’t your fault, but healing is your responsibility.” Get out there and heal so you’re not triggered by banal and inconsequential things at work.
If you’re learning, you’re growing. If you’re growing, you’re thriving. That’s the point.
I’ve written about this for nearly twenty years. All learning is worthwhile. Careers stagnate when curiosity disappears. Learning keeps your judgment sharp and options open. Growth isn’t about constant upward movement. It is about staying mentally engaged with the world around you.
A job worth doing is a job worth doing well.
My father-in-law lived by this mantra, and it stayed with me long after his passing. Doing work well is about craft and pride, not self-sacrifice. Excellence isn’t performative. It doesn’t require overwork or a stage. It requires care, clarity, and boundaries.
There are no great jobs, only great experiences.
No role is perfect. No organization is permanent. Careers (and lives) are built through accumulated experiences, not idealized positions. When people evaluate work this way, they make smarter moves and cleaner exists.
Hiring decisions are driven by familiarity, likability, and reciprocity.
Hiring is rarely objective. People hire who they recognize, enjoy, and feel some obligation toward. Understanding this reality helps professionals invest their energy wisely instead of relying on merit myths that don’t hold up in practice. And it’s also a challenge: do the people making decisions really know you? If not, fix that.
Stop networking with the same people. If your network could get you a job, it already would have.
Most people network horizontally and wonder why nothing changes. Expanding opportunity requires meeting people outside your usual circles, industries, and comfort zones. Familiarity only works if it reaches somewhere new. If you’re looking for work, ask your network, “Who do you know who’s cool?” Go meet that new person.
Stop failing in predictable ways. Do a premortem, spot trends, solve problems early, and fail in newer and more interesting ways.
Most professional failure is repetitive and ridiculous. The patterns are visible long before the outcome. Leaders, individuals, and even job seekers who reflect early can avoid preventable damage and redirect effort toward better experiments.
Live a big, interesting life outside of work. Then bring it back with you.
Work benefits from perspective. People who read, volunteer, travel, create, craft, and care for others bring better stories into the workplace. A full life makes you more approachable, and it makes work more grounded.
These are my beliefs, built over three decades, that shape how I write, teach, coach, and speak. They inform my leadership philosophy and my approach to career ownership. I don’t promise perfect jobs or pain-free paths in my book Betting On You. I help people develop judgment, agency, and durability.
Today, I work as a keynote speaker, writer, and career coach. I speak to organizations about leadership and the future of work, teach practical frameworks through LinkedIn Learning, and coach individuals who want to stop waiting for permission and start leading their own careers.
I share this philosophy to be useful. It isn’t aspirational. It’s lived experience. Use it to decide what’s next.