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Karl Bimshas | Karl Bimshas Consulting

Become a better leader without being a jerk with this Boston-bred, California-chilled Leadership Advisor, Writer, & Podcast Host

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When Feelings Start Making Leadership Decisions

Reflections on Leadership When Feelings Start Making Leadership Decisions Leadership Drift This Week When Feelings Start Making Leadership Decisions Leadership gets harder when you let what's happening inside you determine what happens around you. You put off a difficult conversation you don't want to have. You aren't sure which decision to make, so you keep gathering information. You worry about how an idea will be received, so you keep refining it. You get frustrated that the same problem...

Hi Reader, What are the biggest leadership problems organizations are dealing with right now? Karl Bimshas Consulting is conducting The Leadership Problems Pulse: What’s Getting in the Way? to find out. We're asking executives, business owners, managers, HR professionals, consultants, and other organizational leaders to assess 30 leadership conditions based on what they're actually seeing in their organizations. It takes about 5–7 minutes to complete. The study focuses on what is happening...

Reflections on Leadership Accountability Isn’t a Threat Leadership Drift This Week Accountability Isn’t a Threat When performance slips, deadlines are missed, commitments are broken, or people fail to do what they should, someone eventually says, “We need to start holding people accountable.” A phrase that sounds less like leadership and more like a threat. That bothers me because when done right, accountability is one of the healthiest things leaders can create. Unfortunately, we have turned...

Reflections on Leadership Leadership Shouldn't Require People to Guess Leadership Drift This Week Create Your Leadership User Guide Most leaders assume they're easy to work with. After all, they know their intentions. They understand why they make decisions, how they communicate, what frustrates them, what inspires them, and what they expect from others. But everyone else has to try and figure it out. Your team doesn't have access to your internal operating system. They observe your behavior,...

Hi Reader, The longer leaders work together, the easier it becomes to normalize unhealthy patterns. Meetings become less productive. Expectations become less clear. Feedback becomes less frequent. No one notices because everyone adapts. That's why I created the Leadership Drift Situation Board. It helps leadership teams pause, compare observations, and recognize what may have quietly become "normal." Sometimes that's all it takes to change the conversation. Manage Better. Lead Well. -Karl...

Leadership Is Discovered, Not Declared

Reflections on Leadership Leadership Is Discovered, Not Declared Leadership Drift This Week The fastest way to create a leadership problem is to decide who can and cannot lead based on whim or vibe. Effective organizations develop leaders by creating opportunities for people to discover whether they are prepared for, and want, to carry the responsibility. The moment an organization decides someone "isn't leadership material," it has made a leadership decision that creates a future leadership...

Reflections on Leadership Vision Is a Leadership Practice Leadership Drift This Week Many organizations have a vision statement but not a vision that actually leads. Leadership teams often invest, or waste, significant time trying to craft the right words. They debate language, refine sentences, and search for the winning phrase that accurately captures the organization's direction. Yet after the announcement is made, the diluted vision becomes something people recognize from the wall of a...

Hi Reader, What Problems Are You Currently Dealing With? Let's define problems as the everyday frustrations: communication issues, overloaded teams, stalled growth, unclear priorities, or decisions that keep coming back. I am exploring which challenges are most common right now. Please click the link below to share your thoughts on the top eight I'm encountering. CLICK HERE FOR 8-QUESTION SURVEY Your responses will help shape future articles, resources, and conversations. Thank you for...

Leadership Requires Followership

Reflections on Leadership Drift Leadership Requires Followership Leadership Drift This Week Many leaders proudly describe their teams as "empowered." Team members are encouraged to make decisions, solve problems, and work independently. This sounds like healthy leadership. Yet over time, something subtle begins to happen. People make decisions based on their own interpretation of priorities. Projects begin moving in different directions. Standards become inconsistent. Meetings become...

Hi Reader, Leadership problems typically begin with small patterns that quietly weaken clarity, trust, and execution. I call this Leadership Drift. The challenge is that most organizations don't recognize these patterns until they've become costly. That's why I created the Leadership Drift Situation Board. It's a conversation tool that helps leadership teams recognize eight common patterns before they become larger problems. Print it. Use it during your next leadership meeting. See what...