『Illustrating Leadership』のカバーアート

Illustrating Leadership

Illustrating Leadership

著者： Jessica Wright
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Sharing stories of the people who influenced us and discussing how to lead with heart in this day and age.2023 出世 就職活動 経済学
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  • Illustrating Leadership: Connection Over Loneliness

    Illustrating Leadership: Connection Over Loneliness
    2026/08/05

    In this episode of Illustrating Leadership, I had the joy of talking with Vicki Bradley, founder and CEO of Women in Leadership Empowered and Chief Executive Coach at Vicki Bradley and Company.

    Vicki's work is rooted in service, advocacy, and helping women bring their authentic voices not just to the table, but to the world. After years in corporate environments, she realized that the work she cared most about was helping women navigate complexity, trust themselves, and lead with greater confidence.

    When I asked Vicki about a leader who shaped her, she shared about Dave, a former boss who had a profound impact on how she understood leadership.

    One of the lessons he gave her was simple, but it took years for her to fully understand:

    It's lonely at the top.

    At first, Vicki did not understand what he meant. She was in his office often. They talked, strategized, and worked closely together. How could he feel lonely?

    But later, when she became president of a company, she understood.

    Leadership can be lonely because leaders often carry information they cannot share. They have responsibilities that require discretion. They want to connect deeply with their teams, but they also have to protect what is not theirs to reveal.

    That is why connection outside of the immediate team matters so much.

    Mentors.
    Advisors.
    Past bosses.
    Industry peers.
    People who can challenge, support, and help you see differently.

    Dave also taught Vicki the importance of slowing down enough to understand the people and places around her. On one business trip to Newfoundland, he did not simply take her to the location and move on. He encouraged her to experience the culture, the history, the people, and yes — even the tradition of Screech and kissing the cod.

    That lesson stayed with her.

    Leadership is not just about showing up in the room.

    It is about seeking to understand.

    It is about being present.

    It is about seeing the human being, the culture, and the context in front of you.

    Today, Vicki brings those lessons into her coaching, courses, leadership development work, and her podcast, Women in Leadership Talk. Her work reminds us that good leadership requires courage, curiosity, trust, and connection.

    And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that even when leadership feels lonely, we do not have to lead alone.

    Connect with Vicki

    Please make sure you check out Women In Leadership Empowered's website and go say hi to Vicki on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook!

    Connect with Jessica

    Learn more about how your host supports leaders by visiting her website...and definitely send a connection request on LinkedIn and let her know you listened to this podcast!
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    31 分
  • Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Developing Your People

    Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Developing Your People
    2026/07/22

    In this episode of Illustrating Leadership, I get to sit down and chat with Sharon Justice, People Strategist and Founder of Justice Leadership.

    Sharon has spent her career on the people side of busines, first in human resources for large financial services firms, then in the college classroom helping emerging professionals prepare for the workforce, and now through her consulting practice supporting small to mid-sized business leaders.

    Her work centers on a truth many leaders eventually discover:

    You may know how to run the business, sell the product, or deliver the service.

    But the people side can still trip you up.

    When I asked Sharon about a leader who shaped her, she shared about Vonda, a leader she worked with during her corporate career.

    Sharon and Vonda approached the work very differently. Vonda brought an organizational psychology and design perspective, while Sharon brought a business, finance, metrics, and operations lens.

    Instead of seeing those differences as a problem, Vonda recognized them as a strength.

    Together, they made a better puzzle.

    That lesson stayed with Sharon: strong teams are not built by making everyone the same. They are built by understanding the different perspectives, strengths, and experiences people bring...and then learning how to use those differences well.

    Sharon also shared one of my favorite leadership phrases from this conversation:

    Be a talent exporter, not a talent hoarder.

    That is such an important reminder.

    Leadership is not about keeping people small so they stay useful to us. Leadership is about growing people, developing people, and helping them become more capable, even when that means they may eventually move into new opportunities.

    We also talked about the importance of clarity.

    Sharon uses the metaphor of making toast: too often, leaders give instructions as if everyone is standing in their kitchen, using their toaster, making toast exactly the way they would.

    But everyone comes from a different kitchen.

    Different experiences.
    Different assumptions.
    Different ways of processing.
    Different needs on different days.

    That is why clear communication matters.

    Leadership does not have to be as hard as we sometimes make it.

    But it does require awareness, compassion, clarity, and a willingness to learn how to manage the people side with more intention.

    Connect with Sharon

    Make sure you connect with Sharon on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

    Sharon has also gifted Illustrating Leadership listeners the The CALG Leadership Gap Scorecard, which is designed to quickly show where your leadership system is breaking down across clarity, alignment, accountability, and growth.


    It takes about two minutes and shows you exactly what to fix first. Grab your scorecard here!

    Connect with Jessica

    Learn more about how your host supports leaders by visiting her website...and definitely send a connection request on LinkedIn and let her know you listened to this podcast!
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    25 分
  • Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Presence

    Illustrating Leadership Lesson: Presence
    2026/07/08
    Some conversations are technically podcast interviews. And some conversations feel like sitting across from a dear friend, laughing before you even really begin, and then somehow finding your way into the kind of truth that makes you pause. This episode of Illustrating Leadership was one of those conversations. Today we're sitting down with Carolyn Robistow, a private practice therapist and group offer strategist, and someone who has become a very meaningful person in my life over the last year. Carolyn is thoughtful, funny, deeply insightful, and able to move from boat life to brain spotting to leadership wisdom in a way that feels both completely unexpected and exactly right. What stayed with me most from this conversation was not one specific framework or strategy, although we certainly talked about those. What stayed with me was this: Leadership is often less about having the perfect answer and more about being present enough to truly see the person in front of you. Carolyn shared about the leaders who shaped her, especially her parents. Her father, who after a serious illness went on to start a business, modeled a kind of steady, quiet presence. It was only after his funeral that Carolyn fully realized how many people he had impacted simply by showing up. He visited people in the hospital. He encouraged her cross-country team from different points along the course. He noticed people. He was there. Her mother modeled a different kind of leadership: activism, advocacy, and speaking up when something needed to be said. As a teenager, Carolyn admitted that this kind of leadership felt risky and embarrassing at times. Looking back, she could see the courage in it. Two very different examples. One common thread. Presence. The kind of presence that says: I see you. I notice what is happening. I am willing to be here with you. That is something I have heard over and over again across the seasons of Illustrating Leadership. Leadership is not confined to a title, a boardroom, a business, or a movement. Leadership shows up in the moment someone helps another person feel seen, supported, and part of something meaningful. And yet, presence sounds simple until we actually need to practice it. As leaders, parents, friends, partners, coaches, and humans, we often put pressure on ourselves to show up perfectly. We wonder if we will say the right thing. We worry about making it worse. We think we need the plan, the solution, the wise response, or the perfectly composed version of ourselves before we can enter the room. But what if presence does not require perfection? What if, sometimes, the most helpful thing we can say is: "I am here. What would help you feel supported right now?" That was one of the most powerful ideas Carolyn and I explored. Being present does not mean abandoning ourselves. It does not mean dropping everything, absorbing everyone else's emotions, or making ourselves responsible for fixing what hurts. In fact, true presence requires us to stay grounded enough in ourselves that we can actually be with someone else. Carolyn spoke about the difference between simply sharing oxygen with someone and offering attuned presence. That distinction matters. Because when we are swallowed up by our own reactions, our own fears, our own need to perform, we may be physically in the room but emotionally unavailable. We may be trying so hard to say the "right" thing that we miss the human being in front of us. That is where the conversation naturally moved into brain spotting, a modality Carolyn uses and teaches. In the simplest terms, she described brain spotting as the idea that where we look affects how we feel. Our bodies hold information. Our nervous systems respond before our analytical brains can explain what is happening. Sometimes, the work is not to think harder, but to notice what is already happening in the body. That connected so beautifully with the work I do around Positive Intelligence and saboteurs. So many of our leadership reactions are old protective patterns. The need to have the answer. The urge to over-explain. The fear of disappointing someone. The perfectionism that keeps us from acting until we are sure we can do it flawlessly. In Positive Intelligence language, we might call that the saboteur voice. It is the part of us trying to keep us safe, often using strategies we learned a long time ago. The invitation is to shift toward the sage: the wiser, calmer, more creative, more compassionate part of ourselves. And sometimes, that shift begins very simply. Feeling your feet on the floor. Noticing your shoulders. Taking a breath. Listening for the sound farthest away, then the sound closest to you. Remembering that you have a body. Carolyn offered a simple practice for leaders: find even one place in your body that feels calm, grounded, neutral, hopeful, or steady. Then gently notice where your eyes want to look when that feeling becomes more accessible. It is a way of orienting yourself ...
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    40 分
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