Leadership quality feels like it has declined as I’ve gotten older. When I began my career Stephen Covey was all the rage. Traditional leadership training was a necessity for middle managers moving up the ranks.

Then something changed. Having a softer touch became more important than results. This weird sort of litigation-phobic (pardon my inarticulate explanation) approach to all things took hold. Managers stopped giving clear feedback. They stopped assigning work, merely suggesting it. It’s completely bizarre. Especially when you’ve been in the military and seen real decentralized and self organizing leadership work.

These days as a consultant I go in and basically fill a leadership vacuum at each of my clients. I tell them this too. They shrug and keep shuffling and saying things that mean nothing. So weird. I don’t understand the corporate world.