The hottest Leadership Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top World Politics Topics

Vitamin C for Engineering Teams: Building Resiliency through Compassion

The Healthy Engineering Leader • 39 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Compassion helps build strong and resilient teams, especially during tough times. Just like Vitamin C boosts our health, compassion boosts team spirit.
  2. Good communication is crucial for leaders. By talking openly and listening to team members, leaders can create a safe space where everyone feels valued.
  3. Giving teams time and freedom to recharge can make a big difference. Leaders should encourage breaks or fun activities to help everyone cope with stress better.

TBM 270: Important Reader PSA

The Beautiful Mess • 1295 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Be cautious discussing heavier topics from newsletters with coworkers to avoid backfire.
  2. Focus on sharing non-threatening, useful ideas at work to align and engage others.
  3. Consider the Trojan Horse approach by introducing valuable, safe-to-fail ideas for deeper discussions.

The Making of a Senior Engineer 💡: Guest Post by Addy Osmani

High Growth Engineer • 1238 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. To transition into senior engineering roles, you need to shift from hands-on work to systems thinking, focusing on strategic leadership and fostering team autonomy.
  2. Senior engineers lead through influence rather than pure authority, emphasizing building trusted relationships, setting vision, and empowering teams.
  3. Developing critical leadership skills as a senior engineer involves improving empathy, communication, collaboration, systems thinking, and execution orchestration, while overcoming common pitfalls like losing sight of the big picture and excessive control.

Markets Are Conversations

Surfing the Future • 79 implied HN points • 24 Apr 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Markets are conversations that can drive change at industrial scales.
  2. Changing conversations in sectors like energy is essential for speeding up change.
  3. Success in global energy transitions relies on complex coordination and can't be achieved with quick fixes.

How to Foster True Inclusion

Journal of Free Black Thought • 29 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Organizations often focus too much on how they look rather than doing real work for inclusion. This is like putting on a show instead of fixing what's broken.
  2. Inclusion should mean giving everyone a fair chance to succeed based on their abilities, not just trying to make outcomes equal for everyone. We need to ensure that hard work gets recognized.
  3. Instead of just pointing out problems, we should build on what people are doing right and help make those positive actions part of the organization’s culture.
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Pessimism As a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Phillips’s Newsletter • 140 implied HN points • 06 Aug 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Leadership
  1. Pessimism can hurt society by making people feel defeated. When leaders are overly negative, it can lead to a loss of trust and hope among the public.
  2. People often rise to challenges better than expected. For example, many Ukrainians showed strong determination to defend their country when it was under threat.
  3. Leaders should inspire optimism and use imagination in planning. A positive outlook can help shape a better future and unlock people's potential.

The MICE Alliance

The Rabbit Hole • 314 implied HN points • 24 Feb 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Companies should focus on creating meaningful tools for humanity to improve baseline human conditions
  2. Shift towards MICE values: Merit, Innovation, Character, Excellence
  3. Merit promotes transparent and objective hiring processes leading to success in other areas of business

Announcing DRI Your Career

Tech and Tea • 32 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
🚌 Education Leadership
  1. The tech career ladder was built to serve company growth, not individual fulfillment, so many people end up chasing roles they feel they "should" want instead of what actually makes them happy.
  2. DRI Your Career is an 8-week, fully asynchronous course for mid-to-senior engineers and engineering managers that teaches tools, mindsets, and frameworks to help you take ownership of your career and figure out what you truly want.
  3. The current upheaval in the tech industry is an opportunity to rewrite your own career playbook, and this course is designed to be flexible and actionable so you can be intentional about your next steps now.

I Just Spent 24 Hours in a Town That Pools All Their Possessions

Surviving Tomorrow • 314 implied HN points • 20 Mar 23
⛪ Faith & Spirituality Leadership
  1. The Bruderhof community practices radical communal living, sharing all possessions and providing for each other's needs from housing to healthcare.
  2. The community emphasizes togetherness, with a strong focus on family units, raising children, and offering support for all members.
  3. Work plays a central role in the community, with everyone contributing through various departments and sharing profits equally among members.

The Manager’s Iceberg

The Engineering Leader • 159 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Managers do a lot of work behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed. This includes tasks like coaching, resolving conflicts, and setting goals that are crucial for team success.
  2. Being a manager means putting the team's needs first and supporting them to succeed. It can be tough because their work might not get immediate recognition.
  3. It's important to be patient with your manager and understand they have many responsibilities. Asking how you can help them can strengthen your working relationship.

Is the Tao smarter than the Dow?

What's Important? • 32 implied HN points • 14 Dec 25
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Companies that treat employees like family by investing in their welfare and communities build loyalty and long-term resilience, which fuels innovation and survival.
  2. Authentic leaders who stay open and 'receive'—drawing on mature love, contribution, and an external intelligence—unlock far more creativity, growth, and win-win outcomes than ego-driven or purely market-driven leaders.
  3. Wealth can create isolation, but putting even a small portion of resources into personal transformation and community connection can reintegrate capital and lead to outsized, positive returns where money follows the right contribution.

The tough reality of being a "glue person"...

The Beautiful Mess • 595 implied HN points • 18 Oct 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Being a glue person means your achievements are often overlooked, but your mistakes are very visible to others.
  2. You have to balance many expectations, which can be stressful and sometimes put you in difficult positions.
  3. It’s important to recognize your own successes, set boundaries, and take care of yourself to avoid burnout.

You Cannot Be Afraid of Your Team

The Breaking Point • 179 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. If you let fear of how your team will react control your decisions, you're not really leading.
  2. It's important to seek your team's input but remember that final decisions are yours to make.
  3. As a leader, you need to accept that not everyone will be pleased with your decisions, and that's part of the job.

DO TOO MUCH

Rational in the Fullness of Time • 591 implied HN points • 07 Oct 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Leaders need to go above and beyond in their efforts. Doing more can inspire others to care and work harder too.
  2. When achieving goals, over-communication and quick reactions can be more effective than waiting and planning too much.
  3. To create something meaningful, embrace the idea of doing too much. It's a part of pushing boundaries and achieving great things.

TBM 326: Adhocracies and Bureaucracies

The Beautiful Mess • 489 implied HN points • 06 Dec 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Rapid-growth tech companies often start as adhocracies where everyone works quickly and independently. But as they grow, they can develop unspoken rules that make things complicated.
  2. Larger companies tend to have strict bureaucracies with many rules that can slow everything down. When they try to change, they often need to untangle these rules and make things simpler.
  3. Leaders often try to eliminate bureaucracy, but this can lead to even more hidden rules. It’s important for teams to talk openly about processes to solve problems effectively.

College leaders should say what they stand for

Science Forever • 298 implied HN points • 03 Apr 23
🚌 Education Leadership
  1. College leaders should clearly communicate their values and beliefs, even in the face of political pressure. Staying true to one's values can lead to respect and support from the community.
  2. Presidents who stand up for their beliefs may face challenges, but they often land in new fulfilling positions. Those who prioritize the board's wishes over campus values may not fare as well.
  3. Institutions benefit from leaders who stick to their principles. Even if presidents are let go, they usually find other positive opportunities as long as they remain aligned with their beliefs.

Kemi Badenoch’s Fight for the UK—and the West

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 459 implied HN points • 12 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Leadership
  1. Kemi Badenoch made history as the first black woman to lead the UK's Conservative Party, showcasing her unique background and experiences.
  2. Growing up in Nigeria during tough economic times helped shape her views on wealth, community, and the importance of hard work to maintain society's values.
  3. Badenoch's journey to conservatism was influenced by her early jobs and educational experiences, fueling her desire to promote ambition and potential in others.

Our New Pandemic: Moral Cowardice

Slack Tide by Matt Labash • 359 implied HN points • 12 Feb 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Leadership
  1. Moral cowardice is widespread today, causing people to lie and betray their own beliefs. This issue affects many public figures who prioritize loyalty over truth.
  2. Alexei Navalny is presented as a true example of courage and moral strength. He stood up against corruption in Russia, even knowing it could lead to his death.
  3. The piece encourages individuals to reject lies and strive to do what is right, emphasizing that life is too short to remain silent and complacent.

Call out the unsaid

Sriram Krishnan Substack • 294 implied HN points • 01 Oct 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Speaking up about unspoken thoughts is important in a group setting.
  2. Being honest and courageous can earn you respect and push organizations forward.
  3. Encouraging open communication in a team can lead to a more comfortable work environment.

The 20 Year Fall of Japan's Sharp Corporation

The Asianometry Newsletter • 1692 implied HN points • 12 Jul 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Sharp Corporation, a giant in consumer electronics, faced a 20-year decline due to reliance on the challenging LCD panel business.
  2. Founder Tokuji Hayakawa's journey from a young apprentice to creating iconic products like the Hayakawa Mechanical Pencil and Sharp radios.
  3. Sharp's move towards LCD technology led to financial strain, intense competition, and ultimately being acquired by Foxconn in 2016, marking the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics firm.

Why Ben Johnson is atop the coaching wish list

Go Long with Tyler Dunne • 176 implied HN points • 05 Jan 24
🎾 Sports Leadership
  1. Ben Johnson is a highly sought-after coaching candidate for his innovative play design and dynamic offense building skills.
  2. Being an effective leader in the NFL is not just about X's and O's, but also about instilling belief, accountability, and demanding excellence from players.
  3. Johnson's coaching style is marked by fearlessness in playcalling and an emphasis on detail, communication, and creativity to maximize player skill-sets.

Jan. 6 and the path not taken

Can We Still Govern? • 399 implied HN points • 06 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Leadership
  1. Republican leaders failed to act against Trump after the January 6 event, which allowed him to regain power and continue his influence. They prioritized their own political goals over protecting democracy.
  2. Many Americans have moved from viewing the January 6 attack as a threat to democracy to seeing it as a sign of loyalty to Trump. This shift shows how quickly narratives can change in politics.
  3. In contrast to other countries, where leaders who challenged democracy faced consequences, the U.S. is seeing Trump and his allies returning to power without accountability for their actions. This raises concerns about the future of American democracy.

Behavioural Geopolitics: How power changes people

Klement on Investing • 6 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🌍 World Politics Leadership
  1. Power changes how people think: those with power rely more on fast, intuitive thinking and focus on core information, which helps quick decisions but makes them ignore peripheral details.
  2. Power brings downsides: it fuels overconfidence, reliance on personal experience, dehumanisation of subordinates, and a higher risk of corrupt or self‑serving behaviour, so unchecked power harms organisations.
  3. Who gets power often depends on perceived intelligence and social reputation rather than objective competence, and once in power people are seen as more competent, creating a self‑reinforcing cycle that makes governance and oversight essential.

"You don’t have the cards right now" – "I'm not playing cards Mr President" – "Oh you're playing cards, you're gambling with the lives of millions of people"

eugyppius: a plague chronicle • 316 implied HN points • 01 Mar 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Leadership
  1. Zelensky has been traveling to talk to world leaders about UKraine, but some people find his approach irritating. He believes in unity and democracy, but others think he’s become too much of a celebrity.
  2. A recent press conference between Zelensky and Trump turned sour, showing a breakdown in US-Ukraine relations. It highlighted disagreements over the war in Ukraine and differing views on responsibility for the conflict.
  3. The press conference was meant to be private negotiations but turned into a public disagreement. Many believe Zelensky didn’t handle the meeting well, and it may have lasting effects on their relationship.

Double-Edged Founders

Venture Prose • 339 implied HN points • 05 Mar 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Successful founders often balance paradoxical tensions like clear vision with strong optimism, learning from others while taking unconventional paths, and balancing excellence with speed in execution.
  2. Best founders exhibit double-edged abilities, managing complementary or opposite fields effectively, such as combining strong technical skills with solid business acumen.
  3. The importance of focusing not only on product development but also on effective go-to-market strategies and execution to build a commercially successful product.

Doing Fast & Slow

Venture Prose • 279 implied HN points • 07 May 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Set a pace of execution that matches ambition and expectations to avoid subpar efforts and performance from your team.
  2. Find a balance between being fast and slow in your thinking and actions, while being intentional about setting expectations and goals.
  3. Work-life balance is like a rope that tightens and loosens, finding equilibrium between being super busy and not, rather than aiming for a perfect balance.

What Reid Hoffman Understands About the Human Balancing Act

The Geek Way • 99 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Reid Hoffman is regarded as a brilliant entrepreneur and investor who has made significant impacts in Silicon Valley and the tech sector.
  2. Understanding first principles for running an organization can be linked to evolutionary principles, providing insights into human organizational behavior.
  3. The balancing act between being ultrasocial and self-interested is a fundamental principle in human nature and can explain various challenges in the business world.

TBM 273: Transition and Reflection

The Beautiful Mess • 1057 implied HN points • 18 Feb 24
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Humans shape environments, and environments shape humans -- there's no dichotomy. This insight helps in understanding complexity and progress.
  2. Self-awareness and understanding others' beliefs are crucial at work -- it minimizes clashes and can lead to better teamwork and company growth.
  3. Seek coherence across different areas of work -- aligning various frames and systems is essential for company success.

The First Principles of Uncertainty

Deep Pulusani - Risk • 222 implied HN points • 01 May 25
📖 Philosophy Leadership
  1. Uncertainty is a normal part of life and can actually help us stay alert and learn new things. It's important to accept that some things are unpredictable, which makes it easier to handle tough situations.
  2. When making decisions, it helps to separate uncertainties that can be reduced by gaining more information from those that can't be controlled. This way, we can focus on what we can change instead of feeling overwhelmed.
  3. Taking action is a great way to reduce uncertainty. Even small steps can lead to new insights and help us feel more confident in our choices.

Mercenaries versus Missionaries in the startup world

Respectful Leadership • 163 implied HN points • 14 Jun 25
💼 Business Leadership
  1. In the startup world, it’s important to hire people who are passionate about the mission, known as 'missionaries.' They care deeply about making a difference.
  2. Hiring based on resumes alone isn't enough. It's better to focus on why candidates are motivated and their true potential.
  3. Embracing ambiguity can actually lead to innovative solutions. Startups should encourage working freely without strict guidelines.

Letter #90: Andrew Pastor (2021)

A Letter a Day • 275 implied HN points • 10 Jun 23
💼 Business Leadership
  1. Good investment ideas can come from unexpected sources, like a round of golf or a casual conversation.
  2. Successful investments often share common traits that aren't found through traditional stock screens.
  3. Applying specific filters, such as assessing risk and uncertainty, evaluating management decisions, and understanding company culture, can help in identifying valuable investment opportunities.

Commemorating the Time My Boss Called a Meeting at 9AM on December 23 to Call Us a Bunch of Losers

I Might Be Wrong • 22 implied HN points • 23 Dec 25
💼 Business Leadership
  1. The boss held a surprise all-hands right before the holidays and publicly berated the staff, which was demoralizing and tone-deaf. Yelling at employees in that way rarely motivates and mostly breeds resentment.
  2. The leader who blamed the team was later exposed for long-running fraud, revealing hypocrisy and that leadership, not staff, can be the real problem. Organizational failures often trace back to corrupt or incompetent management.
  3. When someone shows you who they are, believe them — small signs of abusive or unethical behavior can predict much larger issues. Trust your instincts about toxic leadership and prioritize working somewhere healthier.