At ConantLeadership, we\u2019re committed to\u00a0<\/span>lifelong learning and continuous improvement.\u00a0<\/span>In\u00a0<\/span>service to your leadership growth<\/span>, in each month\u2019s \u2018Leadership That Works\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 newsletter we curate a digest of resources from around the web to<\/span>:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n You can subscribe to our newsletter here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Want to work with us to lift your or your team\u2019s leadership to new heights?<\/span>\u00a0Drop us a line<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>talk to Emma Anthony, our Director of Leadership Programs<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n In this edition of the\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>Leadership That Works<\/em> Newsletter<\/strong>:\u00a0Meet these 4 human needs to engage employees; find the sweet spot for your strategy; how to be tough and kind; the leadership skill of the year; a playbook for de-escalating workplace conflict, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n In\u00a0the latest piece in our \u2018Golden Anniversary Collection<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 a treasury of thought leadership, updated to help you meet the current moment as we\u00a0celebrate our Founder, Doug Conant\u2019s, 50 years in leadership<\/span><\/a>, we share the four human needs leaders must meet to engage employees: Living, Loving, Learning, and Leaving a Legacy. Find an excerpt below and then\u00a0click through to read the full post<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Living:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Employees must be compensated fairly in order to become or remain productive contributors. Just as you have many internal and external stakeholders to keep happy as leaders, so do your employees. They have families, communities, and responsibilities vying for their attention and support. If they\u2019re unable to earn a living that allows them to meet the needs of their own stakeholders, they\u2019re unlikely to be fully engaged in their work.<\/p>\n However, money can\u2019t compensate for a bad work environment. Employees also need satisfactory conditions in the workplace. Many people spend just as much time (or more) at work as they do at home, so their work environment must reflect the high-quality output you hope to elicit from them. This applies in equal measure to people who work remotely too. Ensure they have all the required technology tools to perform at their best.<\/p>\n Get the full story here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n A snapshot of resources that our Founder & CEO,\u00a0Doug Conant<\/a>, has recently found insightful and\/or\u00a0inspiring.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n BOOK:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n From Doug:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Recently, while we were putting the finishing touches on our \u2018Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 I had the opportunity to revisit one of my favorite leadership books,\u00a0Higher Ambition<\/span><\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote, Tobias Fredberg, and Flemming Norrgren.<\/p>\n Their inspired writing explicitly connects the creation of economic value with the creation of social value. Based on their insights in\u00a0Higher Ambition<\/span>, I joined them as a founding faculty and board member to create the nonprofit\u00a0Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance<\/span><\/a> over a decade ago. Together, we have helped hundreds of leaders aspire to a \u2018higher ambition,\u2019 leveraging many of the principles shared in their book. I highly recommend their work; it is exceptional.<\/p>\n One of our core values at ConantLeadership is that leaders must be, \u201cboth tough-minded on standards and kind-hearted with people.\u201d Not either\/or. Always both. In\u00a0this excerpt from the new book\u00a0TOUGH ENOUGH: How to Lead a Team to Greatness Without Being a Jerk<\/em><\/span><\/a>, co-authors John Baird and Matt Hunter define toughness and provide actionable tips for demanding high performance without resorting to inhumane tactics.<\/span><\/p>\n The authors define toughness as, \u201cthe ability to commit to a mission, stay strong in the face of challenges, and push others toward excellence.\u201d And they say it requires, \u201ca blend of inner capacities and trainable mindsets\u2014including mental fortitude, willingness to disagree, boldness, conviction, urgency, obsession, resilience, presence, and pain tolerance\u2014as well as relational skills.\u201d Baird and Hunter are also explicit about what toughness is not: \u201c<\/span>macho posturing, bullying, performative \u2018hardness,\u2019 emotional suppression, humiliation, threatening, cruelty, or personal attacks.\u201d Through decades of studying the right kind of toughness, the kind that drives enduring success, they\u2019ve arrived at seven habits \u201cthat define true toughness in leadership.\u201d Here are the first three. 1.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong>Live Your Manifesto<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201c<\/span>Create a compelling story that inspires people to believe, belong, and go all in.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 2. Make Your Pursuit Relentless<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cSustain extraordinary focus, effort, and intensity on what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. Assemble a Cult of Incredibles<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cBuild a team of exceptional people who believe deeply in the mission and your way of working.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n **For more on how to be tough-minded and kind-hearted, explore our\u00a0Higher Ground Leadership Success System<\/span><\/a>, a holistic approach to organizational excellence.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHow ambitious should your strategic plan be? Aim too low, and you may settle for incremental gains. Aim too high, and you risk overwhelming the organization,\u201d writes Rebecca Knight in\u00a0this\u00a0Harvard Business Review<\/em>\u00a0piece<\/a>\u00a0on how to calibrate your strategy to find the sweet spot.\u00a0 Knight talked to several business experts to crystallize eight questions, \u201cto help you assess how high you should aim.\u201d Here are the first four.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Are you solving the right problem?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cBefore you can judge whether your plan is ambitious enough, you have to\u00a0be clear on the problem it\u2019s solving.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Are you weighing more than one kind of solution?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe pull toward\u00a0conservative goals\u00a0runs deep in many organizations.\u201d To combat this, build \u201cat least\u00a0three to five distinct alternatives\u00a0into your plan.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. How is your plan funded?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe size of a plan\u2019s ambition shows up in\u00a0how it gets funded.\u201d Truly ambitious goals, \u201ccan\u2019t be achieved incrementally . . . for those, the capital must come from somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Is it staffed to succeed?\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cTalent is a resource too, and a strategic plan can fall short if it isn\u2019t\u00a0staffed with the right people. When a plan sticks close to what you already do, it can run on the skills you and your team have.\u201d A bold plan, however, requires, \u201cpeople with different expertise and knowledge bases.\u201d As we head into the final quarter of 2026,\u00a0Great Place to Work<\/span><\/em>\u00a0asked ten top leaders and experts to name the leadership \u2018skill of the year\u2019\u00a0in this coverage<\/span><\/a>. Amidst a marketplace and global discourse dominated by AI, you may expect their answers to focus on hard skills and functional intelligence. However, the majority of the polled experts named human-centric \u201csoft\u201d skills as their top contenders. All ten responses are compelling, and here are three standouts to get you started.<\/p>\n \u201cStorytelling,\u201d<\/span><\/strong>\u2013 Caroline Johns, VP of Corporate Communications, Saatva<\/span>. \u201cMajor business decisions, from capital investments to growth bets, are shaped by the story behind them . . .\u00a0<\/span>Markets move on confidence, employees commit when they understand the \u2018why,\u2019 and context is what allows strategy to land.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTeamwork Design,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Sacha Connor, CEO, Virtual Work Insider. \u201cIn 2026, a critical leadership skill is the ability to intentionally design how teamwork happens, especially as teams operate across locations, hybrid schedules, time zones, and functions . . . In complex, cross-functional environments, clarity and coordination must be\u00a0designed,\u201d and, \u201cleaders need to establish \u2018team working agreements\u2019 that define shared goals, clarify roles, and make decision-making explicit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHuman Intelligence,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Mika J. Cross, CEO, Strategy@Work. \u201cEmployers are racing towards AI adoption, but the thing that will really make the difference is \u2018human intelligence.’\u201d Cross says, \u201cFrom the halls of Congress to the ranks of our military and the industry boardrooms I\u2019ve worked with, the leaders who consistently win share these traits: they know how to turn empathy, authenticity, care, compassion, and collaboration into a true strategic advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cConversations that once involved healthy tension and discussion are becoming emotionally charged, reactive, and deeply personal,\u201d writes Leah Mether in\u00a0this\u00a0Human Resources Director<\/em>\u00a0guide\u00a0<\/span><\/a>to de-escalating conflict. Mether says that consistent exposure to, \u201cemotionally charged and divisive communication,\u201d on social media and other digital platforms is spilling over into the workplace, compounded by the fact that \u201cmany people are carrying a high level of stress and uncertainty.\u201d When emotions run high, she observes that many leaders, \u201cget stuck,\u201d and follow the instinct to, \u201cshut the emotion down quickly, defend themselves, argue facts, or tell someone to \u2018calm down.’\u201d None of these are effective. Instead, Mether offers a five-step playbook for stabilizing heated interactions. Here are the first three tips.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. Regulate yourself first<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cLeaders cannot de-escalate another person if they are escalated themselves.\u00a0<\/span>Emotional states are contagious. If a leader responds with defensiveness, frustration or aggression, the interaction usually deteriorates quickly.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 2. Acknowledge the emotion<\/strong>. \u201cPeople settle faster when they feel heard. That does not mean agreeing with the behavior or surrendering to the emotion. It means acknowledging it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Pair empathy with accountability<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cEmpathy without boundaries can allow poor behavior to continue. Boundaries without empathy can inflame the situation further. Effective leaders combine both. For example: \u2018I appreciate that you\u2019re angry right now and that\u2019s ok. What\u2019s not ok is to yell at a colleague like that.’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Get the full story\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n Introducing the Higher Ground Leadership Success System\u2122<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n ConantLeadership Founder, Doug Conant, has turned everything he learned running Fortune 500 companies, across decades,\u00a0into one leadership system<\/a>, organized around two pillars of DEPTH and REACH. The system is now yours to explore\u00a0in a new article in\u00a0<\/a>Leader to Leader<\/a>\u00a0and in\u00a0our free four-week email mini-course<\/a>. Read an excerpt from the article below or\u00a0click through to get the full story<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Excerpt:\u00a0\u201cIn 1976, on my first day of work at General Mills, I was completely out of my depth. Oblivious to the culture of the corporate world, I roamed the halls in my tan suit, brushing my overgrown curly hair out of my eyes. I didn\u2019t look the part of a product marketing manager, and I didn\u2019t feel the part either. I\u2019d moved to Minneapolis to take the job, uprooting my whole life, and I didn\u2019t know a soul. Untethered, I was a fish out of water. As I tried to find my way through the labyrinth of office doors, a friendly older man stopped me and asked if I was lost. \u201cYes,\u201d I answered, and I meant it in every sense of the word. Thankfully, he pointed me in the right direction, and that small act of kindness changed the trajectory of my entire career.\u201d Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n From our Golden Anniversary Collection<\/em><\/p>\n In\u00a0<\/span>this piece from our \u2018Golden Anniversary Collection<\/span><\/a>,\u2019 Doug Conant<\/span>\u00a0shares pivotal lessons from his time as a young tennis pro. Find the first piece of advice below and then\u00a0click through to read the full post.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n 1. Follow Your Passion<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/span>In the spring of 1966, I was cut during tryouts from the \u201cfreshman only\u201d boys\u2019 tennis team. This meant that 20 freshman boys (including most of my friends) were chosen ahead of me. It would have been easy to give up then and there, but I dedicated myself to following my passion for the sport, spending hundreds of hours practicing alone by hitting balls against walls in the neighborhood. By the next year, my competitive profile improved and I became one of the better junior players in the Midwest. I learned that passionately pouring yourself into a cause could yield substantial returns.<\/span><\/p>\n Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This\u00a0groundbreaking leadership course<\/span><\/a>\u00a0teaches the same 6-step BLUEPRINT process we use to train senior executives, customized for the\u00a0true<\/span>\u00a0engine of the C-Suite: Administrative Professionals and Executive Assistants.\u00a0<\/span>This is leadership training powerful enough for the boardroom, but optimized for\u00a0every\u00a0room\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0in.\u00a0<\/span>Learn more<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n **Want help getting your boss to pay for STEPS?<\/span>\u00a0We made a toolkit for that<\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n In this follow-up to our first LinkedIn Learning course,\u00a0<\/span>Finding Your Leadership Purpose with Doug Conant<\/span><\/a>,<\/i>\u00a0(which has reached over 90,000 learners), join Doug in this learning pathway as he guides you through the important work of articulating your leadership beliefs and crystallizing them into a Leadership Vocabulary that you can use to influence others more effectively. Check out the course\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n In\u00a0<\/span>last month\u2019s newsletter<\/span><\/a><\/span>: W<\/span>hat Dolly Parton showed us about leaving a legacy; Galbraith\u2019s \u2018Star Model\u2019; how to build a culture that executes; the power of \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019; unearthing your inner genius, and more.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n
New from ConantLeadership<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
M<\/span>eet These 4 Human Needs to Engage Employees<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>Founder\u2019s Corner: What\u2019s Doug Enjoying?<\/span><\/h3>\nHow to B<\/span>e Tough\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0Kind<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nFind the Sweet Spot for Your Strategy<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Get the full story\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\nThe L<\/span>eadership Skill of the Year<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
A<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Playbook for De-Escalating Workplace Conflict<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
More from ConantLeadership<\/em><\/h3>\n
50 Years of Leadership \u2192<\/a>One System for Success<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n
13 Life Lessons from the Game of Tennis<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
STEPS: A Leadership Course for Executive Assistants<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
Find Your Leadership Vocabulary with Doug Conant<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
August\u2019s\u00a0Leadership That Works\u00a0Newsletter<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
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About the Author:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Amy Federman<\/a>\u00a0is ConantLeadership\u2019s Director of Content and Editor in Chief, and co-author with Doug Conant of the WSJ bestseller, The Blueprint<\/a>.<\/p>\n