An invitation to take your brilliance bigger, bolder, and higher.
It isn’t easy to be brilliant when the world around you is rewarding cookie-cutter thinking, the same-old-same-old goals and metrics, and being absent or disconnected rather than aware and present.1
“I’m getting nothing but safe ideas, compliance, and territorial bickering from the leadership team.” (University Dean)
The very same organizations that are struggling to find their way amidst uncertainty, that are struggling to get bold smart ideas from their teams, that are struggling to live up to their value statements and leadership commitments, and that are struggling to define and leverage their unique role and contributions to the economy, environment, health, education, or other indicators of individual and shared well-being are the ones who, dollars to doughnuts, consistently squash brilliance.
“We have nobody in the organization who can run with an idea, so we bring in consultants. Every year it’s more consultants.” (Public Sector, CEO)
So what’s a courageous leader to do?
One. Tap into your brilliance.
Rather than wait for someone else’s permission or direction to think and believe brilliantly, do it for yourself. Every day, note your brilliance. This might look like, and to quote my late mother-in-law “I’m not taking the mickey here”, how you chose to pack your work bag, arrange your vacation days, add time to your morning commute for a quieter route, or convince your kids that pre-sorting laundry is a fun game.
Once you’ve done that for a week or two, move onto where it can feel a bit more challenging, tapping into your everyday brilliance at work. This might look like how you organize your to-do list, prepare for a meeting or presentation, design a better project charter, or block off time in your schedule for reading and thinking.
What is your everyday brilliance?
Two. Appreciate the brilliance of others.
In our tendency to compare and compete we lose out on the benefits of genuine (different from performative) appreciation such as inspiration, connection, co-creating, and the well-being boost that strengthens our body, mind, and if you believe you have one, soul.
It’s sort of like hopping on the brilliance train; the next thing you know you’re hanging out in brilliance, getting more brilliant, and clapping and foot-stomping along to the tune of brilliance. Very much like Picking Your Leadership Pals.
What brilliance is happening around you and how will you express your appreciation for it?
Three. Take your brilliance bigger, bolder, higher.
With all that energy of brilliance that you have gathered, take a look around, get curious, be open, and ask:
- Where am I stuck in my work?
- Where is the organization stuck?
- How might we improve process, policies, meetings, productivity, services, innovation and more?
- How might we improve our workplace environment, culture, and psychological safety?
- How might I start making space for my brilliance and the brilliance of others?
- How can I and the organization better create process and readiness for necessary (and they are necessary) big, bold, brilliant ideas and innovations.
Four. Fine tune the brilliance.
I kid you not, I’m brilliant every single day. It is not unusual for me to say over breakfast, “I’ve a brilliant idea I want to run past you”. Very few of my brilliant ideas, like letting guinea pigs run loose in the backyard, knocking out a wall (apparently some walls are “supporting walls”), or running a national research project, make it to the big time. Doesn’t mean that they weren’t brilliant, just means that they weren’t ready or right for this place or time.
Once you have your brilliant idea (or ideas) that would improve your work or the work of the organization, ask:
- What else do I need to know about this brilliant idea?
- What would it take for this brilliant idea to be successful?
- If this brilliant idea came to be, what would it benefit?
- If this brilliant idea came to be, what would it risk? I’m thinking about the importance of “supporting walls”.
- Is this brilliant idea right for this time and place?
- Where do I take this brilliant idea for improvement, vetting, solace, or a good chuckle? If you want to move an idea along, Choose to have Good Conversations.
Some Brilliance to Ponder
Jane Goodall. You know the story, but have you really thought about how could it be that all those highly trained primate researchers had failed to notice that chimps were using tools? Then Jane Goodall comes along, with no formal training, and sees something that was not believed possible. Brilliance.
Trigo, a restaurant in Lafleche SK. Don’t get me wrong, I love the southwestern area of Saskatchewan and have considered living in Lafleche (pop. 373), but if you have ever stood on the road that this restaurant is on, you’d realize how wildly brilliant this whole idea is. Quick video about the restaurant on YouTube (December 2025)
BBC Reith Lectures with Rutger Bregman. Bregman shines a light on what we desperately need, the courage to be ethical in an “age of immorality” and rigorous and earnest against the “trend for unseriousness”. While it is always the right time and place for these ideas, now is the shockingly brilliant right time and place.
“I’m deeply honoured to give this year’s Reith Lectures. Across history, moments of decadence and decay have often been followed by movements of renewal, times when people redefined what it means to live with integrity and ambition. I believe we are at such a crossroads today. These lectures are my attempt to explore how moral ambition can help us face the challenges of our age.” Rutger Bregman
Let’s book a chat to explore how I might support your brilliance and courageous leadership. You and the work you are doing are worth it.
Babs
PS: As always reflect in your own way, be kind and truthful, consider ditching the device and instead use paper and pen, and if so moved get creative, dance it out, sing it to the stars, or write a poem to your cat. Let your brilliance shine.
Find out more about my work at the Courageous Leaders Project, a coaching and facilitation firm that sparks courageous conversations.
The Winter Renewal Coaching Offer (50% off for newsletter subscribers) is going like hotcakes. Act now and don’t miss out on this limited time (as in winter) offer.
- Don’t miss my upcoming 3-part series on leadership development. It starts with a common failure of leadership institutes and “training” along with my musings on a recent and stellar read about the prevalence and risks of being absent rather than present. ↩︎
Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash.