Baby, there’s no shortcuts, tricks or magical thinking.
A while ago a client, let’s call him Alex, was telling me about an author and speaker he had invited to be the keynote at a conference. The speaker’s website touted their book, all about shortcuts to building relationships and trust, as a bestseller based on years of research.
Unfortunately, the speakers’ stories, humour, and overall message (“subterfuge” and “easy tricks for winning trust”) didn’t sit well with the conference theme, building bridges with integrity. And those years of research? When Alex finally read the book, he found it to be a poorly edited mish-mash of personal observations and anecdotes. Now I love a good story and there’s lots of learning to be found by observing and sharing (as I do here), but calling it years of research is a bit like calling my Grandma and Aunties swapping gossip around the kitchen table a policy think-tank.
So why this speaker for this conference?
The truth is, as Alex himself put it, “people don’t want to hear about slow, hard work”. They don’t want to read or listen to someone saying that there are no short-cuts, no easy 1-2-3 practices, and no magical thinking that will develop them as a leader with a compelling and credible vision, an ethical and compassionate approach, and a cool head and warm heart* in good times and bad.
I see this over and over where leaders are expecting trust, mission-driven enthusiasm, ideas, problem-solving, and success from staff and expecting loyalty from customers, patrons, and in the case of the public sector and non-profits, from funders and partners, without doing the hard work. The type of hard work that answers the question, “why should I trust you?’.
To be worthy of trust, we first have to do the long-haul internal work of maturing our emotional intelligence, ethical compass, and relational skills along with our political and business acumen (strategic, administrative, and operational savviness). This is not easy, and I have shared some of my thoughts on this in The Failure of Leadership Development Programs: And why we keep propping them up.
Let’s talk, my calendar fills up and I don’t want to miss working with you!
You can find out more about how I work with executives, managers, and organizations who are ready to lead with more courage, clarity, and care, in their work and in themselves at the Courageous Leaders Project.
If you are curious about how we might work together, email me at [email protected].
A bit more on shortcuts, tricks, and magical thinking.
When it comes to leadership books there’s a lot of so-so stuff out there.
Some are hastily written to capture the fleeting zeitgeist of the moment. Others are a stringing together of barely coherent posts to capitalize on a social media high. Then there are the supposedly frank or controversial titles that are a vacuous attention grab with a “cute” use of curse words or innuendo to package what might have been a good idea in concept but has been stretched beyond recognition to meet the publisher’s word count. But the most persistently popular are from the leadership gurus offering fast to grab and consume magical thinking. They line the walls of airport bookstores and have long holds lists at the library. Their catchphrases (often the book’s title) enter our thinking and conversations with very little meaning but with much potential for long-lasting damage. They are easy to spot and hard to resist with their “Bob hated going to work until he discovered my 1 – 2 – 3 secret spell for success” or “Susan got the CEO position all due to my groundbreaking three-week program”.
Leaders looking for support, insights, and maybe even some wisdom often feel short on time and inundated with shortcuts, tricks, and magical thinking.
To be fair, I have a dear friend in a position of big responsibility and authority who, when I was talking about this, defended her latest guru crush with a simple and powerful response; “Babs, if one of these sticky notes (she pointed to a wall somewhere off to the side of her screen) slows me down, makes me think twice, and results in me being a calmer, happier, better person, even if only for a few minutes, then I call it a success”.
Fair enough.
But Let’s Take it Higher
Years ago I was talking with the official photographer of the then Prime Minister. We were outside looking at a spectacular moon when a science guy joined us and began talking about all the science-based reasons as to why the moon looked as it did that night. The photographer turned to the science guy in exasperation, flung her arms up at the moon and shouted “man, take it higher”.
As leaders, we can, and should, take it higher. The people around us, the organizations we lead, and the communities we serve, need more from us than a few good minutes. We know this in our hearts and in our minds from what we experience and from evidence-based research. If it hasn’t happened for you yet, I’m hoping that the compelling data in these two reports will clinch the deal on taking it higher.
- The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer
- In tracking the interconnecting trends that affect Canadians’ trust in government, politicians, institutions, businesses and in each other, this report finds that we are getting more dangerously insular and less open to ideas, differing opinions, ways of life, or any of those good things that get us thinking smarter and doing better.
- The report also finds that Canadians still have a relatively high rate of trust in their employers who are, according to the report, well positioned to broker or rebuild trust for Canadians. So let’s get on the trust-building train.
- The 2026 World Happiness Report
- Points to a variety of downward trends in Canadian well-being (unless you are over 60) with the most concerning being the chart-smashing decline in happiness for Canadians under the age of thirty.
- A C.D. Howe Intelligence Memo, The Kids Are Not All Right and Neither Is Anybody Else, commenting on the 2025 Canadian fall in the happiness index, ends with “Governments, employers and everyone: This is a call to action; let’s find things to get excited about and get everyone involved again! We can’t afford to be pessimistic.”
To take it higher, we need to put aside the shortcuts, tricks, and magical thinking and roll up our sleeves for the hard work. Here are a few hard work prompts, because “Baby there ain’t no shortcuts on your way”.
- How do you practice leadership? Does it include:
- Asking for honest feedback.
- Asking yourself how you are doing.
- Time for pauses and reflection.
- Being open to new challenges and growth.
- Choosing leadership pals who support and hold you accountable.
- How do you open spaces for emerging leaders and clear paths or scaffold opportunities for the younger generations?
- Leadership work is full of adversity, how do you find and grow your grit?
- How do you express kindness and compassion to others? Being a leader is a responsibility and a service, not a free pass for insecurities and unhealthy habits.
- How do you celebrate? I’m not talking about cake and fireworks (although they have their place). I’m talking about noticing, openly acknowledging, and high-fiving the good in you and in others.
Thank you for reading this post, the stories you share with me, and for the invitations to bring my practice as a leadership coach and facilitator to your work.
You can find out more about how I work with executives, managers, and organizations who are ready to lead with more courage, clarity, and care, in their work and in themselves at the Courageous Leaders Project.
If you are curious about how we might work together, email me at [email protected].
Dear heavens, I stole that phrase from a Buddhist Abbot. Thank you Ajahn Sona.