Blog - Elite Leadership Academy

December 19, 2025December 19, 2025

Don’t Let a Toxic Grinch Steal Your Christmas or Your 2026 Profitability!

Every year, I enjoy watching TV shows and movies about the holiday season. It’s a tradition I started with my kids when they were young and continue to this day either by myself or when they arrive for the holidays. Some of my favorites include, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “It’s a Wonderful Life” and even “Die Hard.” I also like to watch the animated “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” but this year, I decided to also watch the 2000 live version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with Jim Carrey. The animated version is my favorite, as I’ve read the book to my kids several times when they were young and even tried to imitate Boris Karloff at times. As I was watching it, I saw several parallels to toxic leadership that I’ve been writing and speaking about lately. There are 4 points about the similarities to the Grinch and a toxic leader that I would like to share with you.

December 17, 2025December 17, 2025

Reducing Costly Leadership Misalignment

Growth in many companies rarely stalls because of a lack of ideas or effort. It stalls because leadership is misaligned on priorities, roles, and ways of working. Small gaps at the top become major disconnects by the time they reach frontline teams, showing up as slow decisions, rework, and competing initiatives.

December 12, 2025December 12, 2025

Why Toxic Leaders Survive So Long

People frequently ask why toxic leaders survive in an organization. In this video, I explain some of the reasons.

December 12, 2025December 12, 2025

Toxic Leaders: The Silent Profit Leak in Organizations

In organizations, a single toxic leader can quietly drain far more value than a weak product line or a small market loss. Toxic leaders create fear, favoritism, and instability that erode morale, collaboration, and trust. Employees under these leaders report higher stress, lower satisfaction, and a greater intent to leave, which pushes your best people toward competitors who offer healthier environments.

December 4, 2025December 16, 2025

The 4 Seasons of Building a Winning Leadership Management Culture

If you’ve ever followed a sports team, you know their success isn’t accidental. Coaches and players think in seasons—each with a distinct purpose, each building toward a championship. There’s the preseason, where talent is evaluated. The regular season, where strategy and alignment determine success. The postseason, when only the highest performers rise. And finally, the offseason, when reflection fuels improvement.

December 2, 2025December 2, 2025

The Leadership Alignment Prescription

TALES FROM THE LEADERSHIP FRONT
Sofia had been the Chief Operating Officer at a west coast hospital system for just six months when she noticed a troubling pattern: department performance varied wildly, and leaders seemed overwhelmed, misplaced, or simply mismatched for the challenges they faced. Nursing supervisors with strong clinical skills were buried in administrative tasks. Tech-savvy managers were stuck in departments resistant to digital change. And rising leaders with incredible people skills were stuck behind data dashboards instead of leading teams.

November 18, 2025November 18, 2025

Aligning for the Future: How One Biotech Leader Transformed His Organization

TALES FROM THE LEADERSHIP FRONT
Daniel Ruiz had spent twenty years climbing the ranks of the biotech industry, but nothing prepared him for the leadership fractures he discovered when he stepped in as CEO of Genexra Labs. Projects stalled, teams second-guessed direction, and turnover quietly bled talent from critical departments. The company’s science was cutting-edge—its leadership alignment was not.

November 12, 2025November 19, 2025

4 Choices That Result in Costly Leadership Misalignment

Every minute of every day someone makes a choice that will result in costly leadership misalignment. This occurs when an organization fails to select the right person with the right leadership skillset for the right opportunity at the right time. According to Gallup, this happens 82% of the time. On the surface, that figure seems high, but it’s supported by another Gallup study that states 90% of people don’t believe the person they report to is leadership ready. This is likely because many promotions and assignments are based on functional expertise – not leadership ability or readiness. A brilliant individual contributor doesn’t automatically make a great team leader. Misaligned assignments lead to team disengagement, poor performance, and high turnover.

August 27, 2025August 29, 2025

Transforming Nursing Leadership Utilization With LeadershipRM™ – A Case Study Brief

Overview

“Gott Health” (name changed for confidentiality), a fast-growing regional hospital system, faced a leadership challenge. With 20 facilities and over 5,000 nursing staff, the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) was overwhelmed—managing 24 direct reports, well beyond the limit for effective leadership. Even after reducing the number to 13, she knew a more strategic solution was needed.

August 25, 2025August 26, 2025

Leadership Visioning from The Broadway Stage

In the Leadership Visioning chapter in my book, The “Path to Elite Level Leadership,” I discuss the vision it took for Lin-Manuel Miranda to bring Hamilton to the stage using multiple musical genres and a multi-ethnic cast to create a transformative musical based on a person barely mentioned in history books, based on events that took place over 200 years ago?