TALES FROM THE LEADERSHIP FRONT
Marcus stared out of his glass-walled office, watching his team hustle through another late night at a biotech company. As Director of Research, he was a brilliant scientist—but leading people? That was another matter. He’d spent years reading books on leadership skills—communication, delegation, motivation—but something wasn’t clicking. His team was burning out, innovation was slowing, and morale was dropping.
One morning, after a particularly tense meeting, Marcus’ mentor—now a board advisor—invited him for coffee. “You keep trying to master skills,” she said, “but leadership isn’t about tricks. It’s a process. A system. Something you do consistently, not something you perform.”
That hit him hard.
He went back and began treating leadership like the scientific process he knew so well. He built a daily routine of intentional actions: listening to one team member without interruption, reflecting on his impact every Friday, setting collaborative goals on Mondays. He documented patterns, gathered feedback, iterated.
Over months, something shifted. His team began speaking more openly. Cross-functional ideas surfaced more often. Turnover slowed. Projects accelerated.
It wasn’t because he had mastered charisma or learned how to “speak like a leader.” It was because he practiced leadership like he practiced science—with discipline, iteration, and humility.
Looking around the lab now, Marcus didn’t feel like a different person—but he had become a different leader. Not by trying harder, but by showing up, over and over, for the process.
Are you prioritizing leadership skills over a leadership process?
