Would You Follow You? A Gut-Check for Leaders
Picture this. A midsize company posts a rough quarter. On Monday, the CEO walks into an all-hands, tells thirty people their roles are being "eliminated to protect the business," and wishes them well. On Friday, he posts a photo on LinkedIn of the new boat, keys dangling from his finger, captioned "hard-earned." The comments section becomes a public autopsy. Within a month, four of his top performers quit. Within a year, the company is up for sale.
That story, or some version of it, plays out somewhere every week. And it is the clearest possible reminder that being good with money is not the same thing as being good with people. Leadership is not a spreadsheet skill. It is a listening skill.
Gallup's 2025 State of the Global Workplace report puts a hard number on what that failure costs. Only 21 percent of employees worldwide are engaged at work, and manager engagement has slid to 27 percent, dragging global productivity losses to roughly 8.8 trillion dollars a year, or about 9 percent of global GDP (Gallup 2025). Meanwhile, 69 percent of American workers say a bad manager alone would push them to quit, a figure that climbs to 77 percent for millennials and 75 percent for Gen Z (LinkedIn Workforce Confidence, reported by Fortune). The boat guy is not an outlier. He is a category.
So what actually separates the leader people follow from the one they flee? It usually comes down to a single, unsexy skill: caring about the humans in front of you enough to actually hear them.
People Are Not Line Items
There is a quiet test every team runs on a new leader in the first ninety days. It is not about strategy decks or quarterly targets. It is a simpler question, asked silently in hallways and Slack DMs. Does this person see me as a person, or as a resource with a badge number?
Catalyst's landmark study on empathic leadership found that employees with highly empathic senior leaders report 76 percent engagement and 61 percent creativity, compared with just 32 percent and 13 percent under less empathic leaders (Catalyst 2021). That is not a soft finding. That is a doubling, in some cases a quadrupling, of the exact behaviors every executive claims to want.
Daniel Goleman, who spent decades studying what actually distinguishes great leaders, put it bluntly almost thirty years ago and it has only aged into sharper relief. "IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership" (Goleman 1998). Translation: you can be the smartest person in the room and still be the worst leader in the building.
For new leaders reading this, here is the practical version. Learn your people's names, yes, but also learn the shape of their week. Who has a kid starting kindergarten in September? Who is caring for an aging parent? Who has been quietly job hunting because their last manager forgot they existed? You do not need to be their therapist. You do need to be someone who noticed.
For senior leaders, the ask is different but related. Stop mistaking your calendar for your job. If every touchpoint with your team is a status update, you are not leading them, you are auditing them.
Listening Is Not Waiting to Talk
Most of us think we are good listeners. Most of us are not. Listening, in the way that actually shifts an organization, is an act of restraint. It is choosing curiosity over correction. It is asking a second question before offering a first opinion.
Consider a school principal I know in Brooklyn, running an elementary school through a rocky year. Test scores were down, morale was thinner than the coffee, and the district was breathing down her neck. Her instinct was to roll out a new instructional framework by October. Instead, she blocked out three weeks and did something almost radical. She asked every teacher one question over coffee: "What is getting in your way?" Not "how can I help," which invites a polite deflection, but the pointed version that assumes something is broken and it is her job to find out what.
The answers were not what she expected. It was not curriculum. It was not parents. It was a scheduling quirk that meant three grade levels never had planning time together, so no one could talk to anyone. She fixed the schedule in a week. Scores followed within the year. That is what listening looks like when it has teeth.
The research backs this up. A meta-analysis of internal communication practices found that leaders who communicated transparently and solicited employee input saw measurable gains in trust, engagement, and organizational identification (Men and Wright 2014). The mechanism is not mysterious. When people feel heard, they lower their defenses and raise their contributions.
A practical rule for anyone at any level: in your next one on one, ask a question and then count to five in your head before you say anything else. The silence will feel unbearable. Someone will fill it. What they say in that fifth second is often what they came into the room hoping to tell you.
Ethics Is What You Do When the Deal Is Bad for You
Ethical leadership sounds like a poster in an HR office until you actually have to practice it. Then it costs something. It costs the shortcut, the plausible-deniability email, the quarter you could have juiced by squeezing the team a little harder.
Brown, Treviño, and Harrison's foundational work on ethical leadership defined it as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision making" (Brown, Treviño, and Harrison 2005). Notice the phrase "two-way communication." Ethics without listening is just a lecture.
The tell of an ethical leader is not the speech at the offsite. It is what happens when the deal is bad for them. Do they take the hit publicly and shield the team, or do they find a junior person to name in the postmortem? Teams learn the answer within about six months, and they never forget it.
For anyone early in their career, here is a quiet superpower. Watch how your leaders behave when a decision costs them something personally. That is your entire performance review of them, condensed. And when it is your turn to lead, remember that your team is watching yours the same way.
Leaders Are Learners, or They Are Liabilities
The half-life of a leadership playbook has never been shorter. What worked in 2019 got shredded by 2020. What worked in 2023 is already being rewritten by AI, remote norms, and a workforce that has no patience for performative management. Day and Antonakis, in their comprehensive volume on leadership research, argue that adaptability is not a nice-to-have layered on top of leadership. It is a core competency without which the rest collapses (Day and Antonakis 2012).
Yukl and Mahsud made the case even more directly, pointing out that "flexible and adaptive leadership is essential" in environments defined by rapid change and complex stakeholder demands (Yukl and Mahsud 2010). Which, checking notes, is every environment now.
The habit that separates leaders who grow from leaders who stall is not reading more books. It is asking for feedback from people who report to them, and then not punishing them for what they hear. Every leader says they want candor. Very few build the runway for it to land safely.
Try this on Monday. Ask one person on your team, "What is something I do that makes your job harder?" Do not respond in the meeting. Do not explain. Just write it down and thank them. Then actually change something in the next thirty days and tell them what you changed and why. That single loop, repeated four times a year, will outperform any leadership retreat you could pay for.
Delegation Is a Trust Fall, in Slow Motion
If listening is the entry-level skill of leadership, delegation is the graduate seminar. Not because it is hard to hand off tasks, but because it is hard to hand them off without a leash.
Micromanagement is what happens when a leader confuses their anxiety for oversight. It signals to talented people that they are not trusted, and talented people who do not feel trusted find someone who will trust them, usually within eighteen months. Cross and Parker's research on how work actually flows through organizations found that trust and informal networks, not org charts, are what determine whether things get done (Cross and Parker 2004).
The pragmatic version, for a new manager: delegate the outcome, not the method. Tell someone what "done" looks like and by when, and then get out of the way. If they miss, coach the gap. If they hit, credit them publicly. Repeat until the machine hums without you.
For senior leaders: your job is not to be the smartest person about every problem. Your job is to build the conditions in which smarter people can solve problems you never even see. If your team cannot function for two weeks without you, that is not proof of your importance. That is proof of a design flaw.
Culture Is Just the Sum of Small Behaviors
Culture is one of those words that has been drained of meaning by overuse. It is not the ping pong table. It is not the values on the wall. It is the answer to a single question asked one thousand times a day across your organization: what does it take to be respected here?
If the answer is "hit your number and do not make waves," you have a transactional culture and it will underperform any competitor with a collaborative one. If the answer is "help your teammates, tell the truth, and bring your best thinking," you have something durable. Cross and Parker's work showed that the most innovative organizations were not the ones with the most talent. They were the ones where talent actually connected, shared, and built on each other's ideas (Cross and Parker 2004).
Culture is built in the small moments. Who gets interrupted in meetings and who does not. Whose ideas get credited. What behavior gets promoted, and what behavior gets tolerated. Leaders set the temperature of every room they walk into, whether they mean to or not. The question is whether they know it.
Your Move
Somewhere in your organization right now, someone is deciding whether to speak up or stay quiet. Someone is deciding whether to give this job another year or start updating their resume tonight. Someone is deciding whether the person leading them actually sees them, or is just moving them around a board.
You do not get to decide what they conclude. You only get to decide what they observe.
So here is the ball. What are you going to let them see this week? Are you going to ask the second question, or rush to the answer? Are you going to take the hit for your team, or find a name to attach to the miss? Are you going to buy the boat, or build the crew?
The market rewards a lot of things. But the people who work for you are keeping a different scoreboard. And in the long run, theirs is the one that matters.
References
Brown, Michael E., Linda K. Treviño, and David A. Harrison. 2005. "Ethical Leadership: A Social Learning Perspective for Construct Development and Testing." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 97 (2): 117–34. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749597805000397.
Catalyst. 2021. "Empathy Is the Most Important Leadership Skill According to Research." New York: Catalyst. https://www.catalyst.org/en-us/about/newsroom/2021/empathic-leaders-drive-employee-engagement.
Cross, Rob, and Andrew Parker. 2004. The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Day, David V., and John Antonakis, eds. 2012. The Nature of Leadership. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Gallup. 2025. State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report. Washington, DC: Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx.
Goleman, Daniel. 1998. "What Makes a Leader?" Harvard Business Review, November–December 1998. https://hbr.org/1998/11/what-makes-a-leader.
LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Survey. 2024. Reported in Chris Morris, "Bad Bosses Are Pushing Gen Zers and Millennials to the Brink of Quitting." Fortune, August 9, 2024. https://fortune.com/2024/08/09/bad-bosses-push-gen-z-millennials-to-brink-of-quitting/.
Men, Linjuan Rita, and Donald K. Wright. 2014. "The Impact of Internal Communication and Leadership Communication on Employee-Organizational Relationships." Public Relations Review 40 (5): 814–24. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0363811114001167.
Yukl, Gary, and Rubina Mahsud. 2010. "Why Flexible and Adaptive Leadership Is Essential." Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 62 (2): 81–93. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-13005-002.
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ABOUT THE ROLE The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking a Senior Executive Service (SES) Career-Reserved Director for the Office of Safety, Security and Protection. This executive-level position holds overall responsibility for coordinating and implementing Department-wide efforts for facility, personnel security, safety, and facility emergency management. The Director will orchestrate communications across agency lines, oversee the development of security risk management plans, and direct facility emergency management and response, including the operation of a 24/7 Emergency Operations Center. The role involves high-level collaboration with the Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Federal Protective Service, and local DC emergency services. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Coordinate and implement Department-wide initiatives for facility, personnel security, safety, and emergency management. - Orchestrate rapid, effective, coordinated USDA responses to situations affecting the security of facilities, property, and personnel. - Oversee, develop, and deliver training to the security, safety, protection, and emergency management workforce. - Initiate and promote activities to foster security awareness within the Department. - Oversee the development and implementation of security risk management plans and countermeasures to mitigate evolving threats and vulnerabilities. - Direct facility emergency management and response; reestablish and operate a 24/7 Emergency Operations Center (ECC). MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Candidates must possess the following Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and Technical Qualifications (TQs), demonstrated within a 2-page resume: Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs): 1. Commitment to the Rule of Law and the Principles of the American Founding: Knowledge of the American system of government, commitment to the Constitution and rule of law, and civic-mindedness. 2. Driving Efficiency: Strategic resource management, fiscal responsibility, and leveraging technology for efficiency. 3. Merit and Competence: Technical competence, problem-solving, agility, and resilience to produce exceptional quality work. 4. Leading People: Ability to lead, inspire, and drive a high-performance culture; accountability and developing others. Technical Qualifications (TQs): 1. Demonstrated experience leading law enforcement, security, or protective operations programs, including directing responses to critical incidents, coordinating with stakeholders, making high-risk decisions, and implementing policies to alleviate threats. 2. Demonstrated experience leading enterprise risk management and security programs to protect personnel, facilities, and assets, including developing risk assessments, establishing countermeasures, and collaborating to address evolving threats. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Citizenship: Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. - Security Clearance: Must obtain and maintain a Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance. - Background Investigation: Required. - Drug Testing: Subject to pre-employment and random drug tests. - Financial Disclosure: Must file an Executive Personnel Financial Disclosure Report (SF-278) within 30 days of appointment and annually thereafter. - Selective Service: Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must be registered. - Probation: Initial appointments require a 1-year probationary period. SELECTION PROCESS - Resume-only application process. Separate ECQ/TQ narratives are NOT accepted. - Evaluation based on the quality and extent of accomplishments, experience, and education demonstrated in the resume. - Candidates must be certified by the OPM SES Qualifications Review Board (QRB) before appointment, unless already certified or eligible for noncompetitive status. - Highly qualified applicants may undergo interviews. HOW TO APPLY - Apply online via USAJOBS (www.usajobs.gov). - Required Documents: - Complete Resume: Must be no more than 2 pages, using 0.8-inch margins and 11-point font. Must address all ECQs and TQs. - SF-50: For current/former career SES members or federal employees. - Certification Copy: For SES Candidate Development Program graduates. - Transcripts: If relying on education for qualifications. - Deadline: August 5, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. ET. - Announcement Number: OSSP-SES-2026-3356 - Control Number: 876553500 - Contact: Jocelyn Napier (Jocelyn.Napier@usda.gov) EMPLOYMENT DETAILS - Employer: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - Location: Washington, DC - Job Type: Permanent, Full-Time, Senior Executive Service (SES) - Work Site Options: Telework eligible (as determined by agency policy); not remote. - Travel: 25% or less. - Relocation: Expenses may be reimbursed in accordance with agency policy. - Union Representation: No. - Equal Opportunity Employer: USDA prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status.
ABOUT THE ROLE This is a highly responsible, full-time law enforcement position serving as the commander of a major bureau within the Police Department. The role involves extensive public contact and may require assuming the role of acting Police Chief in their absence. Work is performed under the direction of the Deputy Chief of Police. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Directs and manages the assigned division in accordance with department policies and procedures - Responsible for the training, welfare, and discipline of all employees in the division - Assigns duties and functions related to the processing of complaints and investigations - Oversees inspections of all personnel and equipment assigned to the division - Oversees proper use, maintenance, calibration, certification, and replacement of police equipment - Assumes personal command of any serious emergency situation, major catastrophe, or major crime - Evaluates the efficiency and effectiveness of administrative, business, and emergency operations - Directs the preparation of short-term and long-range plans and budgets based upon departmental objectives - Ensures compliance with accreditation standards within the assigned division - Acts as a spokesperson for the Police Department to the news media and community - Represents the department and/or the Police Chief at various governmental and community meetings - Interacts with all levels of government officials and the public MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Education: - Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university with major course work in Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Police Administration, or a related field - Master's degree is preferred Experience: - Five (5) years of law enforcement supervisory experience Licenses and Certifications: - Possession of or ability to obtain a valid Florida driver's license by date of hire - Must meet all minimum requirements for the position of a police officer per Florida Statute 943 - Must have received police officer certification from the State of Florida SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Must pass the Department's physical test and minimum requirements as outlined in the Florida Standards and Training Guidelines - Physical Activities: Light work exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally and up to 10 pounds frequently. Requires balancing, climbing, crouching, grasping, hearing, kneeling, lifting, mental acuity, pulling, pushing, reaching, speaking, standing, stooping, talking, visual acuity, and walking. Requires operation of a City vehicle. - Work Environment: Typically performed in a safe and secure environment that may periodically have unpredictable requirements. Occasional exposure or risk to physical health or safety (e.g., hazardous materials, heavy equipment). - Emergency Response: Subject to recall around the clock for emergency response operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the normal work location, and duties other than those specified in the official job description. SELECTION PROCESS - Candidates must successfully complete and pass the Department's physical test and meet all minimum requirements outlined in the Florida Standards and Training Guidelines. - Standard background, psychological, and medical evaluations are typically required for command-level law enforcement positions. HOW TO APPLY - Applications should be submitted through the City of North Port, FL official employment portal or human resources department. EMPLOYMENT DETAILS Employer: City of North Port, FL Department: Police Department Class Code: PD2 Job Type: Full-Time Location: North Port, FL Equal Opportunity: The City of North Port, FL is an Affirmative Action, ADA, and Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities are encouraged to apply.
ABOUT THE ROLE The Deputy Fire Chief, Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF), is a senior fire service officer responsible for the command and control of emergency operations and the maintenance of continuous operational readiness within a 24/7 aviation environment at JFK Airport. This dual-function role combines primary operational emergency command responsibilities with administrative oversight to sustain firefighting readiness, regulatory compliance, and life safety operations. The position reports directly to the ARFF Chief of Department within the Department of Aviation. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Serve as Commanding Officer of an assigned ARFF Command, exercising full-scope operational authority over personnel, apparatus, and emergency response activities. - Respond to and assume Incident Command or Unified Command leadership for aircraft emergencies, structural fires, hazardous materials, mass-casualty incidents, and airfield emergencies. - Maintain continuous 24/7/365 operational readiness of ARFF personnel, equipment, and apparatus to meet FAA Part 139 performance requirements. - Supervise and direct ARFF personnel, including Fire Officers, Crew Chiefs, ARFF Police Officers, and support staff, managing staffing, training compliance, and fitness for duty. - Oversee and participate in emergency drills, timed response exercises, FAA compliance training, and multi-agency exercises. - Ensure compliance with FAA Part 139 Airport Certification standards, Airport Emergency Plan requirements, hazardous materials regulations, and applicable NFPA standards. - Develop and implement policies, procedures, and standard operating guidelines to ensure operational readiness. - Manage budget and resource planning to support operational readiness and deployment efficiency. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS - Minimum of 10 years of full-time experience in ARFF operations. - Fire service command experience. - Minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience as a Fire Officer. - Demonstrated experience in incident command and emergency operations leadership. - Comprehensive knowledge and experience of FAA ARFF regulations 14CFR (Part 139). - Knowledge of fire suppression and rescue techniques, hazardous materials response, and emergency management systems (NIMS/ICS 300, 400). SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Must possess a valid United States driver's license. - Required to maintain active firefighting and incident command certifications as a condition of employment and operational necessity. - Must be available for nights, weekends, holidays, off-hour emergency activations, severe weather operations, and high-profile events. - Desired qualifications include ProBoard/IFSAC fire certifications (Fire Officer IV, Fire Instructor III, Firefighter I/II, ARFF, HAZ MAT Incident Commander), knowledge of FAA records management, and extensive ARFF experience. SELECTION PROCESS 1. Initial phone interview for qualified candidates. 2. In-depth interview(s) and/or assessment(s). 3. Conditional job offer followed by a mandatory background check. HOW TO APPLY - Submit a resume by clicking the "Apply Now" button on the job posting. - Only applicants under consideration will be contacted. - Requests for reasonable accommodations during the interview process or to perform essential job functions can be directed to the recruiter or emailed to ADA_Accommodations@panynj.gov. EMPLOYMENT DETAILS - Job ID: 64534 - Department: Aviation - Location: Jamaica, NY (JFK Airport) - Remote Type: Hybrid (maximum of one day per week remotely, subject to operational needs) - Employer: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
ABOUT THE ROLE The Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) is seeking a collaborative and purpose-driven Deputy Chief Digital Officer to lead, grow, and mature the product organization within the Massachusetts Digital Service (Mass Digital). This role focuses on improving the design, delivery, and impact of state services, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, people-centered services that measurably improve outcomes for Massachusetts residents while building lasting capabilities across state government. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Set a cohesive experience strategy and strategic direction across Mass Digital's portfolio of products and services. - Lead planning and prioritization, balancing strategic impact, team capacity, and constituent and agency needs. - Guide teams in developing product and service roadmaps informed by experience research, feedback, and data. - Define and evolve Mass Digital's experience and product management practices, establishing frameworks and tools for consistent, high-quality delivery. - Develop and lead a high-performing team, fostering cohesion, trust, and continuous skill development through coaching and mentorship. - Help state agencies adopt modern experience, product management, service design, and agile delivery practices. - Grow a statewide experience and product management community of practice and develop resources to build related capabilities. - Represent Mass Digital through partnerships, conferences, and thought leadership, bringing emerging best practices back into the organization. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS - At least seven (7) years of full-time (or equivalent part-time) professional, administrative, supervisory, or managerial experience in IT administration or IT management. - At least three (3) of those years must have been in a managerial capacity. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS - Work schedule: Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST. - Hybrid remote arrangement requiring 40% of time spent at the primary work location: One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108. - Applicants must be located within a reasonable commuting distance from the primary work location. - Preferred qualifications include deep expertise in product management, human-centered design, service design, and experience in digital government or public service delivery. SELECTION PROCESS - Candidates will be evaluated based on their IT management experience, leadership capabilities, and alignment with Mass Digital's mission to transform constituent experiences. - Standard Commonwealth of Massachusetts hiring procedures, including background checks and reference verification, will apply. HOW TO APPLY - Submit a complete application through the official Commonwealth of Massachusetts employment portal. - For Diversity, Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity questions, or to request a Reasonable Accommodation, contact the Diversity Officer / ADA Coordinator, Emily Hartmann, at 617-660-8300. EMPLOYMENT DETAILS - Employer: Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Agency: Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) - Location: One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108 (Hybrid) - Job Type: Full-time - Shift: Day - Job Posting Date: Jul 24, 2026 - Number of Openings: 1 - Bargaining Unit: M99-Managers (EXE) - Potentially Eligible for Hybrid Work Schedule: Yes