Leadership at its essence is about leading a team or company from “here”, the current state to “there”, a preferred future state. When leadership is viewed through the lens of leading others from ‘here’ to ‘there’ the similarities between great leaders and great navigators becomes more clear.

A weed free lawn or garden is not normal. Weeds will take root and grow unless someone takes intentional action to prevent them from growing. To extend the metaphor to the leadership of teams, leaders are the gardener and their team is the garden.

All leaders need to fight against the leadership flaw of “It’s not what you preach – it’s what you tolerate.”

We’ve all been there. Maybe it's a small issue that’s snowballed into a larger one or that nagging feeling we get when we know we need to address an issue with a colleague, boss or teammate. Navigating conflict is hard.

You’ve likely experienced being on a team with a leader that lacks self-awareness. They’re the type that have a difficult time recognizing how their emotions, words and behaviors affect other people. They tend to have difficulty engaging the hearts and minds of those around them. They also usually have a hard time empathizing with others, leading to an inability to “read” other people and often being “misread” by others.

A friend was recently recounting a story I’ll never forget: He was driving on the highway with his wife and three boys on their way home from Christmas break.