It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote something here.

Not because I ran out of things to say — quite the opposite.

Sometimes, when the work intensifies — when conversations deepen, decisions carry weight, and leadership becomes more visible — I notice something subtle in myself. A sense of realignment being required. Maybe a slight movement one way or another. Perhaps a small pause to recalibrate what might be slightly off course.

And when that happens, I’ve learned not to compensate with noise or busyiness...

I pause.

I read.

I think.

I pay attention.

These past few weeks have been exactly that: a recalibration.

I’ve been developing a thread of thinking that has been circling for some time — a theory of leadership authority rooted not in position or performance, but in belonging.

We tend to describe — and prescribe — authority in structural terms: title, mandate, results, credibility.

Those things matter. But what I am increasingly observing — particularly with very senior leaders — is that authority feels most stable when it rests on something more at the core of who we are and what humanity is yearning for at all ages and stages of life.

Belonging.

Not belonging as popularity.

Not belonging as consensus.

But belonging as internal coherence.

When a leader knows who they are beyond the role.

When they are not over-identified with the title.

When they can endure disagreement without becoming defended.

When they can hold pressure without hardening.

I’ve found myself reflecting on how easily authority can shift when our sense of belonging leans too heavily on external signals — performance, reputation, approval, the subtle and unspoken cues of how we are being received. It is rarely dramatic; often it is incremental and unspoken. Sometimes it is a blindspot...

You notice it when there is a slight tightening or a quicker defensiveness or a greater sensitivity to change.

And it will feel and be different when belonging rests somewhere more internal — not indifferent to feedback, and not defined by it either. In that grounding, authority seems to take on a different quality — it will be steadier, less reactive, less compelled to prove itself. There is more space. More oxygen. More choice in how to respond.

And that authority includes your internal re-calibration!

The higher someone rises, the thinner the relational oxygen can feel. Without a grounded sense of belonging — to self, to purpose, to something larger than ego — authority can begin to wobble or even become rigid.

Re-anchoring before moving forward.

Perhaps that is what this pause has been for me.

And perhaps it is what many leaders need more often than they allow themselves.

I’m curious —

Where does your authority feel anchored at the moment?

And where might it be leaning too heavily on role, performance, or perception?

During the course of the coming week, I invite you to pay attention to one moment in which you are required to lead — a meeting, a decision, a conversation under pressure — and quietly ask yourself: Were am I leading from right now? From role? From expectation? From something anchored within? From something else?

Notice the difference in tone, in pace, in posture.

If that reflection feels worth exploring, I’d value hearing what you observe. Please contact me and let me know — I read every message.