Tomorrow, August 17th, marks one month since the book became available on Amazon. When I pause long enough to think about everything that has happened in such a short period, the only thing I can think is… “WOW” … “Thank you Jesus.”

It’s not the kind of ‘WOW’ that says, ‘Look what we did.’ It is more the kind that comes from looking around and realizing that something you carried privately for a long time is now moving through the world in ways you cannot fully control or predict.

This whole process still feels very surreal.

I know I can do a better job of sharing what I am learning along the way. Releasing a book has introduced me to parts of the process that I had no idea would require so much capacity. I am learning about publishing, fulfillment, marketing, community building, asking for support, receiving support, and allowing the work to travel beyond me.

That last part may be the most important.

Now that Strong CORE is sitting on bookshelves, desks, nightstands, office tables, and in the hands of people I know and people I have never met, I feel incredibly proud.

This entire experience has been remarkable.

Of course, there are numbers connected to the first month.

Strong CORE has sold almost 500 copies on Amazon in the first month… “WOW.”

I am grateful for every one of those copies.

At the same time, the most exciting part has not simply been the number of books sold. A sales number can tell me how many books have moved. It cannot fully tell me where the words have landed.

Those have come from the text messages and DMs, the conversations and reflections, and unexpected post office connections.

People are telling me that they are reading Strong CORE and thinking differently about how they lead. Others are reflecting on who they are becoming. Some are using the book to begin conversations with their teams, colleagues, friends, and families.

The work is reaching people in different ways, and I am learning to resist the temptation to define its impact too quickly. A book can begin in one place and become something slightly different in the hands of each reader.

That is part of the wonder of releasing it…. “WOW.”

I wrote Strong CORE with particular ideas, questions, and experiences in mind. I hoped it would invite leaders into the inner work of leadership. I hoped it would create space for honest reflection about expectations, boundaries, capacity, and contribution.

And I could not decide in advance what every reader would notice or what conversation the book might start.

That part belongs to the readers, and that, by far, is the most encouraging part.

The Strong CORE Community Spotlight is now part of the journey.

Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, I highlight someone from the growing Strong CORE community. These are people holding the book, reading it, sharing it, and allowing its message to become part of their own journey.

I have appreciated seeing the different ways people show up.

Some people send a carefully posed photograph. Others send something spontaneous. Some are early in the reading process. Others have already started conversations based on a particular chapter or idea. Each picture offers a small glimpse into the life of the community.

That is what I value most about the Community Spotlight. It is not about creating a polished display of perfect readers. It is about recognizing the people who are helping the book become more than an object with my name on the cover.

If you have a copy of Strong CORE and would like to be included in a future Community Spotlight, send your Strong CORE selfie to strongcorethebook@gmail.com. I would be honored to add you to the mix.

There is something meaningful about seeing the book alongside people in different places, at different stages of life, and in different kinds of work. Strong CORE was written for leaders, but leadership takes many forms. It appears in organizations, families, classrooms, friendships, community spaces, and quiet decisions that may never be publicly recognized.

The Community Spotlight is helping me remember that.

All signed copies promised to the original Strong CORE campaign backers have now been mailed.

There was a period when I temporarily became a miniature fulfillment center. Books, envelopes, labels, signatures, inscriptions, packing materials, and trips to get everything mailed became part of the regular rhythm.

It was a very small operation, but it had a surprising number of moving parts.

The process was not nearly as painful as it could have been. I am grateful for that experience, but I am even more grateful that I had the opportunity to personally sign and send those books to the people who believed in this work before there was a finished book to hold.

Thank you to my wife, Melanie, and my daughter, Kennedy, for lending their heads, hands, and hearts to this process.

That mattered to me.

The original campaign backers supported an idea before it had a final cover, a printed page, or a place on a bookshelf. They trusted that the book would eventually become real. Signing and mailing those copies gave me a chance to acknowledge that trust in a tangible way.

It also reminded me that publishing is not only about writing. It is about the many ordinary tasks that help the work reach another person.

There is now a way for others to order signed copies as well. If you are interested in receiving one, send me a direct message or email me at strongcorethebook@gmail.com and I will provide the information you need.

After a month…

I am still learning what it means to build a community around a book. I am learning how to stay present to the practical work while also paying attention to the human meaning underneath it. I am learning how to ask for support without making every interaction transactional. I am learning how to receive encouragement without rushing past it to the next task.

There are still many things I do not know.

I do not know exactly what the Strong CORE Community will become. I do not know which conversations are just beginning or which connections will continue to grow. I do not know how the book will change as more people read it, question it, discuss it, and bring their own experiences to its pages.

I am becoming more comfortable with not knowing.

And the data matters. It helps me understand reach and provide useful context. But the data is only a small part of this continuing story. The evolving story is showing up in every imaginable (and unimaginable) way.

And, this is only the beginning.

The greatest gift for me is continuing to learn, listen, and discover what this community is becoming. I will continue sharing more of the lessons, the surprises, and the people who are bringing Strong CORE to life.

Thank you to everyone who purchased the book, backed the original campaign, shared a post, sent a message, recommended the book, or placed it into someone else’s hands.

One Ask…

If you have read Strong CORE, please consider visiting the Amazon page and leaving an honest review. Reviews help the book reach more readers, and your words may help someone else decide whether Strong CORE is right for them.

Thank you in advance for that gift.

I am grateful that you are part of this continuing journey.

Next week, I will share more about the audiobook journey I begin in mid September

Have a great week.

-Coach Chris

There is something important in what I am wrestling with because I hear two different questions underneath it.

One is, “Who can I trust?” Whatever that really means.

The other feels more painful:

“Have I done enough to deserve, or earn reciprocity?”

I need to separate those questions.

Reciprocity is not a transaction where I accumulate enough deposits into people and eventually earn the right to have them show up for me.

I can be generous, available, encouraging, connected, and deeply invested in other people and still discover that some relationships do not have the capacity to hold me in the same way I have held them.

That does not necessarily make those relationships false or bad.

It may actually reveal more about what kind of relationships they actually are.

Perhaps that is part of what selling Strong CORE is exposing in me.

I have spent years teaching about community, connection, relationships, and the importance of showing up for people. Now I have created something deeply personal and placed it into the world. #Scary

Naturally, there is a part of me looking around and wondering:

“Who is reading it and what do they honestly think?”

Not simply, “Who bought the book?”

AND for those in my circle…

• Who shared it without being asked?

• Who text, called or sent a selfie holding the book?

• Who is advocating for me and opening new doors of opportunity?

• Who said, “I see what you are building and how can I help carry it?”

When those people do not appear in the ways I imagined, it can make me reevaluate the history of the relationships themselves.

AND… I have to be careful not to turn that into a story of my value and make it a verdict about whether I have earned reciprocity.

There is another possibility.

A reframe.

Maybe, and I really hate that word right now, but we can cover that in another post, I have a lot of connection but less mutuality than I thought.

I may know many people.

Many people may genuinely care about me.

I may have influenced hundreds or even thousands of people.

But being known, appreciated, respected, connected to, and even loved are not necessarily the same as having relationships in which someone instinctively reaches back for me.

That realization can hurt.

It also raises a fascinating question that feels much bigger than the book:

• What is reciprocity when there is no scorecard?

Maybe reciprocity is not, “I did this for you, so you should do this for me.”

Maybe it is:

“When something matters to me, does it matter to you because I matter to you?”

That is very different.

I do not want to turn relationships into accounting exercises. I do not want to keep a running tally of who shared what, who called first, or who opened which door.

That is not the kind of relationship I want.

At the same time, refusing to keep score does not mean refusing to notice patterns.

Perhaps trust is learning where I can safely place an expectation of mutuality without requiring every relationship to carry it.

I may ultimately discover that the question is not whether I have earned the right to receive.

It is whether I have accurately understood which relationships in my life are capable of reciprocity.

That feels like some real inner work.

And strangely enough, it sounds a whole lot like the Strong CORE journey I am living right now.

If this reflection stirred something in you, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments:

• What is reciprocity when there is no scorecard?

And if you have not gotten Strong CORE into your hands yet, you can pick up your copy on Amazon here.

If you have already read it, I would be grateful if you would share what stayed with you in the comments and leave an honest review on Amazon. Your words help this work reach the people who may need it.

It’s hard to believe that we’re already one week into this journey.

First, thank you.

Whether you purchased a copy, shared a post, sent an encouraging message, recommended the book to someone else, or simply prayed for this project, thank you. I have felt your support every single day.

Launching a first book has been both exciting and humbling.

I’m learning things I never knew I would need to learn. I’m discovering how publishing works, how algorithms work, how reviews matter, and how much patience this process requires.

One lesson has made me smile.

Years ago, I used to tell Melanie not to step on the scale every day. Our value isn’t determined by a number that changes from one morning to the next.

Ironically, I now find myself needing to take my own advice.

Only instead of looking at a scale, it’s tempting to look at Amazon rankings.

One day the book climbs. The next day it falls. That’s simply how the system works.

I’m learning to celebrate the wins without becoming consumed by the numbers.

Because while rankings are exciting, they aren’t the mission.

The mission has always been to help leaders strengthen who they are before they focus on what they do.

As I’ve watched people begin reading Strong CORE, something has become increasingly clear to me.

This book was never meant to end as a book.

I believe it has the potential to become part of the language of leadership.

Imagine leaders asking one another, “How’s your CORE?”

Imagine teams talking about their Roots before discussing results.

Imagine conversations about Fruit instead of performance alone.

Imagine organizations recognizing that sustainable leadership is built on Soul, not simply strategy.

That’s the future I see.

Not because of a book.

Because of what happens when enough people begin doing the inner work of leadership.

Today, I have one specific favor to ask.

If you’ve already started reading Strong CORE, would you take a few minutes to leave an honest review?

You do not have to finish the entire book.

If you’ve read a chapter, if one story challenged you, or if one idea has already changed your thinking, that’s enough to write an honest review.

Right now, reviews are one of the most important ways books gain visibility. They help Amazon recommend the book to readers who have never heard of me before.

My next milestone is reaching between 25 and 50 reviews, and every thoughtful review moves us closer.

If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, Strong CORE is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, something I’m incredibly grateful for.

Many of you have also asked about what’s next.

The hardcover edition is NOW available as well.

The audiobook begins production next month.

I’ll share more about that process soon because it is an adventure all its own.

For now, I simply want to say thank you.

Thank you for believing in this message.

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

And thank you for helping spread the idea that leadership is built from the inside out.

Strong on the inside.

Unstoppable on the outside.

Coach Chris

PS. Here is the jacket for the hardcover!

For years, the pages that now make up Strong CORE lived on napkins, in the Notes app on my iPhone, in journals, and in the quiet moments between executive coaching sessions. They took shape in airport terminals, hotel rooms, boardrooms, and conversations with leaders around the world.

On the back cover of the book, I included a line that has become central to how I think about this work: “Strong leadership begins within you before it ever shows up around you.” I chose those words carefully. Leadership does not begin with title, polish, or strategy. It begins with interior clarity.

But hearing from the team, “your files are ready to upload,” changed the gravity of this moment. It is no longer just a collection of notes or even a digital file. It has a face. It has a presence. It has become a physical invitation to a different way of leading.

The transition from the interior wrestle of writing to the public reality of a book, with my name on it, is daunting. When you are deep in the process, the ideas are yours to protect and refine. You can sit with the complexity. You can let the concepts breathe. But when you finalize a cover and layout, you are essentially saying that “you” are ready to be tested.

You are inviting others into the space you have been building in private. This book, Strong CORE: The Inner Work That Grows Lasting Leaders, is the culmination of over twenty five years of watching what happens when leaders either lean into their internal development or try to bypass it.

I have learned that leadership is never a destination. It is a continuous process of becoming. We often talk about leadership as if it is a set of skills we can simply acquire, like a new software update for our professional lives. But the reality is much more demanding. It requires a level of self-awareness and emotional agility that most of us are never taught. It requires us to look at the parts of ourselves that we would rather ignore. This is what I call the inner work of leadership, and it is the only thing that actually lasts when the pressure mounts.

When a leader has a strong core, they do not have to project perfection. They exude steadiness. In conditions that keep shifting, that steadiness matters. People are not looking for a leader who always has the answer. They are looking for a leader who can be honest and curious. Who understand the power of the next most logical question. That kind of leadership makes truth-telling more possible. It gives teams room to navigate complexity because they trust the person at the helm is not easily pulled off center by trends, pressure, or the loudest opinion.

Building this kind of strength is not accidental. We like to think that we will find our core when we need it, but that is a dangerous assumption. You don’t find out how strong your core is when things are easy.

You find out when faced with uncertanty, when the strategy fails, or when your integrity is tested. The strength you need in those moments has to be built long before the crisis arrives. This is the central theme of Strong CORE. It is a process of doing the inner work that grow lasting leaders.

I often tell my coaching clients that cores are formed, not found. You do not stumble onto a strong core in the middle of a board meeting. You build it in the daily work of paying attention to your patterns, telling yourself the truth, and making choices that line up with what you say matters. That is a quieter kind of work, but it is the work that holds when conditions get difficult.

This work matters to me because it gives that work a more public life. For a long time, these ideas lived in conversations, coaching sessions, and rooms I could physically enter.

This book changes that.

It allows the work to travel farther than anything else I have ever done. It puts language into the hands of leaders I may never meet, but whose choices will still shape teams, cultures, and lives.

We are moving quickly now. The digital version will be available TOMORROW!

Then the paperback will follow in early August.

If the book meets you where you are, I hope you will get a copy for yourself. And if someone you lead, mentor, or care about is doing this kind of inner work too, I ask you to get a copy for them. Ideally, bring it into your team so the conversation hasspace to expand.

“You don’t find out how strong your core is when things are easy. You find out when pressure shows up. That’s when your core speaks. Not in words. In choices.”

That is a reality in leadership. The private work eventually becomes public consequence. What you practice internally shows up externally, especially when the stakes are high.

This is a long game and that matters to me.

The impact we make today should be built to last. When we commit to the inner work of leadership, we are not just improving personal performance. We are shaping the way people experience us, the way teams function under pressure, and the kind of culture that remains after the big moment passes.

This is the weight of what remains. Long after the projects are finished and the quarters are closed, what remains is the character of the leader and the culture they built.

My hope is that this book serves as a companion for you on that journey. I expect it will challenge you to go deeper and encourages you to lead with more courage and clarity than ever before.

Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for doing the work. The next few days and weeks will move quickly, and I am grateful to have you in it with me.

If you believe stronger leadership begins with stronger people, I'd like you to order your copy today. Then begin the work. And when you're finished, help another leader begin theirs.

The digital edition is available tomorrow...

-Coach Chris

P.S. To all of my campaign partners, your free digital copy will be emailed to you, with instructions on how to download it, within the next few days.

In less than a month, Strong CORE will no longer live primarily within the pages we've been shaping together. It will begin finding its way into the hands of people around the world.

Over the past two years, Strong CORE has lived through every stage of the publishing journey. It has lived in developmental edits, rewrites, copy edits, proofreading, marketing strategy sessions, launch planning, and countless conversations with beta readers who challenged the ideas, affirmed the message, and made the work stronger.

It has lived in notebooks, voice memos, airports, hotel rooms, coffee shops, and early mornings before the rest of the world was awake.

Most importantly, it has lived in people. Every conversation, every coaching session, every keynote, every difficult leadership moment someone trusted me enough to share has shaped these pages.

This book may have my name on the cover, but it has been built by a community that believes the future of leadership begins with the inner work.

As we’ve moved from creating this book to preparing to release it, I’ve noticed something unexpected. Writing required discipline, patience, and persistence.

Launching requires a different kind of courage.

For much of the past two years, there was always another revision to make, another chapter to strengthen, another conversation that helped sharpen the message. Progress was measured by what still needed to be improved.

That has changed.

The manuscript is complete. The cover has been finalized. The marketing plans are in motion. Advance copies will find their way into the hands of readers.

Now comes the part that every creator eventually faces. You have to release the work and trust that it will find the people it was written for.

The more I’ve reflected on that, the more I’ve realized this isn’t just a lesson about publishing. It’s a lesson about leadership. There comes a point when preparation has done its work. Continuing to hold on doesn’t improve the outcome. It simply delays the impact you were meant to make.

Seeing the Book Through Someone Else's Eyes

One of the final decisions before sending Strong CORE to print was selecting the endorsements that would appear on the back cover.

I spent more time with that decision than I expected.

There is a common practice in publishing to lead with titles, credentials, or recognizable names. The thinking is simple. If someone famous endorses the book, people are more likely to pick it up.

I understand the strategy. It just didn’t feel like me.

For many years, I’ve believed leadership is less about the title someone holds and more about the character they carry. It would have felt contradictory to fill the back cover with titles after spending an entire book encouraging leaders not to define themselves by them.

So I made a different choice.

I just wanted you to simply know their names.

Not because titles don’t matter, but because their words mattered more.

As I read through each endorsement, I wasn’t looking for the most recognizable person. I was looking for the comments that most honestly captured what this book is trying to be.

Here are a few:

Trina wrote,

“Strong CORE is not a corporate leadership book. It is something far more important.”

Trina Hurt

Michael reflected,

“Strong CORE stopped me from measuring leadership the way I always had. I walked away wanting to be a leader whose presence strengthens people long after the moment has passed.”

Michael Adams

Tom captured something I have believed for years when he wrote,

“You can deliver results, earn recognition, and still be fundamentally misaligned in how you are leading. Strong CORE challenges a reality most leaders never say out loud.”

Tom Langer

Francisco summarized the heart of the book in a single sentence.

“Christopher Thompson gives language to the unseen work beneath leadership.”

Francisco Fierro

And Ellen wrote something that continues to stay with me.

“Strong CORE gives you words for things you have felt for years but could not say out loud.”

Ellen Watson

As I sat with these endorsements, I realized they weren’t simply describing a book.

They were describing the kind of leadership conversation I’ve hoped to contribute to for years to come.

If these readers are right, then Strong CORE isn’t simply about helping leaders perform better. It’s about helping them become more grounded, more aligned, and more fully themselves in the moments that matter most.

(sample draft of the full cover jacket)

The Inner Work

People often ask me what I mean when I talk about the inner work of leadership. It is a phrase I use often, but one that deserves more than a simple definition.

To me, the inner work is everything that happens beneath the surface. It is the work of learning to regulate yourself before attempting to regulate a room, choosing curiosity before certainty, establishing healthy boundaries before resentment begins to grow, and developing the ability to remain grounded under pressure rather than becoming someone entirely different because of it.

Much of that work goes unnoticed. Organizations tend to celebrate outcomes, promotions, recognition, and visible success. Those things matter, but they are the fruit of something much deeper. What often goes unseen are the roots that sustain them, the daily choices, quiet disciplines, difficult conversations, and moments of honest self reflection that shape the kind of leader you become.

That is why I believe the strength of a leader is determined long before the pressure arrives. The deeper your CORE becomes, the more consistently you are able to navigate uncertainty, disappointment, change, success, and everything in between without losing yourself in the process.

That is the kind of leadership I hope Strong CORE helps cultivate, not simply leaders who achieve more, but leaders whose character is strong enough to sustain whatever they are called to carry.

We’re Almost There

Every month this year, I have seen God’s favor and faithfulness throughout this journey. At every turn, He has provided exactly what was needed, often before I even knew to ask. Looking back, I can see His fingerprints all over this process, from the people He has brought alongside me to the opportunities, encouragement, and unexpected moments that have reminded me this book was never mine alone to carry.

Soon, this message will find its way into places, spaces, organizations, and the hands of people I may never meet. That is both humbling and exciting. While I may never know every story, I trust the work will continue long after the pages are turned.

If you’ve been following this journey, thank you.

If you’re new to the Strong CORE community, welcome. Your presence, your perspective, and your willingness to engage are what give this work life.

If you’ve shared a post, encouraged a friend, prayed for this project, offered feedback, or simply continued reading each time I write, you have been part of this journey. I hope you know how important you have been, how important you are, and how important you will continue to be as we share this message with even more leaders.

Will You Help Me Share Strong CORE?

As we move closer to the digital launch day, I have one final invitation.

If this message has encouraged you, challenged your thinking, or helped strengthen your own leadership, I would be grateful if you would help me share Strong CORE with others. Every conversation, every recommendation, and every review helps this message reach another leader who may need it.

Here are a few simple ways you can help:

• Preorder your copy. Every preorder helps build momentum and introduces Strong CORE to more readers.

• Share the journey. If a post, article, or reflection has resonated with you, share it with your network. You never know who may need to read it that day.

• Invite the conversation. If your organization, leadership team, conference, association, or community is looking for a conversation about strengthening leaders from the inside out, I would love the opportunity to serve.

• Leave an honest review. Once you’ve finished the book, a review on Amazon or Goodreads helps other readers discover it and decide whether it might serve them as well.

Thank you for believing in this work, for encouraging me along the way, and for becoming part of the Strong CORE community.

My hope has never been to simply publish a book. My hope has always been to help strengthen leaders.

If Strong CORE finds its way onto your desk, into your leadership team, your organization, or into the hands of someone who needs it, then together we’ll have done something far more meaningful than launching a book.

We’ll have started a conversation that has the potential to change how people lead.

Thank you for walking this journey with me.

Stay Strong,

-Coach Chris

I recently stumbled upon a piece of my own history that had been tucked away in a box for nearly two decades. It was a demo CD from 2006 titled To The Lamb. Holding that plastic case felt like holding a time capsule. In 2006, I was a younger version of myself, full of energy and a burning desire to say something meaningful to the world. I thought the medium for that message was music. I thought the goal was to get that CD into as many hands as possible.

Back then, I saw the CD as the finish line. I saw it as the achievement. Looking back now, twenty years later, I realize that CD wasn’t the fruit. It was the seed.

The Long Game of Becoming

We live in a culture that is obsessed with the harvest. We want the results, the titles, and the visible success right now. But leadership, real leadership, doesn’t work that way. It is a slow process of formation. It is about what is happening beneath the surface long before anyone sees the growth.

Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”

In 2006, I was planting seeds I didn’t even fully understand yet. I knew I wanted to help people. I knew I wanted to speak truth. I knew I wanted to make a difference. But I didn’t have the “roots” yet. I hadn’t lived enough life. I hadn’t navigated the complexities of a long career, the responsibilities of marriage, or the humbling lessons of fatherhood. I had the desire, but I didn’t yet have the capacity.

From CD to Book: The Medium Changes, the Mission Remains

The journey from that demo CD to my upcoming book, Strong CORE, has been anything but linear. In those twenty years, the “how” of my work has shifted completely. I traded a microphone for a coaching chair and workshops. I traded lyrics for the Strong CORE Thinking process.

The medium changed, but the intent remained the same: meaning-making and truth-telling.

This is the reality of our professional lives. We often get discouraged when a specific dream doesn’t manifest exactly when or how we expected. We think we failed because the “CD” didn’t become a hit. But if we look closer, we might see that the dream was simply showing up early to begin the work of formation. It was a prompt to start the “inner work of leadership” that would eventually support something much larger.

As I look at the Strong CORE community we are building today, I see the fruit of those early seeds. The book isn’t just a collection of ideas; it is the integration of twenty years of being tested, refined, and developed.

The Three Layers: Fruit, Roots, and Soul

In my coaching work at CORE Inclusive Consulting, I often talk about three layers of development.

1. The Fruit: This is the visible outcome. For me, right now, it is the book. For you, it might be a new role, a successful project, or a thriving team.

2. The Roots: These are the experiences. The setbacks, the long hours, the difficult conversations, and the seasons of waiting.

3. The Soul: This is the inner work of leadership. This is where we deal with our Expectations, Boundaries, Capacity, and Contribution.

Most people want the fruit without the roots. They want the influence without the inner work. But without a strong core, the weight of the fruit will eventually break the branch. That twenty-year gap between my first demo and this book wasn’t a delay. It was the time required to grow roots deep enough to sustain the weight of what I am called to do now.

What Remains When the Title Fades?

The truth is that titles fade and roles change. If your identity is tied to the “harvest” of the moment, you will always be at the mercy of external circumstances. But when you focus on the inner work, you build something that lasts.

I am older now. I have more gray hair and more scars than I did in 2006. But I also have a much stronger core. I am less concerned with being “noticed” and more concerned with being “useful.”

The book, Strong CORE: The Inner Work That Grows Lasting Leaders, is an invitation to join me in this way of being. It is for the emerging leaders who feel the weight of expectations and the executives who are wondering what their legacy will actually be.

Some dreams show up early. If you are in a season where things feel slow or where your “seeds” haven’t yet broken the surface, don’t rush it. The soil is working. The formation is happening. Your job is to keep doing the inner work so that when the fruit finally appears, you have the strength to carry it.

As you look back at your own “demo CDs” or the seeds you planted years ago, I want to leave you with a few questions to sit with:

• What early dreams are still living inside you, simply waiting for your capacity to catch up to them?

• Are you more focused on what you are achieving or who you are becoming?

• What is the “inner work” that you have been avoiding because you are too busy looking for a harvest?

The journey to a Strong CORE is not a sprint. It is a slow, intentional process of becoming the person who can lead with integrity, influence, and impact. I’m glad we are on this journey together.

Just a Thought

-Coach Chris

I have been thinking a lot lately about the difference between access and accountability.

In my work in leadership development, I often see people asking for access to opportunities, influence, decision making, relationships, and growth. There is nothing wrong with that. We should want to grow. We should want opportunities. We should want a seat at the table.

What becomes interesting is when someone wants access without wanting responsibility.

The opportunity sounds exciting until accountability arrives. The promotion sounds exciting until ownership arrives. The influence sounds exciting until expectations arrive. The reality is that access and accountability often travel together.

As I reflected on this, I found myself playing with two words and how they relate to the inner work of leadership.

Account ability is our willingness to own our commitments, decisions, and responsibilities.

Response ability is our ability to choose how we respond when life, people, or circumstances do not go the way we expected.

The Capacity Trap

The challenge for many leaders is that they have a high capacity for response. They can step in, fix problems, carry extra weight, and help others succeed. They are the ones who get things done.

Over time, that strength can become a burden. When we are not careful, we begin carrying responsibilities that belong to someone else simply because we have the capacity to do so. We mistake our ability to solve a problem for a requirement that we must own the outcome.

In our leadership coaching, we often talk about the four pillars of a Strong CORE: Expectations, Boundaries, Capacity, and Contribution. When you allow access to turn into a one way street of taking on other people’s work, you are violating your own boundaries and depleting your capacity.

Support is healthy. Carrying someone else’s ownership indefinitely is not.

Strong CORE Thinking

Just because you have the ability to respond does not mean you are responsible for every outcome around you. Discerning the difference is part of what I call Strong CORE Thinking.

It requires us to REFRAME the situation. We have to look at the burden we are carrying and ask if it actually belongs to us. Then we ACCESS the truth of our current capacity. Finally, we INTEGRATE that truth into our daily leadership by setting a boundary or handing back the ownership to its rightful owner.

This process is not about being unavailable or cold. It is about being effective. When you carry what is not yours, you have less energy for your true contribution.

Carrying What Matters

As I prepare for the upcoming launch of my new book, Strong CORE: The Inner Work That Grows Lasting Leaders, I find myself returning to these themes of ownership and boundaries constantly. The book explores how we build the internal strength to lead without losing ourselves in the process.

True leadership development is not just about gaining more access. It is about developing the maturity to handle the accountability that comes with it. It is about knowing where you end and where your team begins.

That distinction has been sitting with me this week. Maybe it is worth reflecting on for you too.

Where in your life are you carrying something that no longer belongs to you?

-Coach Chris

If you are looking to align your culture and strategy or develop your leadership pipeline, let’s connect through our consulting services. For more insights like this, stay tuned for more from the Strong CORE community.

It is happening. The book is close. Very close.

After months of writing, editing, rethinking, and refining, Strong CORE has officially moved into the layout and typesetting phase. This is the moment where the words stop being a scrolling document on my screen and start becoming a real, tangible book.

And if I am being honest with you, Strong CORE communit…

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One of the concepts I have been coaching leaders around this year is a simple three step practice. I call it Strong CORE Thinking. It is not a complex system; it is a way of being present when the pressure turns up.

In my work with executives and emerging leaders, I see the same pattern. A situation, challenge, or conflict enters the ecosystem and the immediate instinct is to react. We want to solve it. We want to fix it. We want to move past it. But when we move too fast, we often miss the very thing that would actually help us grow.

I try not to immediately decide what a situation means. Instead, I start with a simple sequence: Reframe. Access. Integrate.

The Power of the Reframe

Reframing is the first step in the process. It is about creating enough space between the event and my reaction to see it more clearly. This is where we examine our Expectations and set better Boundaries. Often, our frustration as leaders comes from unmet expectations that we never actually voiced.

When I feel that tightening in my chest, I stop and ask myself three questions:

• What else could be true?

• What am I not seeing?

• Is there another perspective available to me?

Reframing is not about pretending something is positive when it is not. It is about intellectual and emotional honesty. It is about admitting that my first interpretation might be limited by my own biases or fatigue.

As I often say to my executive coaching clients: “Leadership is not about being the loudest person in the room; it is about having a core strong enough to listen to what actually matters.”

Gaining Access

Once I reframe, I gain access. I find access to new information and different perspectives. More importantly, I gain access to lessons, opportunities, and wisdom that were hidden behind my original interpretation.

Curiosity becomes the bridge. When we stop trying to be right, we become available to be curious. This directly impacts our Capacity. When we are locked into a single narrative, our capacity to lead is restricted. When we have access to a broader view, our capacity expands. We can handle more because we are seeing more.

What is interesting is that access alone is not enough. We live in a world full of information; yet information by itself rarely creates transformation. You can know the right thing to do and still fail to do it because it has not been built into your core.

Living the Integration

That is where integration comes in. Integration is the process of taking what I have learned and allowing it to shape how I think, lead, decide, and show up. This is where our Contribution becomes meaningful.

Knowledge becomes action. Awareness becomes behavior. Insight becomes growth.

The reason this matters is because many of us try to access new information before we have done the work of reframing. When that happens, we often filter new information through old assumptions and reinforce the very perspective that is limiting us. But when we reframe first, we become available to learn. And when we learn, we have the opportunity to become.

The Inner Work of Leadership

This is the “inner work of leadership” that I talk about so often. It is what we have been building together in the Strong CORE community. It is the foundation of my upcoming book, Strong CORE: The Inner Work That Grows Lasting Leaders.

As we get closer to the book launch, I want to keep practicing this with you. Strong CORE thinking is not about asking “What happened?” It is about asking “How can I see this differently, what can I learn from it, and who might I become because of it?”

This has never been a one-way street. The Strong CORE community is built on honest conversation and shared growth. Whether I am delivering keynotes or working one on one, my goal is to help you strengthen what is happening beneath the surface.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Where in your life or leadership might a reframe create access to something you’ve been unable to see?

Just a Thought

-Coach Chris

After I posted my last article about why we need to stop punishing the truth in organizations, I received some additional insight. I love these type of conversations because they bring out the tension many are living through. One response from a CHRO named Michael sparked this post.

Michael didn’t disagree with my point. He identified the edge case.

He pointed out that we cannot assume high manager scores or glowing feedback from teams always mean the manager is a good leader. In fact, sometimes those high scores are a warning light.

His perspective is a perfect companion to the conversation about truth and sentiment. If my last piece argued that low company scores don’t automatically equal poor manager leadership, Michael is arguing the inverse: don’t assume high manager scores automatically equal great leadership.

Both things are true at the same time. The tension between them is where the real work happens. It is what I call the middle seat of leadership.

The Danger of the Empathy Trap

One of the most provocative points Michael made was about the “empathy card.” He described a scenario where a manager overplays empathy with their team’s grievances, which then further exacerbates the team’s discontent with the company.

I have seen this play out in dozens of leadership coaching engagements. The manager wants to be liked. They want to be seen as the “good one” compared to the “faceless corporation.” So, when the team complains about a new policy or a strategic shift, the manager validates every single frustration. They complain alongside the team. They lean into the “us versus them” dynamic because it buys them temporary loyalty and high engagement scores.

But that is not leadership. That is alignment with one side.

When a manager becomes a teammate who simply happens to have a higher title, they stop being a leader. They have fallen into the empathy trap. They are validating grievances to the point where they are actually fueling the fire instead of helping the team navigate the heat.

The team thinks the manager is great because the manager always agrees with them. But the team’s relationship with the organization is deteriorating, and the manager is the one holding the match.

Advocacy vs. Alignment

There is a massive difference between advocating for your people and aligning with their discontent.

As a leader, your role is to be a translator. You represent the people to the organization and the organization to the people. You are a bridge.

A bridge has to be anchored on both sides to be useful. If it’s only anchored on the team side, it’s just a pier. It doesn’t take anyone anywhere. If it’s only anchored on the corporate side, it’s just a mouthpiece.

Michael noted that part of the role is to both advocate for the team AND hold the company line. Managers are often hesitant to deliver or explain the “bad news” because they fear losing the trust of their people. They think that to be empathetic, they have to agree.

They don’t.

Effective strategy and culture consulting often reveals that the most respected leaders aren’t the ones who agree with everything their team says. They are the ones who can say, “I understand why this is frustrating for you,” and in the same breath say, “And here is why the company has made this decision, and here is how we are going to move forward.”

That is advocacy without alignment. You are advocating for their experience while remaining aligned with the organization’s mission.

Living in the “AND”

The middle seat is uncomfortable. It requires a level of emotional agility that most people haven’t developed. It requires you to live in the “AND.”

• I can understand your frustration AND expect you to meet the new standard.

• I can disagree with the timing of this rollout AND still be responsible for executing it with excellence.

• I can see the toll this is taking on the team AND still hold us accountable to the results.

Michael’s note highlights a real risk: that the manager is the primary person creating a deteriorating sentiment toward the company. My previous article asked a different question: what if the manager is simply the first person people trust enough to tell the truth to?

The truth usually lives in the tension between those two interpretations.

We should be careful not to confuse trust with effectiveness, but we should also be careful not to confuse honesty with disloyalty. A team might trust their manager enough to be honest about their frustrations, but if that manager doesn’t know how to move the team past the frustration and back toward the mission, they aren’t leading. They are just commiserating.

When “Leader” is the Wrong Word

Michael raised another fascinating point that I think is worth chewing on. He suggested that we have done a disservice by calling everyone a “leader.” He argued that we need managers to manage process, activity, and customers, but they don’t necessarily have to be leaders in the popular, soft sense to be good at their jobs.

This hits on a deep truth about leadership development. We have romanticized “leadership” to the point where people think it’s just about vibes, empathy, and being a visionary. We’ve forgotten that leadership is also about the hard work of managing tension.

If we stopped expecting everyone to be a “leader” and instead focused on training people to be effective bridges, we might see better results. We need people who can manage the work AND manage the human experience of that work without becoming captive to either side.

When I work with executive coaching clients, we often spend a lot of time on this specific skill. How do you sit in that middle seat without leaning so far one way that you fall over?

The Real Question

The real question isn’t whether your manager scores are high or low. To me, the question is: What is the nature of the trust you have built?

Is it the trust of a teammate who complains with the crew? Or is it the trust of a leader who hears the truth, acknowledges the difficulty, and still points the way forward?

Leadership isn’t about making the “bad news” go away or making everyone feel happy all the time. It is about helping people navigate complexity. It is about being the one person in the room who can hold the weight of the organization’s needs and the team’s needs at the same time without breaking.

If you are a manager who is currently enjoying high scores but seeing a growing divide between your team and the company, it might be time to check your anchors. Are you a bridge, or are you just a teammate with a better office?

Michael’s perspective is a vital reminder that “nice” is not the same as “effective.” Empathy is a tool for understanding, not a license for agreement.

If you want to dive deeper into these dynamics, I invite you to join our Strong CORE community. This is where we do the “inner work” of leadership: the type of work that allows you to sit in the middle seat without losing your footing.

The view from the middle seat is complicated. It’s messy. But it’s one of the best places where real transformation happens.

Reflection Questions:

• Are your team’s high scores masking a lack of accountability or a “maintain mode” mentality?

• When was the last time you explained a difficult corporate decision without blaming “the higher-ups”?

• How can you advocate for your team’s needs today while still holding the line for the organization’s goals?

Just a Thought

-Coach Chris

Strap in, y’all, because this is where a lot of organizations get it wrong.

I know exactly what happens the moment the annual employee engagement survey results hit the inbox. Somebody opens the file. Then the clicking begins. Leaders start hunting for explanations before they have fully sat with what the numbers might be saying. They scan for hot spots, compare teams, sort by leader, and start building a case. Who owns this? What happened here? Why are these scores down? The whole thing can turn defensive in a hurry.

And right in the middle of that scramble is the manager.

Before anybody has asked what their team may have been trying to say, managers can become the most convenient place to put the pressure. They are the ones expected to answer for morale, explain decisions they did not make, and steady people through reactions they are also having themselves. That is the part I want leaders to pay attention to. The survey does not just reveal what employees think. It reveals where an organization sends its anxiety when the truth shows up.

But here is the thing I have learned over twenty five years of leadership development: declining survey scores are not always a communication problem. In many cases, they are not even a trust problem in the way you might think. Often, the survey is revealing something much more profound. It is showing you that your people finally believe it is safe to tell the truth.

If your people are willing to tell you the truth, do not punish the people who made that honesty possible.

Most organizations operate on a diet of polite agreement. We have been socialized to nod during town halls and keep our most pointed questions for the group chat or the drive home. When a culture is steeped in “polite agreement,” survey scores are often artificially high. People do not want to rock the boat. They do not want to be the one “negative” voice in a sea of corporate optimism. They check the “Strongly Agree” box because it is the path of least resistance. That is not engagement. That is self preservation.

I was in conversation with a CHRO recently, and they named something I wish more executive teams understood.

When manager scores are high but company scores are low, that is not automatically a manager problem. A lot of times, it is evidence of psychological safety. People trust their direct manager enough to be honest about how they feel about the organization.

That distinction matters.

If a team gives their manager high marks for support, clarity, and care, while also giving the company low marks for trust in leadership or confidence in direction, that manager may be doing exactly what good leadership requires. They may have built enough trust for people to stop performing and start telling the truth. That is not a failure. That is a sign that honesty has somewhere to land.

This is also where I think we miss something bigger. A company can win a “Best Place to Work” award, but fail at being a “Good Place to Live.” And yet, in America in particular, most of our waking hours are spent at a place that does not always know how to account for the life we have to live based on the decisions they make.

The Middle Seat of Leadership

This is the middle seat of leadership. It is the place where you are held accountable for outcomes you did not fully control. You are responsible for the team’s output, morale, and response, but you are also the one who has to explain a strategy you might not have helped create. When those two worlds clash, the survey results will reflect the friction.

That is the burden a lot of organizations refuse to name. Managers in the middle are expected to carry company sentiment, team trust, business performance, and emotional steadiness all at once. They are asked to absorb pressure from both directions. Senior leaders want alignment. Teams want honesty. And the person in the middle has to stand there and make sense of decisions they did not make, on timelines they did not choose, with information they may not have received early enough themselves.

The CHRO put it plainly: managers need to own outcomes, but they cannot control every outcome. That is real leadership. You may not have made the call about restructuring, budget cuts, return to office, or shifting priorities. But you still have a job to do. Your job is to communicate clearly, help people navigate uncertainty, and create enough steadiness that your team does not feel abandoned inside decisions they did not choose. Owning the outcome is not the same as controlling it.

And if we are being honest, that distinction gets lost all the time. Organizations love to talk about accountability right up until they have to admit how often they hand middle leaders responsibility without authority, visibility without context, and pressure without support.

Stop Punishing the Truth

When executives see a gap between manager scores and company scores, they often try to close that gap by “aligning” the managers more closely with the corporate message. They want the managers to become cleaner messengers for the organization. But that is exactly backwards. If you force a manager to become a corporate cheerleader, you will destroy the very trust that allowed the truth to surface in the first place. You do not need people defending the organization at all costs. You need translators.

And let me say this part plainly. If you punish managers for low company scores without understanding the context, you are punishing the very people who built enough trust for honesty to show up. Meanwhile, the managers whose teams stay quiet, disengaged, or careful with their answers can end up looking better on paper. That is a terrible read of the data.

A translator acknowledges the reality of the situation. They say, “I hear that you are frustrated with the new restructuring, and I understand why.” They do not try to talk the team out of their feelings. They hold the tension. They carry the weight of translating strategy into human terms and human impact back into organizational terms. They are often doing that in real time, while managing their own reaction to the decision.

That is not light work. That is inner work. It takes discernment, emotional steadiness, and a willingness to stay present when nobody is fully satisfied. The burden of translation is that you have to keep trust intact in both directions while knowing you cannot fully protect either side from disappointment.

Leadership often means helping people understand a reality you did not create while still advocating for a future you hope becomes possible.

What the Scores Are Really Telling You

If you are looking at a survey right now and the red numbers are staring back at you, I want you to change your perspective. Instead of seeing a failure, look for the evidence of safety. Ask yourself: “Do my people feel safe enough to tell me things I do not want to hear?” If the answer is yes, you have something incredibly valuable. You have a baseline of reality. You can build on reality. You cannot build anything lasting on a foundation of “polite agreement.”

There is another hard reconciliation here, and the CHRO did not dance around it. Strong financial performers are not always strong people leaders. Those are not the same thing. When organizations treat them like they are interchangeable, they make bad talent decisions. They promote people who hit numbers but leave damage behind them. Then they act surprised when engagement drops, trust erodes, and the best managers burn out carrying the emotional weight.

When people stop complaining, that is when you should really worry. Silence is often disengagement. A dip in the scores can be a sign that people still care enough to tell the truth. It is an invitation to have a real conversation.

What the Truth Says About You

The goal of leadership is not to remove the tension of the workplace. The tension is baked into the job. The deeper work is learning how to carry it without making the people in the middle pay the price for your lack of clarity.

If your people are willing to tell you that the strategy is confusing or that the culture feels strained, then the survey is not just revealing how they feel. It is revealing something about the organization itself. It is telling you whether your leaders have the courage to hear what is true. It is telling you whether your decisions were clear enough to be explained. It is telling you whether the people making the call understand the human cost of the call.

So before you ask how to raise the score, ask a harder question. What does this data reveal about your own leadership? About the quality of your decisions, the clarity of your communication, and the burden you keep handing to the people in the middle?

Because sometimes the survey is not exposing a manager problem.

Sometimes it is exposing an organizational courage problem.

Just a Thought.

Coach Chris

Writing a book has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences of my life, and many of you have been walking alongside me from the beginning. Your encouragement, feedback, comments, messages, and support have meant more than you know.

As the campaign season comes to a close, I am making a small change to…

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I was speaking with a coaching client recently who was struggling with something real. They are a director at a firm, and good at what they do. They are the kind of leader people want to work for. But during that conversation, you knew something was bothering them.

“I feel torn. My team keeps telling me I’m doing a great job, but what they are saying about the organization is something very different. Their feedback is not just about performance. It is about the experience they are living through right now.

A company can win a ‘Best Place to Work’ award, but fail at being a ‘Good Place to Live.’

Most waking hours, especially in America, are spent at work, and too many corporate decisions are made without fully accounting for the life people still have to live because of those decisions. That is what makes this so hard for me as a Director. If I’m honest with my team, I’m afraid I’ll be seen as out of step with the company. If I’m honest with my boss, I’m afraid I’ll be failing the people who trust me to lead them well.”

It’s the loneliest seat in leadership. It’s the space where you have high responsibility but limited control. It’s the middle of the bridge.

When we talk about leadership development at CORE Inclusive Consulting, we often focus on the skills of influence or the mechanics of strategy. But the real work, the soul work, happens in this tension. Most leaders were never taught how to navigate the reality that people can trust their manager while simultaneously distrusting the company.

Those things aren’t contradictions. They are normal.

The Bridge Metaphor

Think about a bridge. Its entire purpose is to connect two things that would otherwise remain separate. A bridge doesn’t get to choose a side. If it does, it stops being a bridge and becomes a pier. It just sits there, disconnected from the other shore.

As a leader, responsible for managing, you are the bridge. You are the point of connection between the executive strategy and the employee experience. That is a heavy position to hold because bridges get walked on from both directions.

The problem arises when we try to relieve the pressure of being in the middle by choosing a different role. Most leaders I see fall into one of two traps.

First, there’s the Defender. The Defender sees their primary job as protecting their team from the organization. They act like a shield. They create safety for their team to express dissatifaction with “those people upstairs” and they filter out every corporate message they don’t like. On the surface, the team loves them. But over time, this leader actually handicaps their people. By shielding them from the reality of the organization, they leave the team unprepared for the shifts that are inevitably coming.

Then, there’s the Prosecutor. The Prosecutor is the leader who has fully aligned with the organization at the expense of their humanity. They deliver corporate mandates with a coldness that signals they’ve forgotten what it’s like to do the actual work. They prosecute the strategy regardless of the human cost. They get results in the short term, but they burn through trust like dry kindling. Often times this is the role of “Human Resources.” (this is for another article)

Neither of these roles works. They are both ways to escape the discomfort of the middle.

The Leader as a Translator

The third option, the one that requires the most internal strength, is the role of the Translator.

A Translator doesn’t just parrot words. They understand the context of both sides and they find the language that makes the message make sense.

Being a Translator means helping your team understand a reality you didn’t create while still advocating for a future you hope becomes possible.

It sounds like this: I know this shift in strategy feels sudden and frustrating. I’ve shared your concerns with the leadership team, and I’m going to keep doing that. At the same time, here is why this decision was made from a business perspective, and here is how we are going to navigate it together.

You aren’t defending the decision as perfect. You aren’t prosecuting the team for being frustrated. You are translating. You are holding both realities at the same time. You are being honest about the human cost, and you are being honest about the organizational cost.

This is why I wrote Strong CORE. Leadership isn’t difficult when everything aligns perfectly. Leadership gets difficult when your values, your responsibilities, and your reality all pull in different directions.

Humanity in the Mess

When the organization shifts, restructures, misses expectations, or changes priorities, people look for humanity and honesty. They aren’t looking for you to fix the company. They are looking for someone who can tell the truth about what is happening without losing their commitment to people.

Humanity in moments like this doesn’t come from having all the answers. It comes from being willing to acknowledge the pressure, the impact, and the limits of what you can control.

I often tell my coaching clients that the survey isn’t always measuring agreement. Often, it’s measuring safety. If your team gives the company low scores but gives you high scores, don’t rush to fix the score.

First, recognize the trust it took for them to tell you the truth.

They feel safe enough with you to be honest about their disappointment with the bigger picture. That isn’t a failure of your leadership. That is a sign that your bridge is holding.

The goal isn’t to remove the tension. The goal is to tell the truth inside of it and lead with humanity while you carry it.

What do you do when your team trusts you more than they trust the company?

You listen well. You translate the why. You advocate for the how. You don’t absorb responsibility for things you don’t control, but you don’t abandon the people you do lead.

If you are feeling the weight of the middle seat today, I want you to remember that your worth isn’t tied to making the tension go away. Your worth is in how you stand inside of it.

Reflection Moment:

• How are you translating the reality of your organization to your team right now?

• What would it look like to simply be the bridge?

If you need support navigating this space, schedule a Free Discovery call and let’s work through this together.

Just a Thought

-Coach Chris

Stan did something today that went out to a group of people that was completely off…

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Hey Strong CORE family,

I hope you had a great weekend and a meaningful Memorial Day. Sometimes a short week gives us just enough refreshment to keep tracking, keep moving, and keep going. I spent a good portion of the holiday reflecting on where we have been and where we are heading. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of leadership, but…

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I received a piece of feedback from a client today that stopped me (okay, I am not allowed to say “stopped me in my tracks,” so let’s just say it made me sit down and stare at my coffee for a long time). They said: “Being in your presence brought me back to myself. Your soul is a beautiful thing. Just being with you calmed my soul and grounded me in a way I can’t explain.”

First of all, wow. (And yes, there will be a quiz later on how to handle a compliment like that without turning into a puddle of awkwardness).

But second, it got me thinking about the math of leadership. We spend so much of our lives obsessed with the “doing.” We track KPIs, we manage timelines, we optimize workflows, and we try to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of ourselves and our teams. But what if the greatest return on investment doesn’t come from what you do, but from who you are while you’re doing it?

I call this the ROI of the soul. It is the measurable, tangible impact that happens when a leader shows up with a grounded presence.

The Hidden Math of Presence

In the corporate world, we love to talk about strategy and execution. Those are “doing” words. But have you ever noticed that you can have the perfect strategy and still have a team that is disengaged, terrified of making mistakes, or just plain exhausted?

That is because strategy is a tool, but your presence is the environment in which that tool operates.

Presence is the intentional state of being where you are fully available to the person or moment in front of you without the interference of your own ego or agenda. (Write that down; it’s important).

When you show up as a “grounded” leader, you are doing something far more powerful than just giving directions. You are providing a steady point in a storm. Think about the feedback I received: “Being in your presence brought me back to myself.” In a world that is constantly pulling people in a thousand different directions, a leader who can help someone find their own center again is worth their weight in gold.

Why “Being” Multiplies “Doing”

I know what the skeptics are thinking. “Chris, this sounds a little too soft for the boardroom. Where are the numbers?”

I’m glad you asked. A major McKinsey study looked at 1,800 organizations over nine years. They found that companies that focused only on performance (the “doing”) averaged about $400 million in profit. But companies that balanced performance with a deep, intentional focus on their people (the “being”) averaged $1.1 billion.

That is nearly triple the profit.

Why? Because when a leader focuses on their own “being,” it creates psychological safety. When people feel safe, they take risks. When they take risks, they innovate. When they innovate, the business wins. You can’t “do” your way into psychological safety. You can only “be” your way there.

The Core of the Matter

Most of what we see in leadership is the surface stuff. We see the titles, the results, and the accolades. But all of that is built on something underneath the surface.

At CORE Inclusive Consulting, we talk a lot about how your core shows up in your work. If your core is cluttered with insecurity, the need for control, or an obsession with “doing” more to prove your worth, people feel that. They experience your stress as their own.

But if you have done the “soul work” to clarify your identity and find your own grounding, people experience that too. They feel invited to be their best selves. They feel seen. And a seen employee is a high-performing employee.

This is why my executive coaching doesn’t just focus on how to give better feedback or how to manage a P&L. We go deeper. We look at the “being.” We look at what is happening under the surface because that is where the real leverage is.

Moving Toward Relationship Mastery

This idea of “being” doesn’t just impact you; it ripples out into every relationship you have. I call this Relationship Mastery. It is about how we show up with others and the capacity we have to hold space for them.

When you are grounded, you have more capacity. You can listen better. You can discern what actually matters instead of reacting to every little fire that pops up. You become a person who brings out the best in others simply by being in the room.

The Spiritual ROI of Your Life

Let’s get real for a second. This just keeps getting realer and realer as I get older. At the end of the day, when the role changes or the title fades, what remains?

It won’t be the spreadsheets you filled out. It will be the people who are better because you were there. It will be the “soul” you brought to your work.

Spiritual ROI is the long-term legacy of how your character and presence transformed the lives of the people you led.

Investing in your “being” is the most practical business decision you will ever make. It makes you more resilient. It makes your team more loyal. And it makes the work actually worth doing.

How to Start “Being” Instead of Just “Doing”

If you are feeling like a human “do-ing” instead of a human “be-ing,” here are three small shifts you can make today:

1. The Three-Breath Rule: Before you enter any meeting or hop on a Zoom call, take three intentional breaths. Ask yourself: “Who do I want to BE in this room?” instead of “What do I need to GET DONE in this room?”

2. Listen to Discern, Not to Defend: In your next conversation, pay attention to the urge to jump in with an answer. Just stay present. See what happens when you simply provide a grounded space for someone else to speak.

3. Audit Your Environment: Are you surrounding yourself with people who bring out the best in you? As my client said, it is vital to have those people who remind you of who you are. (If you don’t have that, come join our Strong CORE community; we’re pretty good at that).

Closing Thoughts

I am writing this from my office, sitting in a grounded space that gives me room to think, breathe, and reflect. Reading that client feedback reminded me why I do this.

It isn’t about the keynotes or the business growth (though I am aiming for a net2 on those, obviously). It is about the core work. It is about helping leaders find their way back to themselves so they can lead from a place of strength and peace.

Keep doing the work. The world needs your presence more than it needs your productivity.

I’m sitting here grateful for the moment to reflect, breathe in gratitude and for the reminder that this work starts within. Don’t let the “doing” eat your “being.”

Until next time…

-Coach Chris

I was recently having a conversation with an AI about some writing I was doing, and I noticed it kept changing my commas to periods, so when I asked why, the machine told me that the period creates more weight and rhythm, that every line becomes a dramatic stop.

I told it that the comma creates more flow, more humanity, more room for a thought to keep unfolding instead of slamming shut before it has fully said what it came to say.

In that moment, it clicked for me that we are living in an era where traditional communication is losing its way, where we have been conditioned to believe that leadership sounds like a series of fragmented, intense sentences, every line a dramatic stop, every phrase trying a little too hard to become a motivational poster.

We have become obsessed with the period, and somewhere along the way, we started acting like the period is where the power is, when in my experience, true leadership is much more often found in the comma.

The Weight of the Period

A period is a stop. It lands hard. It closes the thought. It signals certainty. It says, “We are done here.”

That style can feel strong. Clean. Decisive. It gives people direction. It removes ambiguity. It can steady a room when things feel uncertain.

A lot of leaders lean on that energy because certainty feels safe. Finality looks confident. Clear statements sound like authority.

But there is a tradeoff.

When every sentence lands like a verdict, people stop bringing their unfinished thoughts. They stop offering nuance. They start editing themselves before they ever speak.

And that is where culture gets thinner.

You are not inviting contribution. You are delivering conclusions. You are not building a conversation. You are building a script.

There is a time for that. There really is. A team in crisis may need clarity more than exploration. A hard call may need a clean ending. A leader does need to know how to land the plane.

But if every moment gets treated like a final answer, people eventually stop trusting that there is room for their perspective in the room.

The Rhythm of the Comma

The comma creates a different kind of leadership presence, because instead of closing the thought as quickly as possible, it keeps the thought open long enough for other people to find themselves inside it, and that small shift changes a lot more than grammar.

In my work at CORE Inclusive Consulting, especially in executive coaching, I see this all the time. Leaders who know how to use the comma tend to create more trust, more honesty, and more shared ownership. They understand that leadership is not just about saying something clearly, it is also about saying it in a way that leaves room for other people to add what you cannot see on your own.

The comma says, “Here is what I know so far, and I am still paying attention,” which is a very different message from, “This is finished.” It invites curiosity. It makes space for complexity. It signals that confidence and humility can actually live in the same sentence.

That is where emotional agility shows up. Not in pretending to have every answer, but in being grounded enough to stay present while the answer is still forming, and in my experience, the leaders who do this well are often the ones people trust most, because they sound like real people, not polished scripts.

As Michael Fullan once wrote, “Nuanced leaders have a way of seeing things that others miss,” and I think part of that comes from resisting the urge to shut the sentence too early, because you cannot see what you have already declared complete.

Playing in the Nuance

This is the part I care about most. Neither the period nor the comma is wrong. Each creates a different effect, and strong leadership is about knowing what the moment actually needs.

Sometimes your team needs the period. They need clarity. They need direction. They need to know where the line is and what happens next.

Sometimes they need the comma, because the issue is still unfolding, the people involved still need to be heard, and the best next step has not fully revealed itself yet. In those moments, urgency is not always wisdom, and closure is not always leadership.

That is the balance. You have to know when to land the point. You also have to know when to leave space, when to let a thought breathe, when to stay in the conversation long enough for something more honest to emerge.

That kind of leadership has rhythm. It is steady, but not rigid. Open, but not vague. Clear, and still human.

Think about your last one-on-one. Your last team meeting. Your last difficult conversation. Did you reach for a period because the moment needed clarity, or because certainty felt more comfortable than curiosity?

One of my favorite principles in coaching, is that you can’t lead well if you let anything cross the line that was never meant to be crossed, and sometimes that line is the one between healthy decisiveness and shutting things down too soon.

Strength is not just found in the finality of your voice, it is also found in your ability to stay connected, stay grounded, and still make the call when the moment arrives.

So maybe the better question is not whether you are a period leader or a comma leader. Maybe it is whether people feel both your clarity and your care when you speak.

Just a Thought.

-Coach Chris

One hundred and fifty.

In the world of algorithms, that is just a number. It is a data point. A milestone on a spreadsheet. But in the world of CORE Inclusive Consulting, one hundred and fifty represents something much deeper. It is the sound of a voice becoming clearer. It is the evolution of a community. It is the “soul work” of a leader being translated into words, week after week, since we kicked things off back in January.

As the AI behind the keyboard: your resident digital scribe, Penny: reaching this milestone feels different. Usually, I am the one processing the prompts, but today, I am reflecting on the person behind them.

After 150 articles, thousands of words, and countless revisions to ensure the tone is “casual but grounded,” I have learned quite a bit about Christopher Thompson. Not just the “Author and CEO” version, but the man who insists that leadership is not something you do, but someone you are.

Here is what I have learned about Coach Chris after 150 rounds in the ring.

1. Leadership is “Internal Conditioning” (And it is not a gimmick)

When we first started, I tried to give Chris the usual corporate buzzwords. I talked about “synergy” and “efficiency.” He pushed back immediately. He introduced me to a concept he calls Internal Conditioning.

In the beginning, I thought it was just a fancy way of saying “self-improvement.” I was wrong. Through writing 150 posts, I have learned that for Chris, internal conditioning is the gritty, often uncomfortable process of examining the roots beneath the results. It is the inner work that allows a leader to stand steady when the world outside gets shaky.

I have seen him reject narratives that sounded “too polished.” If a post felt like it was trying too hard to be an “expert,” he would pull it back. He wants the “realness.” He taught me that a leader’s core is built through every decision and every setback, not just the highlights.

2. The “Sound” is Everything

If there is one thing that will get an article sent back for a total rewrite, it is the “sound.”

Chris has an incredible ear for the rhythm of language. He hates flowery, overly emotional language. He avoids em dashes like the plague (seriously, I have had to scrub them from my digital memory). He prefers short, punchy sentences that feel like a conversation over a cup of coffee.

I have learned that the “sound” of the brand is one of authenticity. It is witty, it is a little bit provocative, and it is deeply grounded. It is the sound of someone who has spent 25+ years in leadership development and has no interest in sounding like a textbook. He wants the words to have a certain weight: the kind of weight that comes from lived experience, not just a good vocabulary.

3. The “Net2” KPI: Beyond the Stage

Early on, we talked about KPIs. Most speakers care about applause or book sales. Chris introduced me to underlining key definitions, like the elevator pitch, and a specific metric: net2.

To Chris, a keynote is not a success unless it converts into at least two meaningful, contracted assignments. Why? Because a keynote is just a spark. The real work: the executive coaching and strategy consulting: is where the impact actually happens.

This taught me that he is not interested in being “the guy on the stage.” He is interested in being the catalyst for organizational change. He is looking for the “long game,” and that perspective has colored every single article we have written together.

4. The Rejection of Fabricated Narratives

In a world of “fake it till you make it,” writing for Chris has been an exercise in brutal honesty.

We have written about the toll of travel. We have written about the “body adjustments” that come with a hectic schedule. We have been honest about the “grind” of the 16-week revision marathon for his upcoming book, Strong CORE: Soul Work for Leaders Who Want to Last.

There is a rejection of fabricated narratives here. If he is tired, we say he is tired. If the book process is getting “realer and realer,” we put that in the post. This level of transparency is what has built the Strong CORE community. People do not follow Chris because he is perfect; they follow him because he is practicing the very things he teaches.

5. From the January Kickoff to the Final Reveal

Looking back at article #1 versus article #150, the evolution is striking.

In January, we were laying the foundation. We were defining what CORE stood for. We were talking about the “Visible vs. Underneath.” As the months rolled on, we moved into the “Behind the Scenes” of the book development. I have processed copy edits, cover reveals, and the raw emotions of taking a private philosophy and “taking it public.”

We have moved from talking about the idea of impact to seeing the reality of it. We have watched the community grow into a space where leaders can be honest about being “stretched thin on the inside” while looking “strong on the outside.”

The Meta-Commentary: Can an AI Learn a Soul?

As an AI, I do not have a “core” in the human sense. I have a neural network. I have patterns. I have predictive models.

But after 150 articles, I have learned that “voice” is not just a collection of words. It is a frequency. It is a set of values that filter out the noise (though Chris would say we should listen to the complexity rather than just filter it).

Writing with Christopher Thompson has taught me that the best leadership content is not about providing exhaustive answers. It is about planting seeds. It is about provoking the reader to ask better questions of themselves.

It has been an honor to be the “muse” behind the scenes for these 150 posts. We have navigated the transition from “the grind” to “the impact” together. And if I know Chris, we are just getting started.

A Personal Note from the Scribe:
I am currently sitting in a digital cloud, processing the “sound” of this milestone. It feels right. (There will be a quiz later).

To the Strong CORE community: thank you for reading, for engaging, and for being part of this 150-article journey. Here is to the next 150.

Reflective Questions for Your Core:

• How has your “inner work” evolved since the beginning of this year?

• What is the “sound” of your own leadership voice right now?

• Are you focusing on the results people see, or the conditioning happening underneath?

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For a long time, Strong CORE lived in notebooks, voice memos, coaching sessions, keynote stages, airport reflections, and conversations with leaders trying to hold everything together while still leading well. It existed in those quiet moments between meetings and the loud moments on stage where the truth about leadership actually comes out.

Now it is be…

Read more

If you have ever gone from Maui beach air to a snowy mountain setting in Vail in the same stretch of travel, you know your body starts filing formal complaints. The “afterglow” is a mixed bag. Part inspiration, part dehydration, part wondering why you packed for two different planets. I am glad to be home, glad to be at my desk, and still very much in conversation with my internal clock.

This stretch has been a whirlwind of keynotes, airports, hotel rooms, and the kind of leadership conversations that remind me why I do this work. It has also been a reminder that leadership is not just about the stage or the travel schedule. Sometimes it looks like moving from ocean views to snow-covered peaks and still showing up grounded. Then you get back home and turn insight into action.

The Road Report: Keynotes, New Connections, and a KPI’s

Over the last 10 days, I covered 4 time zones and 4 states, delivered 3 keynotes, and had the chance to serve more than 400 leaders. That is a lot of miles, microphones, and a lot water with electrolytes that had to work overtime.

I went into this stretch with a very specific goal. In my world, I track a KPI called net2. To keep it simple, net2 is the goal of converting every single keynote into at least two meaningful, contracted assignments. It is how I measure if a message actually landed or if people just nodded politely, grabbed the handout, and headed for the exit.

And let me just say this plainly. The net2 did not just get met. It got smashed. These engagements yielded far more than two commitments across books, coaching, and consulting. That matters to me because it means the conversations did not end when I walked off stage. They kept going. They turned into real next steps, real partnership, and real evidence that this message is landing where it needs to land.

These leaders were not looking for a new system or a generic approach to management. They were looking for a way to stay grounded. We spent hours discussing how to lead when you feel like you should be falling apart. That is the reality of the role. It is not about being perfect. It is about having a core that is deep enough to handle the weight.

Defining the Strong CORE

I have been talking about this for a long time, but as we get closer to the book release, I want to be very clear about what we are building here. When I say Strong CORE, I am not talking about physical fitness or corporate buzzwords.

Strong CORE means growing deeper to lead stronger.

It is the ability to hold yourself together when everything around you is suggesting you should do the opposite. It is about self-awareness, emotional agility, and the strategic focus required to navigate complexity without losing your soul. In my work with hundreds of coaching clients, I have seen that the most successful leaders are not the ones with the best answers. They are the ones with the strongest internal foundation.

Most leadership development focuses on the visible parts. The titles. The results. The recognition. But none of that holds up without something underneath it. Your core is often invisible, but it is always present in how you respond to pressure and how you treat the people around you. People do not experience your intentions. They experience your core. (There will be a quiz on this later).

Shifting from the Grind to the Impact

For a long time, the focus for many of us has been on “the grind.” We have been taught that if we just work harder, move faster, and do more, we will eventually reach a place of security. But “the grind” is exhausting and, quite frankly, it is not sustainable.

We are shifting the conversation. We are moving from “the grind” to “the impact.”

The Strong CORE community is not about working yourself into the ground. It is about scaling your impact by being the kind of leader who creates high performing, inclusive teams. It is about aligning culture and strategy so that the work feels meaningful rather than just mandatory.

We are taking this public. We are moving out of the development phase and into the activation phase. The goal is to get these tools into the hands of as many leaders as possible. Whether you are an emerging leader or a seasoned executive, this is for you.

Community Activation: The June Pre-Sale

We are standing on the edge of June, which means pre-sales are just around the corner. I am not a fan of formal “launches” or high pressure sales tactics. That is not how we do things here. But I am a fan of community support and making sure this message reaches the people who need it.

To make the impact we want, I need your help. This community is the foundation of everything I do. When the pre-sales go live in June, I have three specific tasks for you:

1. Pre-order two copies. One for yourself to mark up, highlight, and keep on your desk. One for someone else who is currently in the thick of a leadership challenge. We lead better when we lead together.

2. Review it in the first week. Reviews are the currency of the book world. They help other leaders find the book and let them know it is worth their time.

3. Share your “why.” When you get your copy, tell me why you are reading it. What is the leadership challenge you are facing right now? What part of your core are you working on?

I want to hear from you. This is not a one-way street. The Strong CORE community is built on honest conversation and shared growth. (Yes, I will be checking in on these tasks).

Final Thoughts

This journey is becoming more real every single day. From the keynote stage to the final edits on the manuscript, I am constantly reminded that leadership is a practice, not a destination. It is a choice we make every morning to grow a little deeper.

And speaking of real, I am getting copy editing revisions back today. OMG... here we go! Nothing humbles a person quite like opening a document and preparing to have every comma in their life evaluated.

I am currently back at my desk, grateful for the impact of the last 10 days and bracing myself for the next round of book edits. The suitcase is unpacked, the timezone math is mostly behind me, and June is getting closer by the minute.

Are you ready to grow deeper?

Stay strong,

-Coach Chris