Leadership Articles

Insights, tips and more from David & the world's top leaders.

What I learned about leadership as the honorary captain of the Mizzou football team

Coach your own team to big wins with these three leadership takeaways Last month, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I got to serve as the honorary captain for the Mizzou Tigers football team as they took on Vanderbilt in an all-SEC battle. Invited by head coach Eliah Drinkwitz, I jumped at the chance to see […]

Six Ways to Spot Leadership Potential on Your Team

To grow your business, you need more than talent—you need leadership. Here’s how to find it. If you want to succeed as a leader, you’ve got to have a great team in place. You’ll just never achieve the long-term results you want without one. Why? Because when you get the right people in the right […]

The Cure for Shiny Object Syndrome

Chasing every new idea will hurt your business and wear you out. Here’s how to regain your focus. In your role as a business leader, you’ve probably experienced the allure of “shiny object syndrome”—that constant temptation to chase after the latest ideas, technologies, and strategies that promise to revolutionize your business. And of course, innovation […]

The mindset you need to level up your career

If you’ve hit a professional plateau, read this! I have a confession. There was a time, early in my career, when I viewed my boss as my nemesis. It was a trying time. Every time I became comfortable in my role, he moved me to a new position I knew nothing about. For example, when […]

Daily Habits of Highly Successful Leaders and What You Can Learn from Each One of Them

One of the most powerful secrets of effective leaders today is establishing a daily routine. Maybe you haven’t had the best track record with daily habits, and that’s ok. The good news is you can get better today and then even better tomorrow. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a CEO say […]

The Great Resignation: How Self-Coaching Can Help You Make a Change

The Great Resignation, or what some people have begun to call the Big Quit, has taken on a life of its own this year. If you turn on the news you are sure to hear about it. Monster reports that as many as 95% of workers are currently considering changing jobs, and 41% of the […]

How to Build Female Leadership: Three things men need to do to advance women in the workplace

Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing my good friend Indra Nooyi on my podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak, about her new book, “My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future.” Indra, the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, and I worked together at PepsiCo before I became chairman and CEO […]

Self-Coaching Keeps You Moving Forward When You’re Going It Alone

Training for a marathon is the ultimate example of self coaching. There is no one there to get you out of bed in the morning when it’s raining or -20 degrees outside. If you want to do 20 miles, you have to put in the work. When you hit the wall at the 20-mile mark […]

Lead to Leave A Mark

Welcome to How Leaders Lead Insiders, a newsletter where I share stories and explore styles of some of the most accomplished leaders of our time. People like Tom Brady, Indra Nooyi, Kendra Scott and Jamie Dimon who are truly making big things happen in their respective fields. My mission in life is to make the […]