Issue No. 14 — August 2026
A publication for people who lead people
A Digital Leadership Publication
Leading Reframed
Understand. Reframe. Lead.
Feature Article · Leadership Begins Before Action
Understanding Reframed
The implication is practical as much as philosophical: before leaders communicate, decide, coach,
influence, or guide change, they first interpret what is happening. Expanding understanding means
deliberately improving that interpretation before action gives it visible form.
Coaching & Reflection · 5 min read
Leadership has understandably concentrated on action. Actions are observable. We can watch
leaders communicate, make decisions, resolve conflict, coach employees, or guide organizations
through change. These behaviors leave evidence that can be studied, measured, refined, and
taught. It is only natural that leadership research has devoted much of its attention to what leaders
do. 1
Yet every action has a beginning that cannot be observed.
Long before a leader speaks, an internal conversation has already begun: information is gathered,
prior experience is recalled, assumptions are tested, priorities are weighed, and meaning is
constructed. Whether this process lasts seconds or weeks, it shapes the leadership action that
follows.
Leadership is therefore influenced twice. First by the quality of a leader's understanding, and then by the quality of the action that emerges from it.
Most leadership development focuses on the second influence. We teach leaders to communicate
more effectively, make better decisions, manage conflict, inspire others, and navigate change.
These are important pursuits, but they occur after something even more fundamental has already
taken place. They shape leadership responses more than they shape the perceptions from which
those responses emerge.
Dr. Paul Dannar
Editor and co-founder, Leading Reframed. Writes on delegation, executive identity, and the transition from doing the work to leading the people who do it.
Coaches’ Corner · Reflect on Yourself
The Question That Ends More Meetings
Than It Starts
A simple coaching prompt that stops status updates from eating your calendar.
Coaching & Reflection · 5 min read
Most status meetings die a slow death by monologue — one person reporting, everyone else waiting their turn. This coaching prompt reframes the moment before it starts: instead of “what’s your update,” ask “what do you need from this room today.”
This section would walk through how to introduce the question without it feeling like a gimmick, what to do with the silence that often follows, and how it gradually reshapes what people bring to the table.
Management in Practice · Put It to Work
The 15-Minute Skip-Level That Changed
My Org
A mid-size manufacturer’s quiet experiment in listening past the org chart.
Management in Practice · 6 min read
A plant manager started spending fifteen minutes a week with someone two levels down — no agenda, no manager in the room. This section would describe what she heard in the first month that never made it up through the normal reporting chain.
Practical guidance would follow on how to set the skip-level up so it doesn’t read as surveillance, how often to run it, and how to act on what surfaces without undermining the managers in between.
Leadership Lessons from the Movies · See It Through Story
What "Apollo 13" Teaches About Leading
Under Pressure
Gene Kranz never raised his voice. Here’s what that actually cost him.
Leadership Lessons from the Movies · 7 min read
Flight director Gene Kranz is remembered for his calm under pressure — “failure is not an option.” This section would look past the line to what that composure actually required of him, and what it asked of the people around him.
The piece would connect the film’s mission-control discipline to how leaders today hold a room together when the plan stops working in real time.
The Wider Lens · See It Differently
What Cognitive Psychology Can Teach
Leaders About Assumptions
Understanding, reframed through the science of how we interpret what we see.
The Wider Lens · 8 min read
Cognitive psychology has spent decades studying how quickly the brain reaches for a familiar interpretation — and how rarely it goes back to check the interpretation against the evidence. This section would borrow that research to explain why a leader’s first read of a situation is so often incomplete.
It would close by connecting that research back to the issue’s opening theme: understanding is a starting point, not a conclusion.
Conversations · Occasional Feature
A Conversation With a First-Time CEO,
One Year In
Perspectives from people who help us see leadership differently.
Conversations · Occasional Feature · 10 min read
Conversations is not a required monthly section — it appears when the right subject-matter expert, practitioner, author, or other voice can add a perspective worth featuring. This issue’s conversation would be a long-form interview with a first-time CEO reflecting honestly on year one.
The interview format would preserve the subject’s voice directly, with light editorial framing before and after.
This Was Issue No. 1
Understanding
Leading Reframed
A digital leadership journal. Understand. Reframe. Lead.
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