The Leadership You Lived in 2025

Debbie Fennell on January 8, 2026

Leadership in 2025 was defined by complexity and constant change, yet leaders everywhere showed remarkable adaptability and resilience.

Growth happened in quiet moments as much as in bold decisions. It happened when you listened more closely, recommitted to firmer boundaries, invited deeper dialogue, or chose patience instead of urgency. It happened when you chose curiosity over certainty. It happened when you aligned your actions with your values and showed your team what consistency looks like in real time.

As you look back over the past year, consider the moments that strengthened your leadership identity.

  • Maybe there was an awareness as a result of a Tbird teaming session you attended.
  • Maybe you built trust in a new way.
  • Maybe you led through conflict with more commitment and composure.
  • Maybe you invested in your team’s development or your own.

Growth rarely arrives in grand gestures. More often, it shows up in small, steady shifts that accumulate over time.Your opportunity for 2026 is to build intentionally on the strengths you discovered this year. Carry forward what made you better and release what no longer serves your leadership.

Call to Action

1. Where did you show the most leadership growth this year? Celebrate and share it with us (reply to this email).
2. How will you build on that momentum?
3. What will you release that is no longer serving you?

Managing Up: Making the Reporting Relationship Work for You Both

Debbie Fennell on December 12, 2025

By Michael Cavanaugh, MA, MBA

Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about how to lead and mentor others, or collaborate with peers—but we often overlook one of the most influential relationships in our day-to-day work: the one we have with the person we report to. Some people call that person the boss, others the manager, leader, guide, director, supervisor. In this article I use the term ‘manager’, but insert whatever title that works best for you. 

Managing up isn’t manipulation, flattery, or pretending to be someone you’re not. It’s the proactive work of understanding your manager’s world well enough that the partnership becomes easier, more productive, and mutually beneficial.

Over the years, I’ve found that a few key strategies make all the difference.

1. Understand Their Style and What They Need

Every manager has a style—some lead with data, others with big-picture vision, and some communicate in rapid-fire bullet points while others think out loud. Pay attention.

  • Notice how they prefer to communicate and make decisions. 
  • Clarify their goals and expectations early and often. 
  • Look for how your strengths can support their priorities, and adjust your approach to make collaboration smoother. 

This isn’t about guessing what they want—it’s about understanding how they work so you can work with them instead of around them.

2. Build Trust by Showing Real Value 

Managing up works only when trust is in place. 

That means:

  • Keep your manager in the loop—not with constant reporting, but with thoughtful updates that show you’re on top of your responsibilities. 
  • Solve problems creatively and independently when you can, and ask for guidance when you truly need it. 
  • Lean on them appropriately: good managers want to support your growth, and they appreciate employees who surface issues before they become crises. 

Demonstrating value isn’t bragging; it’s showing reliability, judgment, and initiative. 

3. Handle Hard Moments with Professionalism and Grace 

No workplace is free of tension, misunderstandings, or pressure.

When things get tough:

  • Start with empathy. Your manager has their own stresses and constraints that you may not see. 
  • Offer support when they’re under pressure—small gestures matter. 
  • If you need to address a difficult issue, avoid emotional confrontations. Instead, choose a neutral setting, prepare your thoughts, stick to a single concern, and keep the conversation focused on the work, not the person. 

These are the moments when professionalism pays off the most. 

At its core, managing up is a shared responsibility.
It’s not about surrendering your autonomy; it’s about acknowledging your manager’s authority while working toward a common purpose. When you invest in this relationship with intention, clarity, and respect, work becomes smoother—and your impact grows right along with it. 

At Thunderbird Leadership Consulting, we specialize in supporting your team and strengthening the crucial relationships within it. We understand the dynamics and challenges of working with others and are committed to helping you and your team cultivate healthy, beneficial work styles and relationships. Contact us by call or text with any questions—we’re eager to help.

Good Judgment 2.0…in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Debbie Fennell on November 21, 2025

By Jill Bachman, MSN

One of our 2020 blog topics (To Develop Good Judgment) described six critical elements of making decisions, from an article by Sir Andrew Likierman. In his new book, Judgement at Work, Making Better Decisions, his original insights remain solid. 

Today we’re surrounded by data, dashboards, and now— AI. You’d think that with all this information at our fingertips, making great decisions would be easy. Yet as Likierman reminds us, having all the information in the world doesn’t guarantee good judgment.

Likierman defines judgement as “the ability to combine personal qualities with relevant knowledge and experience to form options and make decisions.” It’s the art of knowing what to do when the data alone can’t decide for you. In his research with CEOs, he highlights the six practices at the heart of good judgment: learning, trust, experience, detachment, options, and delivery.  These still apply today—but AI adds a new twist, which can complicate matters as well as help.

Learning: Listen Attentively, Think Critically

Leaders are information miners. The trick is knowing what’s gold and what’s noise. With AI now curating, summarizing, and even writing our information, we need to ask “Where did this come from?” and “What could be missing?”

Quality beats quantity. Read and listen critically—whether it’s a human report or an AI-generated one.

Trust: Seek Diversity, Not Validation

It’s easy to surround ourselves with people—or algorithms—that agree with us. But real judgment comes from welcoming different voices and perspectives.

Don’t just trust data because it’s data. Ask who built the system, what it was trained on, and whose stories are left out. Good leaders build cultures and use tools that challenge assumptions, not just confirm them.

Experience: Make It Broad, Not Just Deep

Experience gives us a strong foundation—but it can also make us overconfident. AI, in its own way, “learns” from experience too—but only from the data it’s fed.

Leaders today need both human experience and digital insight—balanced with curiosity and humility.

Detachment: Check Your Biases—and Your AI’s

We all have blind spots. So do algorithms. The best leaders practice a bit of detachment—pausing to ask, “What’s influencing this decision? Is there something behind this that I don’t understand?” That could refer to ego, habit, or a hidden bias in the data itself.

Detachment helps us see clearly, especially when technology feels persuasive.

Options and Delivery: More Choices, Better Follow-Through

AI can help surface creative solutions we might not have considered—but it can also narrow our thinking if we let it decide for us, or if we decide too quickly. Remember, “recommended” doesn’t always mean “right.”

And once a decision is made, judgment shifts to execution. Even the smartest AI analysis won’t matter if people don’t understand, trust, or believe in the plan. If these are missing, execution can be faulty and miss your target.

The Bottom Line

AI is changing how we make decisions—but not what makes decisions good. Tools can help us analyze, predict, and plan, but only people can apply wisdom, ethics, and empathy.

Good judgment in the time of AI means blending the best of both worlds: human insight guided by machine intelligence, not replaced by it. Because when all is said and done, technology can assist by processing data—but only leaders can make meaning.

How is your organization strengthening judgment in an AI-driven world? Are you finding new ways to balance human insight with digital intelligence? If decisions and complexity are hampering your leadership practices, Thunderbird Leadership Consulting may be able to help shed light on your situation and reveal clarity. Or just reach out—we’d love to hear how you’re leading with judgment in this new era of decision-making.

References: 

https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-elements-of-good-judgment (accessed 11/9/25)

https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/artificial-intelligence-human-jugment-drives-innovation (accessed 11/9/25)

Likierman, Sir Andrew. 2025. Judgement at Work, Making Better Decisions, Profile Books

An Epidemic of Insignificance—and What We Can Do About It

Rhonda Williams on August 13, 2025

By Rhonda Williams, RN, MSN, MBA

At Thunderbird Leadership, we sit across from leaders every day—twenty, forty, even sixty at a time— bright, motivated professionals who genuinely want to do right by their people. Yet despite good intentions, something heartbreaking continues to show up:

People feel invisible.

According to The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance, Dr. Zach Mercurio outlines five sources of insignificance:

  1. Feeling unseen
  2. Feeling unheard
  3. Feeling unvalued
  4. Feeling forgotten
  5. Feeling dispensable

He also points to research showing that nearly half of workers feel undervalued and unappreciated in the workplace—a staggering reality that echoes through every hallway, Zoom room, and leadership session we facilitate.

And here’s the paradox— most leaders don’t intend for this to happen. But it does, and not because of grand betrayals or sweeping failures.

It happens in the micro-moments:
– A rushed response instead of real presence
– A performance correction with no curiosity
– Recognition withheld, thinking “they already know they’re doing great”
– A meeting that begins without eye contact or ends without acknowledgment

Insignificance creeps in silently, but its impact is deafening.

This is why I do the work I do. It moves me deeply to know that, through intentional organizational development, we can change a life, reignite a disengaged team, and cultivate a culture where everyone knows they matter.

The work begins with awareness. But it doesn’t end there.

If you’re a leader who wants to stop the spread of insignificance in your workplace, here are three practical ways to start now:

1. See the person, not just the performer.

Ask questions that go beyond the task list. Learn what excites them, what they’re proud of, or how they’re doing as a human. Let your presence say, “You matter, even when you’re performing at your best.”

2. Make recognition specific and sincere.

Generic praise feels transactional. Instead, say, “I noticed how calmly you handled that situation with the family this morning. That really made a difference to them.” Specificity reinforces value.

3. Design trust, don’t just hope for it.

Trust isn’t built by accident. Involve people in decisions that affect them. Give them room to lead. Trust shows people they are needed, not just tolerated.

The truth is, we all want to feel like we matter.
And the beautiful thing is: we all have the power to make someone feel that way—starting today.

Reference:
Mercurio, Z. (2025). The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance. Harvard Business Review Press.