Leading Thoughts for January 8, 2026

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

Performance Coach Julie Gurner on caring deeply:

“You have to care deeply to be able to challenge directly, and … somebody has to know that you care deeply about who they are in their role, that you care about their performance, that this is coming from a place that’s meant to make them better. And if it’s not coming from that place, and it’s coming from a place of punishing or shaming or humiliating or dominating, it’s not a really effective thing to do. But people can take hard feedback from people that they know are in their corner.”

Source: The Knowledge Project Podcast: Caring Deeply, Challenging Directly

II.

Heidi Priebe on loving someone as they change:

“To love someone long-term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. The people are too exhausted to be any longer. The people they don’t recognize inside themselves anymore. The people they grew out of, the people they never ended up growing into.

“We so badly want the people we love to get their spark back when it burns out; to become speedily found when they are lost. But it is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.”

Source: This Is Me Letting You Go

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Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

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