Month: November 2025

November 18, 2025

Poetry and Plumbing

Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash

Essential Elements of an Effective Leader: The Vision and the Execution

Effective leadership requires both poetry and plumbing. According to The Hidden Brain Podcast with host Shankar Vedantan, who speaks to Stanford University’s Huggy Rao about leadership, to discuss how leadership needs both ‘poetry’ and ‘plumbing’ to be successful. Rao states that the poetry in leadership is the vision, and the plumbing is essentially the execution that brings the vision to life.

The Balance: Vision and Execution

In my leadership journey, I have learned that these two elements, poetry and plumbing, vision and execution, must be joined together to be led effectively. In the episode, Rao and Vedantam discuss the infamous Fyre Festival as an example of failed leadership. It was a highly publicized, visionary event that completely collapsed into disaster due to a lack of execution and attention to detail. There was plenty of poetry and vision and a sheer lack of plumbing and execution.

November 3, 2025

Stillness Leads to Opportunities

I see choices and possibilities when I slow down.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez ???????? on Unsplash

I have learned that there is a strong connection between having a stillness practice and the ability to see opportunities and choices before me. When I was new to leadership and to parenting, I felt that I had to have all the answers and fix all the problems. I was always on the move, putting out fires at work and at home. I only stopped when I slept. I would fall into a deep sleep each night as my head hit the pillow and awake each morning to my alarm as thinking I just went to bed. Those of you of a certain age may remember the phrase for the Dunkin’ Donut commercials that the weary donut baker said each dark morning as he started baking day after day: “It’s time to make the donuts.”