Feeling stretched thin but still trying to carry it all? Lois Burton makes the case for strategic letting go as the most underrated leadership skill and shows exactly how to do it without dropping the ball. We begin with a story of a high-performing executive who reclaimed focus, elevated their team, and delivered bigger results by intentionally releasing work that no longer belonged on their plate.

We unpack the neuroscience of focus to explain why fewer priorities improve judgment and output, then introduce the 80% rule as a simple trigger for action: if a task no longer aligns with your top priorities and you’re 80% sure it should go, release it.

You’ll learn impact mapping to assess responsibilities against current goals, your unique role, and the only I can do this test. Real examples illustrate how moving four hours from budget minutiae to strategic partnerships can transform outcomes.

Boundaries become practical with a decision filter and ready to use banked phrases. Instead of defaulting to yes, try not now, yes but not me, or let’s revisit in three months language that protects priorities while maintaining trust. We then shift to delegation as development, reframing handoffs as growth opportunities that build capability across the team.

By letting go of legacy tasks you do well, you create space for others to become great, multiplying your impact.

We close with a simple challenge: choose one meeting, report, or project to release this week and notice how quickly focus and energy return.

If the message resonates and you’re ready to double down on what matters most, join our February Focus Bootcamp for four sessions and a resource bank designed to give you clarity, structure, and accountability.

February Focus Bootcamp - Full Details HERE

Subscribe, share this episode with a leader who needs it, and leave a review telling us what you’ll let go of first.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

Strategy isn’t a tattoo; it’s a destination. The route you take should evolve as the map changes. We unpack the leadership paradox that trips up even seasoned executives: how to stay committed to a bold vision while adapting fast enough to win in shifting markets.

Drawing on coaching stories and a tested resilience framework, we break down the difference between strong conviction and stubborn rigidity, and we show how to avoid reactive pivots that erode trust.

We start by separating what must stay fixed from what should remain flexible. Your North Star purpose and long-range outcome anchors the mission. Navigational markers quarterly goals, initiatives, resource bets are designed to adapt.

You’ll hear a practical way to communicate this distinction so teams feel both certainty and permission to innovate. From there, we introduce a cadence of quarterly strategy reviews and assumptions testing that turns surprises into data. Instead of waiting a year to rethink plans, you’ll learn to ask the right questions about customers, technology, and competitors, then adjust with intention.

Communication is where many leaders lose their teams, so we offer a simple, repeatable template for explaining change: what we believed, what we learned, how it alters the approach, what stays the same, and what changes next.

We also show why inviting input before final decisions boosts decision quality and buy in without drifting into committee led stalemates. A real world case brings these ideas to life, ending with two prompts that expose your own balance point between commitment and flexibility.

If you’re aiming for adaptive leadership, high-performance culture, and resilient strategy execution, this conversation gives you the structure and language to act today.

Subscribe, share with a colleague who’s steering through change, and leave a review with one insight you’re putting into practice.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

Pressure can sharpen us or break us what separates the two is a leader’s system of resilience. We bring together the most useful lessons from a month of conversations and coaching to show how four pillars work in concert: regulating your nervous system, reconnecting with your purpose, practicing flexible thinking, and building relationships that hold under strain.

We start by drawing a clear line between pressure and stress. You’ll hear how to spot a dysregulated state, why decision quality plummets when your nervous system tips into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, and the simple regulation practices that restore clarity in minutes: paced breathing, sensory grounding, movement, and sleep hygiene.

From there, we move into purpose as real fuel, not platitudes. By surfacing your personal why and aligning weekly actions to it, motivation becomes renewable and setbacks feel like tuition instead of failure.

Next, we dig into flexible thinking the difference between high-performing and extraordinary leaders. Learn how the 80% rule beats perfectionism, how to treat ambiguity as signal rather than threat, and how to use premortems, red teaming, and quick after-action reviews to turn experiments into learning. We close by showing why resilience isn’t a solo sport.

Psychological safety, peer networks, and a personal board of advisors prevent isolation and spread the load, so challenges become shared puzzles rather than private battles.

Walk away with a compact, actionable framework: regulate to think, reconnect to care, act at 80% to learn, and invest in relationships to endure. If this resonated, subscribe, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a review.

Want to go deeper? DM me on LinkedIn with the word “resilience” and I’ll send a free resource.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

The pressure to perform can quietly turn leadership into an exhausting act—polished slides, careful phrasing, and a persona crafted to satisfy what we think others expect. We pull back that curtain and talk honestly about the cost of the mask: depleted energy, eroded trust, and a widening gap between intention and impact.

As we step into 2026, the leaders who thrive are those who lead as themselves—grounded in values, clear in identity, and courageous when stakes rise.

We share the recurring fear that haunts senior rooms—what will the board, team, or peers think?—and the liberating practice of testing assumptions with real conversations.

You’ll hear how one director, brilliant in strategy and empathy, reclaimed her warmth and humor in the boardroom and watched engagement and performance climb. Another executive faced a restructure he disagreed with; by voicing concerns, offering an alternative, and communicating transparently, he preserved integrity and deepened respect even as the decision stood.

From neuroscience insights to step-by-step tactics, we map a practical path to authenticity: pre-meeting checkins to align with your values, one small authentic action each week, and a deliberate approach to build your courage muscle in lower stakes moments before scaling up. We talk about surrounding yourself with truth tellers, coaches, mentors, and peers who reflect the real you and anchoring intentions in identity so your goals express what you stand for.

The payoff is tangible: psychological safety, stronger trust, better decisions, and teams empowered to bring their full selves. If the mask has been weighing you down, this conversation offers clarity and momentum.

Subscribe, share your reflections with us, and leave a review to help more leaders lead with courage and authenticity.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

Resolutions fade because they lean on willpower; real change sticks when it starts with who we choose to be. We open the year by replacing frantic goal lists with identity-based leadership intentions, narrowing focus to what truly moves the needle, and committing to the next small step that creates momentum.

Drawing on two decades of coaching CEOs and senior teams, plus lessons from pioneers like Sir John Whitmore and Peter Bluckett, we map a practical path from inspiration to follow-through.

You’ll hear why January isn’t magic and why clarity beats hype every time. We unpack three approaches: anchor your intentions in identity rather than tasks, limit yourself to a maximum of three clear intentions you can say in one sentence, and define the first step you’ll take this week.

Along the way, we share concrete examples—from building psychological safety to carving out strategic time and becoming more visible as a thought leader—showing how small, repeatable actions outperform perfect plans. The thread through it all is accountability that fits real life: light structure, honest reflection, and steady progress.

We also introduce our February Focus Bootcamp for leaders who want to turn intentions into measurable outcomes without adding noise to an already full calendar. Over four focused sessions, we clarify core intentions, expose hidden resistance, and build a sustainable action plan that actually sticks. If you’re ready to enter 2026 with clarity, momentum, and a grounded sense of who you are as a leader, this conversation offers a clear starting point and the support to keep going.

https://www.loisburtononline.com/

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a leader who needs it, and leave a quick review—it helps others find the show and brings more voices into our community.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

The rush to close the year can drown out the one habit that multiplies growth: reflection. We press pause to turn a demanding 2025 into hard-won wisdom for 2026, sharing a practical framework you can complete in 30–45 minutes that transforms experience into better decisions, calmer leadership, and clearer priorities.

Lois recaps the forces that shaped the year—AI accelerating from promise to reality, ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and the tension inside hybrid work—then gets candid about the courage it took to launch this show and live the 80% rule.

We explore why burnout spiked, how resilience-based leadership protects performance, and the neuroscience behind reflection: how consolidating learning creates neural pathways that help you respond faster and wiser next time.

You’ll get six guided prompts to capture your three biggest wins, mine lessons from setbacks, map how you’ve changed, spot recurring patterns, honor the supports that kept you steady, and decide what to let go of before 2026 begins.

We also reframe the AI question with a human-first lens: let technology handle the mechanical so you can lead with presence, empathy, and judgment. Along the way, we offer perspective that restores energy, gratitude for the ground you’ve covered, and clarity on what matters next.

Take the pause. Do the reflection. Then carry that wisdom forward.

If this conversation helps, share it with a leader you value, subscribe for the year ahead, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

https://www.loisburtononline.com/

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

Leadership shouldn’t feel like driving with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. When uncertainty stacks up and decisions never stop, your nervous system stays on high alert and your best thinking goes offline. We unpack what burnout really is—biology, not a character flaw—and show how to reclaim clarity, energy, and courage without sacrificing results.

We start by breaking down what chronic stress does to the brain: the prefrontal cortex dims, the amygdala takes over, and judgment slips just when stakes are highest. From there, we get practical. Lois shares three proven strategies she uses with senior leaders across industries.

First, map your pressure zone and find the tipping point where productive pressure turns to harmful stress; then design your calendar around your nervous system with buffers after big meetings and protection for peak-focus windows.

Second, build strategic recovery into the day using micro reset rituals like two minutes of breathing, brief walks, and a 90-minute cadence to stand, stretch, and reset—habits that also set a healthy tone for your team.

Third, redefine what truly matters by selecting three core outcomes for the next six months, practicing brave no’s, and escaping the perfection trap so your effort concentrates where it counts.

You’ll hear a candid story of a respected executive who lost her spark and found it again by honoring her biology and choosing what matters. Expect clear language, zero fluff, and steps you can implement today to lead smarter, not harder.

If you’re ready to trade hustle for sustainable performance, this conversation gives you a simple, science-backed starting point.

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a leader who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: which single strategy will you start this week?

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

In this weeks episode we explore why selective vulnerability strengthens leadership and how trust turns honesty into performance.

My guest this week is Daniel Taylor and he shares stories and tools leaders use to reduce isolation, build team confidence, and make better decisions in hybrid, high-change environments.

• coaching as a thinking space for complex challenges

• moving beyond hero myths to collaborative leadership

• trust first, then intentional vulnerability

• practical tips for feedback, strengths and delegation

• real examples of breakthrough moments in coaching

• group coaching to build interconnected senior teams

• tackling isolation, imposter syndrome and overprocessing

• clear communication to counter worst-case stories

• hybrid team rituals that sustain trust and clarity

• AI as an aid to more human leadership

For further information on Daniel check out his website:

DanielTaylorDevelopment.com

He can also be found on LinkedIn as Daniel Taylor HR as well as on Instagram and Blue Sky… have a look for hashtag adventblogs on all the socials.

Thank you and see you next week.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries