Vision is where you're going. Mission is WHY it matters.Last week, we talked about Vision: the destination you're building toward.But here's what I see: Leaders can have a clear vision and Still burn out. Still lose energy. Still struggle to keep going when things get hard.Because vision without mission is just ambition.Mission is your "why."It's the higher purpose behind your work. The contribution you're making. The reason you keep going when obstacles hit.And like Vision, you need Mission on two levels:Your organization's mission:
Why does this work matter?
Who's better off because of what we do?Your career mission:
Why do YOU work so hard?
What difference are you making through your career?When both are clear and aligned, you have something powerful: Purpose that sustains you.But when mission is missing or misaligned? Work becomes transactional. It's just a paycheck. Just execution. Jjust going through the motions.In this week's newsletter and podcast, I'm diving into:🏉 Why mission matters (it's what keeps you going when vision isn't enough)🏉 The difference between corporate mission statements and real mission🏉 How to articulate YOUR mission (for your organization and your career)🏉 Why Mission is a core element of your Leader's DashboardBecause vision tells you where you're going.
But mission tells you why it's worth the fight.
Without vision, you're just reacting.
Work pulls you in a dozen directions.
Every day, there are fires to fight, decisions to make, and competing demands on your time and attention.
And if you don't have a clear vision for your organization AND for your career, you lose perspective.
❌ You end up busy but directionless.
❌ Executing but not building toward anything.
❌ Reacting instead of leading.
That's not sustainable.
I see this all the time with executives: They're great at execution.
But when I ask them, "What's your vision? Where are you taking this organization? Where are you taking your career?"...Vague reply....
They've been so focused on the day-to-day that they've lost sight of the destination.
📌 In this week's newsletter and podcast, I'm diving into:
❓Why vision matters (it's not just motivational fluff)
❓The difference between organizational vision and personal vision (and why you need both)
❓How vision gives you focus when everything's pulling you in different directions
❓Why Vision is a foundational element of your Leader's Dashboard
Because when you have a compelling vision, everything changes:
🏉 You have clarity when decisions get complex
🏉 Your team has energy and engagement
🏉 Setbacks feel smaller because you know where you're going
🏉 You attract the right people and resources
Most organizations say they value professional development.
They talk about it in meetings.
They put it in their values statements.
They mention it in performance reviews.
But when you look closer,
There's no actual strategy.
No clear development plans.
No accountability.
No systematic way to build the next generation of leaders.
Just good intentions. And good intentions don't develop people.
Here's what I see: Organizations that have real development strategies, with teeth, with accountability, with implementation, get dramatically different results:
✅ Higher engagement (people feel invested in)
✅ Greater satisfaction (people see a future)
✅ Stronger contribution (people perform at higher levels)
✅ More confidence (people know they're growing)
But it requires more than just annual reviews and "professional development conversations."
It requires a system...A Personal Development Plan (PDP) that's not just HR paperwork, but an actual strategic tool.
In this week's newsletter and podcast, I'm breaking down:
🏉 Why most development efforts fail (no strategy, no teeth)🏉What a real PDP looks like (and why it matters)
🏉How development drives engagement, satisfaction, contribution, and confidence
🏉How to make development accountable (for both leaders and candidates)Because development without strategy is just hope.
And hope isn't a plan.
Your legacy isn't what you accomplish. It's who you develop.
In rugby, the best captains and coaches are building the next generation of leaders.
They're teaching younger players
Because they know: When they're gone, the team needs to be stronger, not weaker.
Leadership works the same way.
But most leaders don't develop other leaders. They manage people. They delegate tasks. They drive performance.
But they don't intentionally build the next generation.
And when they leave? The organization scrambles.
Because the leader took all the knowledge, all the leadership IQ, all the leadership capacity with them.
That's not a legacy. That's a dependency.
In this week's newsletter and podcast, I'm diving into:
🏉 Why development is strategic, not just HR
🏉 The difference between managing and developing
🏉 How the best leaders identify and build future leaders
🏉 Why Development is a core element of your Leader's Dashboard
Because your impact isn't measured by what you achieve. It's measured by who you leave behind.
Read the full article here: 👇 LinkedIn newsletter
The loneliest room is full of people.
You can be surrounded by colleagues, team members, clients all day and still feel completely alone.
Because nobody understands the decisions you're making. The trade-offs you're weighing. The pressure you're carrying.
That's leadership loneliness. And it's one of the most common and least talked about costs of leading.
Here's what I've learned: You can't lead well from isolation.
In rugby, we have a saying: "15 as one." No matter how good you are individually, you can't win alone. You need teammates who know your game, who trust you, who have your back.
Leadership is the same.
But most leaders don't build those relationships. They have transactional relationships - people who need something from them. But very few have developmental relationships - people who see them, challenge them, support them.
And that gap? It's costing them.
In this week's episode (and LinkedIn newsletter), I'm diving into:
Because you found your edge. But you can't deploy it alone.
Read the full article here: [link]
💬 Do you have someone in your corner who truly gets what you're carrying? Or are you leading alone?
Every great rugby player has a weapon.
A devastating sidestep. A bone-crushing tackle. A long pass that opens up the field. A hand-off that leaves defenders on the ground.
It's not about being good at everything. It's about being exceptional at one thing. Knowing your weapon. And using it when it matters most.
Leadership works the same way.
Every great leader has an edge, something that makes them uniquely valuable. Something that sets them apart.
But here's what I see when I work with executive leaders: Most leaders can't name their edge.
They know they're "good at leadership." They know they "add value." But they can't tell you what makes them irreplaceable.
And that's a problem.
Because when you don't know your edge:
In this week's episode, I'm breaking down:
Because leadership without edge is just management. And the world doesn't need more managers.
"Character is what you do when nobody's watching."
Twenty-three years ago, I learned this lesson the hard way.
I was part of an international organization. A good organization. One with clear values: integrity, faithfulness, and spiritual leadership. But the leader, a man I respected, began a slow drift. Not a sudden collapse. A drift.
Compromises that seemed small at first. Rationalizations that made sense in the moment.
His personal values eroded.
The organization's values eroded under his leadership.
And I watched it happen.
I watched relationships harmed. I watched people lose their place and their purpose. I watched a mission scattered .
And I did what I thought was right: I confronted it.
That cost me. I was punished for speaking up. I could no longer complete my mission. I had to leave the country I'd moved my family to. It was painful.
But it taught me something that changed everything:
Leadership is influence.
What we live influences others. It's our character . Not just what we say we value. What we actually demonstrate through our choices.
And when you walk in a leadership role, you don't just represent yourself...
You represent something bigger: your organization, your mission, your values.
That's a higher standard.
Today, I'm sharing why this matters and how your personal values, your organizational values, and your leadership role all integrate into your Leaders Dashboard.
Because if any of those three are misaligned or abandoned, the whole structure collapses.
💬 What's one value you represent beyond just yourself, because of the role you hold?
Today's episode is a little longer than usual—about 35 minutes—because we're going deep on values. This isn't a surface-level conversation. We're doing the work. So grab a coffee, settle in, and let's talk about holding your line.
Most leaders think they know their values.
Ask them, and they'll give you the corporate version: "Integrity. Innovation. Excellence. Teamwork."
But here's the truth: Those aren't values. Those are words on a wall.
Your real values aren't what you say in meetings. They're what you do when no one's watching. What you protect when you're exhausted. What you choose when the cost is high.
Want to know your real values?
Look at your calendar. Look at your budget. Look at the decisions you made under pressure last month.
That's what you actually value.
In this week's episode, I'm diving into why most leaders can't name their real values, and why that gap between what they say and what they do is costing them everything.
Their credibility. Their team's trust. Their own integrity.
Because when you don't know your line, you'll break under pressure every time.
Talk to me on my LinkedIn
Twenty-five years ago, I woke up one Monday morning and couldn't get out of bed.
Not "didn't want to." Couldn't.
🧠 My brain wouldn't function. My body wouldn't move. I just lay there, terrified, because everything depended on me.
🔥 That's what burnout actually looks like.
In this episode, I'm sharing my story: the six months I couldn't function, the collapse nobody understood, and what I learned about leading with margin instead of intensity.
Because some of you are on that edge right now.
And I don't want you to learn what I learned the hard way.
Every day feels like you're treading water. You wake up with a knot in your stomach because you already know—before you even check your phone—that there are too many things demanding your attention.
Your inbox is overflowing. Your calendar is back-to-back. Your team is waiting on decisions. Your boss wants updates. Your clients need responses. Your family wants time you don't have.
And somewhere in the back of your mind, there's this nagging voice asking: "What am I even building here? What's the point of all this?"
You're exhausted. But you can't stop. Because if you stop, everything falls apart.
Sound familiar?
Here's what's really happening: You've confused activity with progress.
You're busy. You're working too-many-hour weeks. You're responding to every email, attending every meeting, saying yes to every request. You look productive. You feel productive.
But at the end of the week, you can't point to anything meaningful that moved forward. You're running hard but getting nowhere.
And the worst part? Your team feels it too.
They look to you for clarity—and you don't have it. They ask, "What's most important right now?" and you can't give them a straight answer. Because everything feels important. Everything feels urgent.
So they're overwhelmed too. And the whole organization is spinning its wheels.
The problem isn't that you're not working hard enough. The problem is you don't have a filter.
And without a filter, you're going to drown—no matter how hard you swim.
Let's dive in.
Shaun's LinkedIn DM me for moreWhen was the last time you had a tune-up—not for your business, but for your life? Most leaders have dashboards for everything except what matters most. In this episode, discover why every leader needs a personal dashboard and how to build one that protects both your success and your sanity.
Episode 3 – The Power of Vision in LeadershipMost leaders are running fast, but not always in the right direction.
In this episode of The Leadership Boost, Coach Shaun Smit unpacks why vision is the compass of leadership, not just a statement on the wall.
Drawing from rugby and executive coaching, he shows how a clear vision aligns teams, reduces overwhelm, and restores momentum.
In rugby, a team without a strategy runs hard… but often in different directions. The same is true in leadership. Without a simple dashboard to guide you, it’s easy to:
Chase every urgent demand
Spread yourself too thin
Lose your team’s confidence in the process
That’s why I believe every leader needs a Leadership Dashboard — a one-page “game plan” to keep the focus on what truly matters.
: Why Focusing on 2–3 Priorities Changes Everything
Too many priorities can leave leaders scattered and ineffective.
In this episode of The Leadership Boost, Coach Shaun shows why focusing on just 2–3 key areas creates clarity, confidence, and momentum.
Learn a simple framework to cut through overwhelm and lead with impact.
After a few years’ break, The Leadership Boost podcast is back — refreshed, refocused, and ready to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and impact. In this opening episode, Coach Shaun Smit shares why he’s relaunching the podcast, what’s changed since the early seasons, and how today’s leaders can thrive in a dynamic, high-pressure environment.
Leadership today isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about asking the right questions, aligning your team, and finding your edge when the pressure is on.
That’s where the Leadership Dashboard comes in.
This practical framework gives executives and senior leaders a clear way to reevaluate and refresh their vision, mission, values, performance, and relationships — not just once, but regularly, as business challenges evolve.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why even experienced leaders need to refresh their clarity in today’s fast-changing environment.
The story behind the Leadership Dashboard and how it helps leaders realign their focus.
What you can expect from this new season — short, sharp, story-driven episodes with practical takeaways.
How rugby and mental toughness lessons translate into leadership under pressure.
A preview of the Executive Game Plan Intensive, a focused coaching experience designed to help leaders apply the Dashboard for immediate results.
Whether you’re leading a team, guiding an organization, or navigating your own leadership growth, The Leadership Boost is your space to pause, reflect, and strengthen your game plan.
🔹 Next Step: If today’s episode resonates with you, connect with Coach Shaun on LinkedIn or learn more about the Executive Game Plan Intensive — your opportunity to gain clarity, sharpen your edge, and lead with renewed confidence.
🎙️ Tune in, get inspired, and take your leadership to the next level.
www.linkedin.com/in/shaunpsmit
Influence refers to the ability to have an effect or impact on something or someone. It is the power to shape or change the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, or actions of others.
Career development is about taking an active role in managing and advancing your career, rather than simply letting it unfold passively. Your career development leads to greater job satisfaction, increased earning potential, and a sense of fulfillment and purpose.
Career development for you as a leader is the ongoing process of managing and advancing your career over time. It means taking intentional steps to define your leadership, improve your skills, and increase your confidence and experience.
I'm discussing some parallels between my college rugby coaching, our championship tournament, and your leadership.
Negativity can be detrimental to a team's success and can have many negative impacts.
Dealing with negativity in team members can be challenging, but it's important to address it as it can have a negative impact on team morale and productivity.
Conflict is a natural part of any team dynamic, but when it's not addressed, it can lead to negative consequences. So, how can leaders overcome team conflict and build a strong, high-performing team? Let's dive in.