Sometimes we think leadership is about having the answers—or finding them. And sometimes it is. People look to leaders for direction and assurance. For support and focus. For feedback and structure.

Some leaders draw on years of formal training and education when making decisions and shaping strategy. Others rely on strong intuition and exceptional people skills. Both matter.

I’m often asked by friends and colleagues to share my thoughts on impactful leadership moves. So, in taking another risk, I’m introducing Spin Sparks - short bursts of insight to share ideas and support growth for leaders who are continually calibrating, connecting, and cultivating to make a difference.

Over time, I’ve learned that many of you reading along are not in education. With that in mind, these Spin Sparks will stretch beyond the school system, in the spirit of sharing leadership practices and realities that resonate across all organizations.

I'm going to keep these "sparks" moments grounded in three simple leadership moves you can try tomorrow: the reframe, the let go and the calibrate. My reflections may be a bit messy, and I hope they're meaningful as I share what I've learned, and unlearned, along the way.

Spin Spark #1: Leadership Agility

Leadership agility seems to keep surfacing in my professional circles. Agility is activated in response to disturbance, as we try to regain our footing in the midst of turbulence and shifting conditions.

For athletes, it shows up when the game starts to change and digging into physicality is required to reach the literal finish line or goal. For organizations, agility is necessary to survive in volatile environments, where markets demand reconfiguration and readjustment to stay the course. For professionals, it’s when you realize that what you were planning, or the support you were counting on, is not going to happen, and you need to figure out a quick way forward.

Findings show that leadership agility is not a leadership style or trait, but a set of recurring cognitive, behavioural, and relational routines that shape how leaders interpret uncertainty, commit to action, and coordinate collective response (Asghar, Saup, Weiss & Kanbach, 2026).

Just this past week, my colleague Ian Kennedy has been sharing his thinking with me, bringing the importance of both executive presence and leadership agility to the forefront of my mind. While consistency and decisiveness are key parts of leadership practice, great leadership is also about variability, knowing when and where to lean in. It’s about knowing yourself, your natural biases, your ability to balance operations with big-picture vision, and your capacity to adjust your approach based on the situation at hand.

I’m someone who pays attention to patterns, and maybe even a bit to the metaphysical. There is something significant in the recurrence of leadership agility in the conversations I find myself in. I’m not sure if it’s timing, or the “fates” I often joke about with friends, but I’m increasingly convinced that leaders need to spend more time leaning into agility as a strategy - for resilience, for recovery, and for rediscovering how to continue serving organizations and communities in challenging times.

Leadership agility is often framed as a strategic necessity, giving leaders the capacity to rapidly assess new environments, align culture with structure, and drive sustainable organizational impact (Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto).

Another “agility sign” happened at our annual West Vancouver Schools Women in Leadership event. Guest speaker Kelli Vukelic spoke about the evolving nature of leadership in executive roles. She emphasized the importance of emotionally intelligent leaders who can adapt quickly, think ahead, and balance risk with long-term opportunity in times of uncertainty and disruption.

Modern leaders must be agile, emotionally intelligent, and technologically adept to successfully navigate this evolving landscape (K. Vukelic, Leadership Rewired, 2026).

Vukelic reminded me again of how important it is for leaders to be agile. Leaders who can think strategically and feel deeply are better able to move through moments of adversity while staying grounded in their purpose. She positions learning agility as essential for leaders to stay ahead, and her emphasis on emotional intelligence as a core leadership competency was especially meaningful.

As someone who feels deeply, I admit there is an emotional struggle with the subtle messages around the harder edges and mechanics of leadership. While technical acumen and business sense are crucial, without truly sensing the people around you and being attentive to their needs, hopes, and perspectives, leaders can miss a critical data set. Human emotions provide just as much insight for decision-making as survey results, spreadsheets, and the hard numbers that drive organizations forward.

With that in mind, this Spark is dedicated to unpacking leadership agility in real time, in real life.

Leadership Agility: The Reframe

Remember plans don't need agility, people do. Agile leaders are always asking themselves what does this situation need now not what did I plan for?

Getting stuck in the plan that isn't happening is a common trap that leaders too often get stuck in. Thinking that things are going to go the way you think they should is a shortcoming that will backfire. Leadership in real time, in real life, is all about humans. It is about emotions, energy and the ability to pause, read the room and shift. Agile leaders live in the reframe, ready to reposition, rethink and reconsider what is happening in order to see the situation differently.

Three questions to ponder in the reframe are:

1. Am I relying too heavily on hard data or logic, and not enough on the emotional signals and feels around me?
2. Am I aware of my own natural biases and tendencies when responding to high-pressure or complex situations?
3. Am I able to adjust my approach while staying grounded in my core purpose when faced with moments of uncertainty or the unexpected?

Leadership Agility: The Let Go

Letting go is an act of humility just as much as it is one of ego. Leaders are conditioned to think that what they have decided is the way it should be. Stepping back and letting go requires bravery in order to dive deeper and think about who in your space needs a different approach from you right now. As Vukelic (2026) reminds us "true leadership isn't defined by moments of ease, it's forged in the adversity and the tough moments" when we grab hold of learning and thinking differently, not necessarily because we want to be but we have to in order to understand our own emotions in order to recognize and respond to the emotions of others.

Three questions in the let go to consider are:

1. Am I holding onto anything right now that could limit my ability to lead effectively in the moment?
2. Am I able to create space for a different perspective, person or possibility to emerge?
3. Am I able to examine my own emotions and reactions so I can better understand and respond to others?

Leadership Agility: The Calibrate

Recalibrating is all about micro-moves. It’s built in the pause, the question, the shift in tone, and the capacity to go slow to go fast. This is where calibration lives, knowing when to push forward, pause, or pivot, without letting go of the wheel. It’s the willingness to try again when you haven’t quite got it right, to stay humble, and to adjust your next moves with intention while balancing empathy and decisiveness. This can be especially challenging for leaders who absorb the energy around them while trying to stay responsive to the people right in front of them.

Three questions to hold in the calibrate are:

1. Am I paying attention to the small signals that tell me when to pause, push, or pivot?
2. Am I adjusting my tone, pace, or approach in response to what’s happening around me?
3. Am I balancing empathy and decisiveness in a way that moves things forward, even if I don’t get it perfectly right the first time?

All right, that wraps this spin. These shorter reflections are intended to spark, provoke, and leave you with thoughts to carry into your own practice. Preparing leaders for tomorrow starts today - with self-awareness and self-reflection. Regardless of the industry you serve, leadership begins with an understanding of oneself and a commitment to helping others grow as leaders. Leadership lives in all of us; it’s simply a matter of how intentionally we choose to show up.

Author's Note: Once again, in the spirit of author integrity, I note that my Copilot AI thought partner assisted with soft-touch editing and grammatical revisions to assist with publication.