Tiny Leadership Stories: A Weekly Leadership Newsletter

Brief Stories. Lasting Impressions.

A weekly three-minute read from executive coach Dominick Bizzarro: one brief leadership story, one distinction and a question to reflect on. Read every issue.

Filter by

#38
Preference vs. Promise
Curtis founded a civil engineering firm twenty-two years ago. It has grown to twenty people, and he is quietly making himself less needed. A younger p…
#37
Solution vs. Problem
Kate is a senior vice president at a regional transit authority. She has run operations there for four years. She is efficient, experienced, and usual…
#36
Done by Me vs Done
Lina runs quality engineering at a company that makes surgical instruments. For years she was the only manager on her floor, with twenty direct report…
#35
Hearing vs. Handling
Jakob runs engineering at a company that builds industrial sensors. He is the person you want when something fails at 2:00 AM. Describe a problem to h…
#34
Collecting vs. Keeping
After seven years in a clinical leadership role at a hospital system, Beth had been vice president of supply chain for nine months. She was good at th…
#33
Authors vs. Editors
Jason runs operations for an insurance company with offices in forty cities. Last winter he did what strong operators do: he saw a broken process, hud…
#32
Given vs. Earned
Greg was hired from outside to be president of a family-owned distribution company. He had run larger operations as a COO and was energized about this…
#31
Needed vs. Valuable
Ray built his home renovation firm over twenty-five years in Canton, Ohio. Clients loved the quality of the design and the build. Revenue was up again…
#30
Hard on Yourself vs. Honest with Yourself
Nora ran three lives at once. Head of programs at an agency serving people with developmental disabilities, with an executive director who measured ev…
#29
Sure vs. Sound
For three weekends, Kerry carried the same decision down to the waterfront. She would walk along the shore until the noise in her head thinned and sh…
#28
Convincing vs. Influencing
Renee ran operations for a US-based medical device company. She was good at her job because she was good at analyzing a problem and building a case. G…
#27
Solving vs Surfacing
Walt had been Vice President of Operations for nine months. He had come up fast, through routing and then analytics, and he was friendly with the tech…
#26
Rumination vs. Reflection
Claire was the Director of the Project Management Office at an east coast construction company, leading a team of thirteen project managers. During th…
#25
Imitation vs. Original
Wes built the shop with Hank over a dozen years, from two men in a rented garage to a business with sixteen craft cabinetmakers and a year-long waitli…
#24
Broad vs. Deep
Tessa built her dental practice from a single chair into something that served 1,900 patients through a staff of six. She was the only dentist. She de…
#23
What I Look For
This is a letter I wrote to my father in November 2023, after two days at a leadership workshop. He passed away recently. We held his services on June…
#22
Defending vs. Listening
The rink lobby was emptying. Dean was kneeling over his son's hockey bag when a woman approached him. He recognized her. Her boy had started skating i…
#21
Climbing vs. Growing
Mariah was a pharmacist who had joined a small telehealth company and grown up inside it. She made director at thirty-one. By thirty-eight, she ran cl…
#20
Shield vs. Curtain
Kelleigh ran a twenty-four-person architecture firm she had built over twelve years, from one drafting table to a full practice. She thought of hersel…
#19
Across From vs. Beside
Brett managed the maintenance subscription program his boss, Diane, had built. He had rapidly grown it from twelve accounts to ninety-three, and now t…
#18
Situation vs. Significance
Maya had earned Bradford's respect during her brief tenure as managing director and both were on the hiring committee. The candidate had come up a non…
#17
Inherited Life vs. Authored Life
Althea had been the CFO for eleven years. She had the oversized office, the stock options, and the annual review that always said “outperform.” She ha…
#16
Rescuing vs. Developing
Nadia had sent three reminders to Eli in two weeks. She filed it in her mind under the work of managing someone through a transition. She had been pr…
#15
Commitment vs. Recommitment
The commitment was written in Mateo's journal and shared with his team: I will loosen my grip. For three months, it held. He moved his one-on-ones to …
#14
Fear vs. Presence
Kenji had led teams for twenty years. Every autumn, he traded quarterly reviews for a guitar and played in a small band. And every year, without excep…
#13
To Me vs. For Me
Michael had been a divisional president for three years when the restructuring landed on his desk. Two more departments folded under him overnight, hi…
#12
Telling vs. Asking
A colleague across the table offered a different perspective on the integration timeline, and Malik’s face was already answering before the man finish…
#11
Toughness vs. Vulnerability
Kathryn’s promotion to vice president seated her at an executive table that operated on a set of unwritten rules. Opinions were stated loudly, interru…
#10
Busy vs. Focused
Ishani had been building something no one in her region had attempted before: a new model of caring for the most vulnerable people in the community. S…
#9
Perfection vs. Trust
Everyone said Jordan was the most organized person in her company. She ran cross-functional projects without dropping a single deliverable. She overla…
#8
Honor vs. Release the Past
Amara learned to lead from a man who solved every problem like it was a fire. He was passionate and brilliant at it. Clients trusted him. His team alw…
#7
Worth vs. Value
A new client, Naomi, had been a director for nine years when Morgan, a long-time mentor turned sponsor, walked into the CEO's office and made the case…
#6
Confidence vs. Courage
Andrea sat across from me, frustrated. Her boss wanted to hear her opinions in meetings, her reasoning, her voice. Her response was familiar: "I need …
#5
Pleasing vs. Serving
As a customer experience manager with nine direct reports, Tamsin had built something rare: a team that genuinely loved her. Morale was high, retentio…
#4
Mentorship vs. Sponsorship
A Chief Medical Officer shared a realization with me that stopped me in my tracks. She had spent years cultivating an impressive network of mentors. S…
#3
Expectations vs. Agreements
Ella closed the email with the project update from her Director of Operations. More deadlines missed, and details forgotten. Hadn’t she been clear abo…
#2
Networking vs. Connecting
Deborah, a Chief Clinical Officer, described the scene to me with a heavy sigh. She was standing at the edge of a hotel ballroom, checking her watch, …
#1
Doing vs. Being
Evelyn had just finished presenting quarterly results to the board. Confident posture, crisp slides, and transparent answers to questions modeled exec…

Shall we begin?

I love to connect with purpose-driven leaders ready to make their deepest, most meaningful impact. Let's talk about your vision and how we can work together to achieve it.

Get started

Tiny Leadership Stories

Get leadership insights

Shall we begin?