Leadership Institute of Seattle

10/12/2026

"Awareness is not enough. You must have skills and intentionality as well to increase your amount of positive social outcomes."
- Chris Crosby, Strategic Engagement Vol. I

This is one of the truest things in leadership development and one of the most consistently ignored.

Every leader I have ever worked with who has been through a 360 or a leadership assessment or a coaching engagement can tell you their patterns. They know they go defensive under pressure. They know they over-explain when they are nervous. They know they have a tendency to avoid conflict until it becomes a crisis.

Knowing does not stop it.

Behavioral change requires three things working together: awareness of the pattern, a specific skill to replace it with, and enough deliberate practice in real situations that the new behavior becomes automatic.

Where has awareness alone not been enough for you as a leader? What did it actually take to change?

10/10/2026

Tough Stuff™ wrapped up this morning.

Every cohort that goes through this program comes out the other side different. Not a little different. Genuinely different in how they lead.

I have seen engineers who could not give direct feedback leave with the ability to have honest conversations. Managers who went into every conflict sideways learn to engage it head-on. Leaders who were skilled at managing their image start developing the courage to be real.

That does not happen because we told them to change. It happens because we put them in a room and made them practice with real peers, with expert faculty holding them accountable, with feedback that was specific enough to land.

A Transit Authority official who sent their leaders through Tough Stuff put it simply: their annual engagement survey showed no statistical improvement across the board with one notable exception. The leaders who went through Tough Stuff. Every single one.

To everyone in this week's cohort: the work you did matters. Carry it back into your organizations.

To everyone who has been watching: stay connected at lios.org/tough-stuff

And a heartfelt thank you to our partners at Southwest Youth & Family Services.

Join our Tough Stuff T-Group to enhance your leadership skills. Sign up now for this unique learning journey!

10/08/2026

Good morning. Tonight is the October free info session for the MS in Leadership, Management and Organizational Development.

Tonight: Free Info Session
October 8 | 6:30 to 7:30pm PST | Virtual

While Tough Stuff™ is wrapping up this week in Seattle, we are opening the door tonight for the next step our master's program.

This is not a polished sales presentation. It is a real conversation with faculty and alumni who went through this program and have something honest to say about what it did for them and their organizations.

Come with questions. Come curious. Here is who this session is designed for:

Prospective students at any stage of their decision. OD practitioners ready to go deeper. Managers who want to lead change, not just manage through it. LIOS alumni who want to support prospective students.

No commitment required. Register now at lios.org/upcoming-info-sessions

10/05/2026

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week, a group of leaders in Seattle is doing exactly that.

Tough Stuff™ is underway. Five days of intensive T-Group practice where leaders are not being told about leadership they are doing it. In real time. With real people. With feedback that is honest enough to actually change something.

Most of us spend our careers making the most of our technical skills. Our strategic thinking. Our domain expertise. And those things matter.

But the leaders who truly maximize what they have to offer are the ones who do the harder work developing their presence, their capacity for honest relationship, their ability to lead through conflict rather than around it.

What does making the most of yourself look like in your leadership right now? What are you still developing?

10/02/2026

Applications are open for the MS in Leadership, Management and Organizational Development at LIOS.

Let me be direct about what this program is and what it is not.

It is not a degree you sit through. It is not a collection of courses you take online in your spare time. It is a two-year, in-person, small-group experience in Seattle that will fundamentally change how you lead.

12 week-long residencies. 8 to 1 student-to-faculty ratio. Competency-based you do not just complete assignments, you demonstrate real behavioral change, in real situations, with real feedback from faculty and peers who are invested in your growth.

You will learn to lead intact teams through conflict. To drive organization-wide change that produces measurable results. To show up with full presence as a leader, even when things are hard. These are not soft skills. These are the skills that determine whether your organization moves forward or stays stuck.

Over 2,000 alumni. Founded in 1969. State authorized.

Learn more at: https://lnkd.in/g8tUAtEF

09/21/2026

"Those who try to avoid conflict by avoiding clarity, or by agreeing with everyone, are doomed to mediocrity. They cannot lead." — Gil Crosby
Let that sit for a moment.
Avoiding conflict feels like the safe choice. It keeps things calm. No one gets upset. But what it actually does is make everything worse over time.
Unclear expectations. Unresolved tension. Teams where people say yes in the room and no in the hallway.
Clarity is an act of leadership. And it takes courage.
What is the cost of avoiding clarity in your organization right now? Be honest with yourself. 👇

09/17/2026

16 days until Tough Stuff™.
October 5 to 9, 2026 | Seattle, WA
Here is what you will walk away with:
Greater ability to have direct, honest conversations without blowing up relationships. Stronger presence under pressure. Real skills in navigating group dynamics and conflict. A deeper understanding of how you show up and how to shift it.
This is not a team-building retreat. This is serious, evidence-based skill development delivered by expert faculty in a small group setting.
Register now. Limited spots remaining.
lios.org/tough-stuff
What would change about your leadership if you came back from 5 days of intensive, focused skill development? 👇

Join our Tough Stuff T-Group to enhance your leadership skills. Sign up now for this unique learning journey!

09/17/2026

From Strategic Engagement Vol. I by Chris Crosby:
"Awareness is not enough. You must have skills and intentionality as well to increase your amount of positive social outcomes."

This is one of the most important distinctions in leadership development.
Awareness gets you to the door. You notice your patterns. You see how you land on others. You start to understand what triggers you. That is essential. But it is only the beginning.

Without skills, awareness just becomes an elaborate way to watch yourself struggle.

LIOS builds both. The self-awareness and the actual behavioral skills to do something different with it.

Have you ever had a moment where you were fully aware of a leadership pattern but still could not stop it in the moment? What happened?

09/16/2026

One week from today, we are hosting our next free info session for the MS in Leadership, Management and Organizational Development.

September 24 | 6:30 to 7:30pm PST | Virtual

Here is what we hear from people who attend:
They came in curious and left with clarity. Not just about the program, but about what they actually want from their leadership development.
That is what this session is designed to do. Give you real information, real access to faculty and alumni, and a clear picture of whether this program is the right fit for where you are headed.

No commitment. No pressure. Just an honest conversation.

Register now at lios.org/upcoming-info-sessions

This is the last September session. The next one after this is October 8.

Who in your network has been talking about going back to school for leadership? Tag them here.

Discover how our Master of Science in Leadership, Management and Organization Development will benefit you!

09/14/2026

"Today's leaders must know how to be clear and firm, yet humble and compassionate. They must blend art with the science of leading." — Gil Crosby

This is the tension most leadership training ignores.
Being direct AND caring. Holding firm AND staying curious. Having authority AND remaining accessible.

Most programs teach one side or the other. LIOS teaches both. Because the leaders who change organizations are not the ones who are simply decisive or simply empathetic. They are the ones who know how to hold both at the same time.

That is the art and science of leading.

Which side of this tension do you lean toward more naturally, directness or compassion? And what does the other side cost you?