Monthly provocations and practices for transformational leaders. Disrupt the reactive cycle keeping you and your team stuck in the status quo to create real and sustainable change.
How's all that ambition working for you?
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In these quiet days of late December, as the world begins to buzz with resolutions and predictions for the new year, I want to share something that has profoundly shaped my work and my life... and offer it to you. I've always been goal-oriented. Highly ambitious. Driven to succeed. Forget new year resolutions—I made entire spreadsheets of goals and tracked them meticulously over the course of a year. And then, I stopped. I'd realized two things: First, my goals were mostly making me feel guilty, since I was always falling short somewhere. And second, that even when I made big strides—a big promotion at work, being able to run a certain distance—they didn't bring fulfillment. In fact, they barely registered. I always needed more. So, over a decade ago, I stopped setting new year's resolutions. In fact, I've mostly stopped setting goals altogether 🤯, because I've found something more powerful than all that ambition. Intention. In my experience, practicing with a noble intention has been more transformative than any goal. It's inherently energizing and infinitely agile. Like a trusted companion, it goes wherever I go, inviting me to meet every conversation and situation with the quality I've chosen to practice. I remember my year of Kindness, which gently revealed how I wasn't being kind to myself. My year of Presence unveiled the boundless creativity available in each moment—not just in breakthrough moments, but in the ordinary magic of daily work. And this year, practicing with Selflessness, I've discovered something extraordinary: the person I think I am is not separate or solid but continuously emerging in relationship to others. The way this practice deepens over time... well, there's no other way to say it: It changes you. Shifting my focus from relentless ambition to noble intention has made all the difference in my life and my career. I got to the C-Suite not through ambition—I never would've imagined the Chief Culture Officer role for myself—but through consistently showing up in alignment with what mattered most. In a world that often feels fragmented and overwhelming, this practice has shown me how to align with what matters most and integrate all parts of my life. Which is why—drumroll please—in 2025 this newsletter and the RadiantLeader.co space are going to be all about AI. That is, Alignment + Integration. Practices that make us more human, more whole, and more transformational as leaders. Where Are You Now?Before we continue, I invite you to pause and check in with yourself. How are you feeling in your leadership right now? Be honest—there's wisdom in whatever you're experiencing.
I ran this poll on LinkedIn last month, and the results were a real wake-up call: 67% successful but misaligned and 33% unsuccessful and misaligned. Not one single person responded that they feel a sense of alignment in their life and work. Clearly something needs to shift. So let's get started. “Everything rests on the tip of your intention.” DOING X BEINGThe Power of IntentionWhat does intentional practice look like in the real world? Here's a common example. Many leaders feel torn between doing meaningful work and having a meaningful life. The tension is real, and the struggle is valid. But when we practice with an intention—let's say Balance, a quality several of my clients are practicing with—something subtle yet profound begins to shift:
The boundaries blur in the best possible way, so that these parts of our lives become integrated, no longer separate and opposing. And we discover a new way of being more fully ourselves, which enriches everything we do. This is the quiet power of intention: It transforms not just what we do, but how we show up in the moments that make up our lives. What's Your 2025 Intention?Ok Reader, ready to set your noble intention for 2025? This year's Leadership Intention Workbook is ready for you! This gentle yet powerful guide invites you to:
Then, reply to this email and let me know the intention you've set for the year! Or, even better... This Friday: Let's Set Our Intentions TogetherJoin me to find your noble intention for 2025 in this live session!If a goal is what we hope to do, our intention is how we want to be. Our intention goes wherever we go, inviting us to meet every conversation and situation with the quality we’ve chosen. I’ve found a noble intention to be more transformative than any goal. This Mini-Retreat will help you find yours. Friday, January 3, 2025 Register here. Zoom link sent upon registration.
Reminder: Mini-Retreats are free for RadiantLeader.co members, who can RSVP here. 💛 Finding Intentionit's the space it's the space it's the space Our Being Aligns Our DoingOne last note for anybody feeling nervous: Fear not, your intention isn't yet another item on your to-do list. It's a way of being that infuses everything you do. In fact, as you live and lead with intention, you'll find that time has a way of expanding. You'll see where you're wasting energy, know where to focus your precious attention, and understand what to let go of, in service of what matters most. Here's to becoming more whole, more human, and more transformational. Together. P.S. Looking for more support in your intentional practice? Consider becoming a RadiantLeader.co member, where we'll be aligning (and re-aligning) with our intention all year long. In the spirit of integration, we'll also be going deep into our resistance to our intentions, exploring the wisdom of their opposites, and applying our intentional practice to our most important relationships—including the one we have with ourselves. 🔥 Kristen Lisanti |
Radiant Change
Monthly provocations and practices for transformational leaders. Disrupt the reactive cycle keeping you and your team stuck in the status quo to create real and sustainable change.
When you think of a toxic work culture, what comes to mind? Screaming bosses? Fierce competition? Endless arguments? Not me. In my experience, if there’s one telltale sign that a culture is in decline, it’s not shouting. It’s silence. “We’re polite to death,” a client recently told me. “Nobody says what they actually think. We smirk and nod in meetings, then spend the next week in sidebar conversations complaining about what we just agreed to.” Sound familiar? We've been conditioned to see...
We adopted a puppy last week. His name is Axl. When Axl sits, he gets a treat. When he stays, he gets a treat. When he comes when called, another treat. The simple system of training a dog works beautifully—desired behavior, immediate reward, quick results. It’s easy to see why we’ve designed our organizations with this strategy of rewarding specific behaviors with external prizes—it works. Axl is learning to sit because I am teaching him what I value and giving him something he values in...
Have you noticed that there are bad words in business? I mean words that are innocuous in daily life, but when you dare utter them in a work context they’re practically scandalous? I’ve written before about the f-word, and today we’re going to talk about the b-word: Boundaries. The notion of saying no, drawing a line or setting a limit strikes fear in the hearts of many leaders I know. But I believe boundaries are scary because we misunderstand them. We think of them as barriers, brick walls...