Chad Todd

Practical Lessons for Real-World Leadership Most leadership advice sounds good on paper, but completely falls apart in the real world. I started Leading Between The Lines because I wanted to change that. After years of leading teams, I realized that the real lessons (the ones that shape how people trust, follow, and grow) rarely show up in playbooks or strategy decks. They live in the everyday moments: • The hard conversations • The mistakes and errors • The quiet wins that no one sees This newsletter is my way of sharing those moments. Every week, I send a short, practical email to help you lead with more clarity, intention, and consistency… especially in the moments that matter most. If you’re someone who values substance and wants to grow as a leader in the real world, I’d love for you to join me. 👉 Subscribe to Leading Between The Lines below: chadtodd.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Stop obsessing over resumes. Start paying attention to trajectory. The best hires often don’t have the longest track records. They have the steepest growth curves. Here’s the difference: - Some candidates walk in with a full tank of experience. - Others walk in with curiosity, pace, and the belief they can outlearn anyone in the room. I’ll take the second group every time. Why? Because you’re not hiring for yesterday. You’re hiring for what happens next. Give me someone with: - High throughput - Real humility - Fast pattern recognition - Enough internal fuel to power a team That’s the kind of person who outgrows every job you give them. And lifts the people around them as they go. Don’t always hire for the peak. Hire for the climb.

You Might Be a Bad Leader If… - Your team finds out about changes through the company newsletter - Your 1:1s start with: “So… what do you got for me?” - You only show up when there’s a fire - You schedule meetings to plan other meetings - You “delegate” by dumping and disappearing - You say “I’ll get back to you” and you never do - You haven’t received real feedback from anyone since 2021 Bad leadership doesn’t start loud. It starts with small habits no one calls out (until the team checks out). So if any of this hits home: - Fix your follow-through - Make your 1:1s matter - Ask your team what’s not working and actually listen -  Because being the boss doesn’t make you the leader. How you show up every day…does.

You sold the company. Everyone’s congratulating you. So why do you feel... off? The wire hits.  The champagne pops.  You brace for the high. But instead, it’s quiet.  You feel more empty than excited. This is post-success founder fog.  The strange stillness after years of chasing, building, and pushing. The urgency is gone. The inbox is finally quiet. And you’re left wondering:  Who am I without the company I built? You don’t just lose the grind. You lose the gravity. And without it, direction feels harder than expected. This doesn’t mean you made a mistake. It means your identity is catching up to your reality. What helps: - Give yourself space before jumping into something new - Reconnect with passions and people outside of business - Reflect on what energized you—and what drained you - Talk to others who’ve exited. Most of them have felt this too Selling your company changes your life. But it also shifts your purpose. And that shift takes time.

Want better meetings? Start with better prep. A messy meeting is often a planning problem. Clarify the purpose. Share the agenda early. Name who owns what. End with action steps. Respect your team's time by treating meetings like the main event and not an afterthought.

The best praise answers the question… Did what I do actually matter? This is Part 3 of 3 in the praise series. Today: Impact praise. People want to know their work made a difference. Not just that it got done but that it meant something. Try this: - “That update saved the whole team time this week. Seriously.” - “You made it easier for the client to move forward. That’s a big deal with them.” - “What you wrote helped me explain this to the exec team. Made my job easier.” When people understand the ripple effect of their work, they show up differently. 👉 Show them the impact. 👉 Be specific. 👉 Let them feel the value. ⸻ Quick recap of the series: 1. Praise the Effort – Catch them in the hard part. 2. Praise the Process – Reinforce what they did right along the way. 3. Praise the Impact – Show them the ripple effect. Most leaders default to results-only praise. The great ones use all three. Save this. Share it. Start using it this week.

Praise isn’t just about results. It’s about reinforcing the right habits. This is part 2 of 3 in the series on praise that actually drives performance. Today: Process praise. Most people don’t get feedback on how they work. Just whether the outcome hit the mark. But if you want someone to grow, show them what they did well while getting there. Try this: “The way you broke that down step by step made it easy to follow.” “I liked how you kept looping the team in as things moved. It really helped keep us all on the same page.” “You stayed calm and methodical even when it started to derail. That made a big difference.” This kind of praise teaches people what to repeat. Not just what to celebrate. 👉 Notice their approach. 👉 Say it out loud. 👉 Reinforce what works.

I’ve seen it too many times.  Smart hires burn out because they never got the structure they needed to succeed. If someone doesn’t know how to win, they won’t stick around to keep playing. Here’s a simple lens I share with execs: Context. Capability. Confidence. If someone’s struggling, ask: - Do they know how their role fits into the bigger picture? (Context) - Have they been shown (more than once) how to do the job well? (Capability) - Do they believe they’re doing it right? (Confidence) Most leaders focus on motivation. But often, the issue is a skill or confidence gap.

Progress stalls when people get good enough to disappear. They’re not the loudest. They’re not the worst. But they’re not getting better either. I’ve worked with plenty of leaders who missed this. The person wasn’t failing but they hadn’t improved in months. Just coasting. Safe. Quiet. Want to spot it? Watch for: - Someone who stops asking questions - Work that looks exactly the same month after month - “Fine” performance in a role with growth potential - No new skills or stretch wins in the last 90 days This is where high performance dies. Not in chaos, but in comfort. If you want a high-performing team, don’t just coach the squeaky wheels. Go find the plateaus.

Great Leaders Build the Spotlight for Others Early in my leadership journey, I thought the goal was to be the most visible person in the room.  The one with all the answers. The hero of every win. But the best leaders I’ve worked with do something very different: - Success? Measured by who they lift up. - Praise? Shared like a team sport. Even if they crave the mic, they pass it. That’s how you build loyalty and trust that lasts.

If your team’s playing this game, you’ve already lost. Bad Boss Bingo We’ve all seen it. Some of us have lived it. A few of us… might be doing it without realizing. 👇 How many of these squares would your team quietly check off about you? 🟥 Misses 1:1s 🟥 Hogs the meeting 🟥 Vague goals 🟥 Ghosts messages 🟥 Doesn’t follow up 🟥 Only gives feedback when it’s bad 🟥 Ignores burnout 🟥 Always “too busy” 🟥 Takes credit ✅ Bonus points if they’ve adapted around you to survive it. Want to stop playing? 1.Protect your 1:1s like they’re revenue-generating. Canceling them tells your team the relationship doesn’t matter. 2. Own what’s yours (especially the misses). Blame kills trust. Accountability builds it. 3. Give more clarity than you think they need. Assumptions are expensive. Spell it out. 4. Do what you say, every time. Follow-up is leadership currency. When it runs out, so does trust. 5. Watch what you reward and what you let slide. Your silence teaches just as loudly as your praise. Bad leadership doesn’t always show up in complaints. It shows up in disengagement, silence, and turnover.

Don’t call it accountability if there’s no follow-through. Check-ins without consequences are just calendar events. Real accountability means expectations, support, and tracking. If no one’s responsible for the outcome, then the outcome won’t happen.

Trust Starts Before You Speak Your team doesn’t just hear what you say. They feel how you say it. Tone is trust. Energy is credibility. Before your message lands, your presence is already speaking.

Shift Happens In high-performing companies, managers don’t just manage. They shift: - How they lead as the business evolves. - The way they coach as the team matures. - Their focus from what’s nice to what’s necessary. But here’s the part most people miss: The style that made you effective last year might stall your team this year. That’s where great managers separate themselves. They don’t cling to a leadership identity. They respond to what the team and the business actually needs. Consider these common shifts: 1. From building trust → to building accountability 2. From steadying the team → to sparking urgency 3. From wearing all the hats → to building actual systems 4. From being the expert → to building confidence in others Leadership isn’t fixed. It’s fluid. And if you’re not shifting, you’re not reaching your potential. I coached a leader whose team loved her, but the results weren’t coming.  She was showing up like a cheerleader when what the business needed was a captain.  She shifted her stance. Held a higher bar. And her team crushed it.  Same people.  Shifted leadership.  Everything changed. So here’s the takeaway: If your leadership style hasn’t evolved lately… …it’s probably holding something (or someone) back.

Repetition isn’t boring.  It’s how alignment sticks. Tired of saying the same thing? Good. That means it’s starting to land. The best leaders repeat the mission, the goals, and the values. Not because people are dumb. But because clarity takes repetition.

Your calendar is your leadership mirror. Before you check your team, check your calendar. Your priorities aren’t just in your words.  They’re in your schedule. What you say sets the tone. But what you consistently make time for?  That tells the truth. And your team sees it, even if you don’t. Leadership starts with how you spend your time. Are these leadership essentials on your calendar? 1. Consistent 1:1s that reinforce alignment and priorities 2. Space to notice and call out someone doing the right thing 3. Time to prepare for (and follow up on) tough conversations Because if they’re not scheduled, they’re not happening.

I Fixed the Problem. And Then I Failed the Team. With my IT background, I still take on consulting projects for long-time clients I enjoy working with. Recently, one of them called with an urgent issue: Critical content had vanished from Office 365 for a high-level executive. A capable, experienced team assembled fast. Skilled. Trusted. Eager to solve the problem. But something was missing. The person who usually kept us aligned, set the plan, and ran point on communications was out on PTO. Without him there, we defaulted to working in silos. We weren’t sloppy.  We weren’t slow. But we were inefficient. We missed chances to update the end user. We lost time that better coordination might have saved. In the end, we fixed the problem. I did the job I was brought in to do. But I failed the team. I stayed in technician mode. Focusing on my piece. When what the moment really needed was leadership. As a leadership coach, I know better. But I was so locked in on solving the technical problem that I didn’t step up. Looking back, here’s the truth I keep coming back to: Even a team full of leaders still needs one person to lead. - Not the most senior.  - Just someone to own the outcome. - To coordinate. To bring clarity. Because when no one leads, the team can drift. Next time, I’ll notice sooner. And when I see it, I’ll act right away. Whether that means stepping up or asking someone else to. Doing your job is expected.But making sure the team wins? That’s leadership.

If everything’s urgent, nothing gets done. You can’t build a high-performance team on panic. Set priorities. Protect focus. Stop celebrating chaos as if it’s hustle. Urgency should be a tool, not a lifestyle.

About six months ago, I started something small with one of my remote team:  Thankful Thursdays. Every Thursday, I’d drop one thing I was grateful for in Slack.  Nothing big, just a quick note of appreciation for a teammate, a moment, or something that went right that week. I didn’t ask anyone to join in. I just modeled it. Now? They beat me to it. It’s become one of our favorite rituals. And honestly, one of the best parts of my week. Sometimes the simplest culture builders aren’t policies or programs. They’re moments. Try it.

You don’t need a new team. You need a new lens. You’re frustrated. The team’s underdelivering. You’re starting to wonder if it time for a change? New hires. New roles. New structure. But here’s a thought most leaders overlook: The problem might not be your team. It might be your perspective. We don’t lead people as they are. We lead them as we perceive them. And your assumptions act like filters: - Think someone’s disengaged? You’ll give them less attention. - Think someone’s not “leadership material”? You’ll stop challenging them. - Think someone’s a star? You’ll overlook their blind spots. Same people. Same potential. Different lens. But completely different results. When you see someone as an obstacle, they act like one. When you see them as a key piece of the puzzle, they often rise. Before you replace the team, upgrade your lens.

These three people changed my entire career (and life), and they probably don’t even know it. Some moments change your trajectory. Not overnight. But permanently. These tipping points shift your direction, unlock momentum, or force growth in a way you can’t undo. Here are a few of mine: 1. Landing my first sales job We trained 90 minutes a day on selling, every day. I learned how to read people, listen with intent, stay grounded through rejection, and guide conversations toward decisions. 2. Getting into IT It taught me how to learn on the fly, adapt quickly, and stay calm under pressure. 3. Becoming a public speaker Speaking to a group every day taught me how to simplify complex ideas, read the room, and hold attention without forcing it. 4. Writing my first book Writing turned me into a creator. Over time, I wrote four books and more than 30 magazine articles. It taught me to make sense of my thinking, package it with purpose, and get comfortable with others’ opinions of it. 5. Building my first SaaS product It taught me how to turn a real problem into a usable product, and how to stay focused on what people actually need. --------------- The truth is, tipping points don’t just happen. People create them. My friend Will Carver got me my first sales job, and later, my first IT job. Paul Salas landed me my first book deal and encouraged me to start my first company. It was Tom Boyle who came up with the idea for us to build a SaaS app for legal accounting. Without those three people, none of those tipping points would have happened. Tipping points don’t always feel like turning points. Sometimes they look like a conversation, a favor, or a quiet vote of confidence. If you're looking for your next tipping point, start there. Look for the people who see your potential, stretch you to grow, and force you to get out of your own way. And then go be that person for someone else. Thank you, Tom, Will, and Paul, for letting me stand on your shoulders to reach places I never could have reached by myself.