The Influence Journal

Tag: Leadership

  • Why People Don’t Trust Their Leaders (Even When They Should)

    Many leaders think they’re trusted—until their team quietly checks out. Learn why trust breaks down and how to rebuild it with real leadership alignment.

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  • The Hidden Cost of High Performers: When Top Talent Turns Toxic

    When high performers poison your culture, results aren’t enough. Learn how to spot toxic top talent, protect your team, and lead with courage.

    They’re your highest achiever. Your most visible success story.
    But behind the scenes, they’re draining morale, alienating teammates, and eroding trust one meeting at a time.

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  • What Is Emotional Safety at Work? (And Why Great Leaders Prioritize It)

    Learn what emotional safety at work really means, how it differs from psychological safety, and why it’s the missing key to building trust, resilience, and high-performing teams.

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  • The Hidden Cost of Being the Fixer

    Why Overfunctioning Leaders Burn Out First

    Overfunctioning leaders take on too much, fix too often, and burn out fast. Learn how fixer behavior forms, its psychological roots, and practical steps leaders can take to stop overfunctioning and build sustainable, empowering leadership habits that foster team growth and personal well-being.

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  • Leadership Gaslighting: How Good Leaders Accidentally Undermine Trust

    And How to Get it Back

    Leadership gaslighting—when well-meaning leaders unintentionally sow self-doubt and mistrust—is a subtle but corrosive issue. Explore its psychological roots, organizational enablers, long-term impacts, and research-backed strategies to rebuild trust and foster transparent, thriving workplaces.

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  • The Leader Who Talks Too Much: Why Over-Explaining Kills Trust

    The Hidden Cost of Saying Too Much

    Leadership requires communication.

    But too often, leaders mistake volume for value—assuming that more explanation, more clarification, and more words will build more trust.

    It rarely works that way.

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  • Why I Started The Influence Journal (And What I Want to Change in Leadership)

    The Influence Journal explores leadership, trust, and identity. This post explains the gap in modern leadership thinking—and how we fix it.

    Scroll through LinkedIn or browse the leadership section of most blogs, and what you’ll find is content that feels surface-level. Tips and tricks. Clichés dressed up as insight. Motivational soundbites passed off as wisdom.

    But what’s missing is substance. Few pieces tackle the complexity of trust, power, fear, character, or identity—the deeper currents that shape how leaders actually lead. The result? Most leadership advice feels detached from the real work of leadership.

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  • The Psychology of Trust: Why People Follow Some Leaders and Not Others in 2025

    Discover 7 research-backed strategies to build leadership trust in 2025. Learn how psychological safety, consistency, and empathy drive team performance.

    At the end, you’ll find a free toolkit with strategies and frameworks to help you lead with clarity, consistency, and trust.

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  • The Psychology of Toxic Leadership: How Good Cultures Get Poisoned

    Toxic leadership quietly poisons even the best cultures.

    This in-depth analysis—rooted in research and real-world experience—unpacks the psychology behind destructive leadership, the organizational dynamics that enable it, and practical strategies for restoring trust, psychological safety, and healthy influence in today’s workplace.

    It started with a silence. The kind that settles over a once-vibrant team like fog rolling in—gradual, chilling, hard to name. A colleague stopped sharing in meetings. Another began taking calls with their camera off, voice flat, enthusiasm gone. Our leader, once hailed as a visionary, had shifted. Meetings became monologues. Dissent was punished with isolation. And still, on the surface, everything looked fine. We were hitting our numbers. The board applauded. But inside, something essential had fractured.

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  • The Psychology of Decision-Making: How Great Leaders Avoid Cognitive Bias

    Cognitive biases in leadership can quietly sabotage your decisions.

    In this guide, we explore the psychology of decision-making and show how exceptional leaders overcome bias using proven strategies, real-world examples, and practical frameworks for making better choices.

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