The best LinkedIn Posts

A packed calendar is not proof of leadership.

If your team can’t function without you, you’re not leading; you’re babysitting.

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”
— Sheryl Sandberg

As you sharpen your leadership skills, keep these 3 things in mind:

1. Leadership is about subtraction, not control.

Notice how many rules remove friction (fewer meetings, less micromanagement, swift handling of toxicity). Effective leadership is often about what you stop doing, not what you add.

2. The list quietly prioritizes energy management over time management.

Deep work, time off, and focus on high-impact tasks all point to the same truth: burned-out teams don’t scale impact—recovered teams do.

3. “Presence vs. absence” is the real scorecard.

Anyone can lead loudly when they’re in the room. These laws optimize for something harder: does the team still make good decisions when you’re not there? That’s the difference between authority and leadership.

Now read it one more time with these insights in mind...

11 Laws of Effective Leadership

Lead yourself before you lead others.

Hire great people, then get out of their way.

Be ready to dive in when needed.

Communicate clearly, consistently, and often.

Gather input, make decisions, then take action.

Prioritize deep work over unnecessary meetings.

Give frequent feedback and recognition.

Deal with toxic behavior swiftly.

Focus on high-impact work (and guide your team to do the same).

Take time off and encourage your team to do the same.

Invest in your team’s growth.

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➕ Follow Travis Bradberry for more and sign up for my weekly newsletter at www.TravisBradberry.com

Shoutout to Justin Wright for this great list.

Do you want more like this? 👇

📖 My #1 bestselling new book, "The New Emotional Intelligence" is now available on Amazon for 10% off.

By helping us be more productive, AI is going to give us more downtime, which we can use to unplug and recharge or for tasks requiring more creativity and deep focus. At least that was the promise. But now the LLM rubber is hitting the organizational road, and a fascinating new study published in “Harvard Business Review” shows that the reality is…complex. 
 
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley spent eight months studying the work habits of 200 tech company employees. What they found was that AI allowed the employees to do more work — and that’s exactly what they did. The problem was the work both accelerated in pace and expanded in time, bleeding into lunch and evenings and blurring “boundaries between work and non-work.” Also remarkable: the employees did this without being asked to. Because AI made work more doable, the employees did more. In other words, “AI makes it easier to do more — but harder to stop,” the authors write. “What looks like higher productivity in the short run can mask silent workload creep,” which in turn can lead to “cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making.”
 
What it shows is that AI adoption isn’t enough, nor is asking employees to self-regulate. Instead, the authors call for leaders to institute an “AI practice,” a set of norms and standards for how to use AI. 
 
The rise of AI is coming at a time in which brain health is moving to the center of our conversation about health. The study is a lesson that as we outsource more and more cognitive tasks to AI, we need to take intentional steps to protect our brain health.

I'd love to know: How has AI impacted your workload? Let me know in the comments.

Should you respond to that rejection email?

Well last week, I got a bunch of responses, and they fell into three categories:
1. Polite, thoughtful emails from people who expressed disappointment but continued interest in our company (where 90% of people fall!)
2. Polite, thoughtful emails from people who expressed disappointment and continued interest, and also outlined why they believed they were a strong fit, and shared a bit more context around their qualifications (typically, I see 5-10% of people do this).
3. Rude emails letting me know how incompetent I am (these are few and far between - less than 1% - but very memorable).

You might be surprised to hear that those messages matter.
- I actually moved 3 of those folks forward in my process because after considering the additional context as well as the way they advocated for themselves, I felt that it was worth learning more. The next step for us is an agentic screener which gives us a bit more flexibility (since it's less likely I would have scheduled interviews given how much time that can take).
- We may have another recruiter opening coming up that will focus on a different set of roles so I tagged some of these profiles for that role should that come to fruition.
- And ATSs track all communication with candidates offering visibility across the team so those exchanges will be visible to future recruiters for better or worse; the ability to engage with feedback and advocate/challenge respectfully is a really great skill any team would like to see so this will only reflect more positively on folks who do it well.

Honestly, I always respond to rejections for companies I'm genuinely interested in, and this has paid off for me numerous times.
- I applied to full-time roles Teach For America 5+ times before getting an offer.
- I was rejected for the first role I applied to at IDEA Public Schools before being offered another role shortly after.
- I was rejected for a role at Teach For America in 2019 only for them to come back with an opening 6 months later that I got hired for.

I have hired numerous people who are on their second or third of fifth or tenth application in the past both as a recruiter and a hiring manager, and they were all invariably, folks who took the rejection in stride.

Rejection stings, and it's ok to have an emotional reaction to it personally or with your friends or in the group chat. But make sure the response you have to the employer leaves them thinking, "we really missed out here" or "what a lovely response, I hope our paths cross again" and not "wow, really dodged a bullet there."

My hot takes that I stand by.

Most salespeople are terrified of cold calling right now.

I get it.

I've seen reps freeze at the thought of picking up the phone.

Their hands shake.
Their voice cracks.
They'd rather send 100 emails than make 10 calls.

Sound familiar? 😅

Here's what might surprise you:

I'm known as "The King of Social Selling."

I've built my entire brand around LinkedIn.
I've helped thousands of salespeople generate leads without cold calling.

And yet...

I STILL teach salespeople to pick up the phone.

Why?

Because the best salespeople don't choose between social selling OR cold calling.

They use BOTH.

Here's how LinkedIn and social selling can actually make your cold calls warmer:

𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗹

↳ Check their LinkedIn profile
↳ Read their recent posts
↳ Find something personal to mention
↳ Now your "cold" call has context

𝟮. 𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁

↳ Engage with their content for a few days
↳ Leave a thoughtful comment
↳ Send a connection request
↳ THEN call — they'll recognise your name

𝟯. 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿

↳ Sales Navigator shows direct dials
↳ Company pages list contact info
↳ Mutual connections can make introductions

𝟰. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹

↳ Connect on LinkedIn after a good conversation
↳ Share relevant content that adds value
↳ Stay visible without being pushy

𝟱. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

↳ When they Google you, your LinkedIn shows up
↳ A strong profile builds instant credibility
↳ They're more likely to take your call

The fear of cold calling doesn't disappear.

But when you combine it with social selling?

You're not calling strangers anymore.

You're calling people who've seen your name.
Who've read your content.
Who already know you can help.

That's the difference.

So here's my challenge to you:

Pick up the phone today.

Just one call.

Use LinkedIn to research them first.
Make it personal.
Add value.

The worst that can happen? They say no.
The best that can happen? You close a deal.

Risk is always better than regret.

Now go make that call.

Here’s one of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever learned for dealing with someone who belittles you:

When they say something hurtful to you, make them say it again.

Say, “sorry, I didn’t catch that - what did you say?”

When you do this, you’re delaying the sense of gratification they’d get by getting a reaction out of you. And when they have to repeat themselves, you’re taking the fun out of it. Suddenly, making the comment doesn’t feel worth it.

Then hold up a mirror. Ask them why they’re saying it.

“Did you say that to hurt me?” 
“What do you mean by that?”
“Are you insinuating something?”

When you invite them to reveal their intentions (which probably weren’t innocent), they’ll start to backtrack - because they don’t want to admit they were trying to knock you down a peg!

So take the fun out of it, and hold up a mirror.

This is how to take the power out of an insult - and it’s how you take back YOUR power when someone tries to embarrass you.

I learned this from trial lawyer and communication expert Jefferson Fisher on The Mel Robbins Podcast. If you’re tired of being talked over, dismissed, or made to feel less than, you need to give the communication techniques he walks you through in our conversation a try. I use them all the time - they save me from so much drama!! I’ll link our conversation in the comments for you.

Let me know if you’ve tried this technique!

All empires since the Dutch have used capitalism to create a virtuous cycle that leads to an empire’s demise.What happens when an empire can no longer borrow the money necessary to repay its debts? History shows us that having too much debt during an economic downturn leads to a classic, self-reinforcing cycle where:

1) The empire can no longer borrow the money to repay its debts
2) It prints a lot of new money, which devalues the currency and raises inflation
3) Living standards decline, leading to the rise of political extremism 
4) Turbulent economic conditions undermine productivity and there is conflict about how to divide the shrinking resources
5) Populist leaders emerge pledging to take control and bring about order

Ultimately, this failure to control the anarchy is when democracy is most at risk.

#principles #raydalio #history #debt

Underrated superpower:

Just dumb enough to believe in yourself, just smart enough to execute.

You don’t have anxiety because you think you CAN’T do it.

You have anxiety because deep down you know you CAN be doing bigger things.

People overestimate business plans and “genius.” They underestimate irrational inability to quit.

Dumber people than you have done it.

Let's get after it 💥

Follow for more & repost if you need this to be your new mantra.