Be Undaunted: Lead Stronger, Elevate Your Impact, Live With Energy

Leadership Starts with You

Episode Notes

In this episode of Be Undaunted, Tara Collingwood and George Dom dive into one of the most overused (and often misunderstood) words in business and culture today: leadership.

Rather than adding to the noise of countless books and definitions, Tara and George break leadership down to its core and explore what it really means to lead, whether you're running a company, parenting a family, coaching a team, or simply leading yourself.

What Is Leadership Really?

If you ask 10 people to define leadership, you’ll likely get 10 different answers. George reframes the conversation:

• Leadership is about change.
• If nothing needs to change, you don’t need leadership, you need management.
• Leadership is about going somewhere new, taking new ground, and navigating uncertainty.

Leadership isn’t about titles, rank, or corner offices. It’s about influence.

“It’s not about rank or job. It’s about how your presence influences everyone around you.”

Everyone Is a Leader

Tara shares how she once felt intimidated by the word “leadership,” assuming it applied only to CEOs and executives. But leadership shows up in everyday life:

• Parents leading their families
• Coaches leading athletes
• Teammates setting the standard
• Individuals leading themselves

Leadership begins with the hardest person to lead: yourself.

Are you showing up with integrity? Energy? Discipline? Emotional regulation? That’s leadership.

Leadership at Every Level

Drawing from his experience commanding a Navy squadron, George explains that high performing teams don’t rely on a single leader at the top. They develop:

• Leaders at every level
• Shared vision and responsibility
• Personal accountability
• High trust

Organizations that depend on hierarchy alone move too slowly. Modern leadership requires distributed influence.

The Power of Trust

Trust is the foundation of effective leadership.

• Trust requires vulnerability
• Leaders must walk their talk
• Promises must be kept
• Integrity must hold under pressure

George distinguishes between honesty and candor:

• Honesty: Telling the truth when asked
• Candor: Bringing the truth forward before being asked

And here’s the key:
If you invite truth but react poorly when you hear it, you may never hear it again.

Energy Is Contagious

Leadership energy spreads:  good or bad.

If you show up exhausted, disengaged, or burned out, your team will feel it. Leaders must manage:

• Their own physical and emotional energy
• The collective energy of the team
• The rhythm between stress and recovery

Tara highlights real-world signs of burnout (like emails at all hours) and emphasizes the importance of modeling recovery, rest, and self care.

“Your body is business relevant.”

Without proper sleep, nutrition, movement, and recovery, leadership suffers.

Leadership in Uncertainty

Leadership shows up most clearly in moments of change and crisis.

Change always brings anxiety. Leaders can’t eliminate fear, but they can absorb it.

People don’t follow plans when they’re anxious.
They follow people.

Authentic leaders acknowledge uncertainty while reinforcing shared values and collective strength:

“Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about becoming someone others are willing to follow when the answers aren’t obvious.”

Key Takeaways

• Leadership starts with how you show up.
• You can’t lead others farther than you’re willing to lead yourself.
• Titles don’t make leaders: character does.
• Trust, candor, and integrity are non-negotiable.
• Energy management is leadership responsibility.
• In times of uncertainty, people follow leaders, not strategies.

Reflection Question

If leadership starts with how you show up, not just when the sun is shining, but in the middle of the storm.  How are you showing up today?

Follow and subscribe to Be Undaunted on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.  Also please rate and leave a comment if you enjoyed the podcast.

Until next time—be undaunted.