October 2, 2025 • 14 mins
🎧 Episode 183: The Dance of Head and Heart: Recalibrating Your Leadership Vision
Leadership is a reflection… but what happens when the image looking back at you is distorted? In this episode, I explore how vision gets skewed, the red flags to watch for, and what it takes to recalibrate when you’ve drifted off course. Through personal stories, psychology insights, and practical recalibration tools, I unpack how great leaders balance both the head and the heart to stay aligned with their vision—and inspire their teams to do the same.
We explore:
- The subtle ways vision gets distorted: tunnel vision, echo chambers, busyness disguised as progress, and external pressures
- A personal story of when I had the vision and the people… but the numbers weren’t there—and the hard leadership calls that followed
- Four red flags that signal your leadership reflection may be warped
- The psychology behind why leaders miss distortion: confirmation bias, Dunning-Kruger, and availability heuristic
- How imposter syndrome skews your personal reflection and bleeds into how you show up as a leader
- Practical ways to recalibrate: stepping back, returning to values, inviting honest mirrors, redefining success, and practicing radical reflection
🔑 Key takeaways:
- Distorted vision doesn’t scream at you—it whispers, until suddenly you’re miles off course.
- Great leadership is a dance between the head and the heart: too much on the business and you lose people, too much on the people and you lose results.
- You are worthy of where you are, and worthy of where you dream to be—but you must unpack the internal doubts or they will resurface in damaging ways.
- Good leaders notice something is off. Great leaders recalibrate quickly, transparently, and courageously.
A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!
Check out my website: www.evokegreatness.com
Follow me on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonnie-linebarger-899b9a52/
https://www.instagram.com/evoke.greatness/
https://www.tiktok.com/@evoke.greatness
http://www.youtube.com/@evokegreatness
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Leadership requires courage.
(00:01):
You have to execute and thenstep back to monitor the
outcomes.
Resist the urge to keepfiddling.
Execute, then evaluate.
Now that balance is delicate.
You can go so hard on thebusiness that you forget the
human son.
Or you can lean so heavily intothe people that you lose sight
of the business.
(00:22):
Leadership is a dance betweenthose two things.
And it takes clearcommunication, consistent
expectations, and intentionalcoaching to hold that balance in
place.
Welcome to Evoke Greatness, thepodcast for bold leaders and big
(00:44):
dreamers who refuse to settle.
I'm your host, Sonny.
I started in Scrubs over 20years ago doing the gritty,
unseen work and climbed my wayto CEO.
Every rung of that ladder taughtme something worth passing on.
Lessons in leadership,resilience, and what it really
takes to rise.
You'll hear raw conversations,unfiltered truths, and the kind
(01:08):
of wisdom that ignites somethingdeeper in you.
Your courage, your conviction,your calling.
This show will help you thinkbigger, lead better, and show up
bolder in every part of yourlife.
This is your place to grow.
Let's rise together.
(01:34):
If you've ever wondered whetheryou're still fully connected to
your vision or felt a disconnectalong the way, this episode is
your recalibration guide.
We'll explore how to spot thedrift, unpack what causes it,
and give you the tools torealign with clarity and
purpose.
Okay, let's hop into it.
Welcome back to another episodeof Evoke Greatness.
(01:55):
Have you ever stood in front ofChicago's iconic beam?
It's that massive mirroredsculpture in Millennium Park
that stretches the skyline andbends her own reflection until
it hardly looks like you.
It's beautiful, but it's alsodisorienting.
You see yourself not as youtruly are.
You see the city, but not quitein its real shape.
(02:17):
Leadership can feel the same.
No matter how clear your visiononce was, there comes a point
when you're not seeing it fromreality anymore.
It can become a distortedversion of it.
And if you don't recognize thatskew, you risk leading from a
false reflection.
Today, I want to talk about howto recognize when your vision
has become disoriented, theflags to pay attention to, how
(02:40):
psychology plays into this, andwhat separates good leaders from
great ones when it comes torecalibrating.
I'll also share a season from myown leadership where the
reflection didn't match thereality and what I learned about
balancing both the business andthe people.
Great leaders don't lose theirvision overnight.
It doesn't just vanish, itslowly bends, like that beans
(03:04):
warped reflection.
And here's how it often happens: we get tunnel vision. (03:05):
undefined
We get so fixated on one metric,be it growth or profit or market
share, that we forget the biggermission.
And then we step into an echochamber.
We surround ourselves withvoices that only nod along.
And pretty soon you mistakeagreement for alignment.
(03:28):
And then busyness becomesdisguised as progress when we
pack our days full of meetingsand emails and fire drills that
feel productive but don't movethe needle.
And we've got those externalpressures.
We've got investors, we've gotcompetitors, or that cultural
noise that starts steering yourdirection instead of your
(03:50):
values.
The danger is subtle.
When your vision distorts, youdon't just drift.
You can actually end up pullingyour entire team with you.
There was a season in myleadership where I had the
vision, I had the people, what Ididn't have were the numbers.
And when growth lags behindvision, it forces you to ask
(04:12):
some hard questions.
Do I truly have the right peoplein the right roles doing the
right things at the right time?
When the answer is no, difficultdecisions have to be made.
Because the truth is, the peoplewho start the journey with you
aren't always the same peoplewho will carry that vision
across the finish line.
(04:33):
Executing on those decisions aretough.
It pulls both at your head andat your heart.
But here's the risk (04:39):
if your actions are not aligned with
your vision, even a two-degreeshift off course can actually
take you miles away from yourdestination.
That's where leaders get trappedinto endless tinkering and
adjusting and reworking,micromanaging, trying to avoid
making the hard call.
(05:02):
But leadership requires courage.
You have to execute and thenstep back to monitor the
outcomes.
Resist the urge to keepfiddling.
Execute, then evaluate.
Now that balance is delicate.
You can go so hard on thebusiness that you forget the
(05:22):
human son.
Or you can lean so heavily intothe people that you lose sight
of the business.
Leadership is a dance betweenthose two things.
And it takes clearcommunication, consistent
expectations, and intentionalcoaching to hold that balance in
place.
And when you get it right, whenyou hold both head and heart
(05:45):
intention, you not only protectthe vision, but you inspire
people to carry it forward withyou.
And that's where the ChicagoBean metaphor comes back in.
Leadership is a reflection.
And sometimes what you're seeingisn't accurate.
You have to step back far enoughto recalibrate so that the
picture lines up with your truevision.
(06:07):
So how do you know if yourreflection is skewed?
Here are four red flags toreally evaluate in your own
day-to-day.
So the first is words that don'tmatch up with the actions.
Your team may hear one thing,but they actually experience
another.
That's distortion.
When you're constantlyfirefighting, if every day feels
(06:30):
like survival mode, you'vereplaced vision with reaction.
And team disengagement, that'shuge, right?
Low morale, turnover, orcynicism, those are usually
reflections of your clarity, nottheirs.
And then a loss of perspective.
If you can't remember the lasttime you unplugged, thought
(06:51):
deeply, or asked freshquestions, you're leading from a
warped mirror.
So ask yourself, which of thesered flags is showing up in your
leadership right now?
Here's the kicker.
Your brain is actually workingagainst you.
You may recall that I've talkedbefore about confirmation bias,
but your brain looks for proofthat you're right and it ignores
(07:14):
evidence that says you're not.
So be careful for confirmationbias.
And then there's theDunning-Kruger effect.
And sometimes that'soverconfidence that masks blind
spots.
You think you're clear, butyou're really not.
And then there's availabilityheuristic.
That's the loudest or mostrecent problem, weighs more
(07:36):
heavily than the big picture.
This is why leaders are oftenthe last to notice distortion.
Good leaders recognize the pullof bias.
Great leaders, they activelyfight against it by seeking
feedback, inviting challenge,and overall staying curious.
There's another kind ofdistortion that we don't talk
(07:57):
about enough.
And that's when your personalreflection gets skewed.
For me, this showed up asimposter syndrome.
I battled it for a large part ofmy career, questioning my own
worth, asking myself if I reallybelong in the room, if I really
deserve the seat at the table.
And whether we like it or not,that internal dialogue bleeds
(08:19):
out into how we show up asleaders.
Then we pack those negativethoughts deep inside of our bags
as we grow and we don't dealwith them.
And I promise you that if youdon't do the work to deal with
them, they will eventuallybubble back up to the top.
And they don't return quietly.
They show up in ourrelationships or our leadership
(08:39):
style.
They show up in the way we treatothers.
You've probably encounteredsomeone like this in your
journey, the leader whomicromanages because they don't
trust themselves, the leader whocriticizes unnecessarily because
they don't feel good about whothey are.
Or the leader who blocks yourgrowth, not because you're not
capable, but because they'reafraid of the light shining on
(09:02):
anyone but them.
This is what happens whensomeone doesn't do the work.
But here's the truth (09:07):
you are worthy of being where you are.
And you are worthy of getting towhere you dream to be.
As leaders, we have to be honestenough with each other to call
this out when we see it.
We have to be open enough tofeedback and vulnerable enough
to share where we've missteppedso that others can grow
(09:31):
vicariously through us withouthaving to make all of the same
mistakes we made.
That is a large portion of why Istarted this podcast in the
first place.
This is the part of leadershipthat requires courage in the
mirror, not just courage in theworkplace.
(09:52):
When you realize the reflectionis skewed, recalibration is not
optional.
It is essential.
Here are five ways to thinkabout recalibration.
First one is step back from thebean, right?
Distance creates clarity.
Whether that's a weekend away orstrategy only time, you need
(10:15):
space to see straight.
The second is returning to corevalues.
Ask yourself, why did we start?
Who do we serve?
What do we stand for?
Your values are the compass.
Invite honest mirrors.
Number three is so crucial.
(10:38):
Surround yourself with truthtellers, not yes men.
When people surround themselveswith minions, they do not stay
true to themselves.
They're just filled with a room,that echo chamber of people who
nod their head to what you say.
You don't want that.
You want to be challenged.
Number four is redefine success.
(10:59):
Check your scoreboard.
Are you measuring what trulymatters?
Or just what's easy to count?
And number five is practicingradical reflection.
Journal, pray, meditate, or justsit in silence.
Clarity doesn't come in noise,it comes in stillness.
(11:22):
Here's the difference when youthink about what makes a good
leader good and what makes agreat leader better than a good
leader.
Good leaders sense whensomething is off.
Great leaders, they act quicklyand transparently.
Good leaders talk about visionwhile great leaders embody it.
(11:43):
Good leaders, they toleratedistortion because it's
comfortable.
And great leaders demand claritybecause they know their
reflection sets the tone foreveryone else.
So as you think about today'sconversation, there are a couple
questions that I want you to sitwith this week.
I want you to take the time toresonate over these questions
(12:07):
and say, where are theseapplying in my life or in my
career?
The first question is (12:11):
where have I noticed distortion in my
leadership or my business or mypeople or even my personal
worth?
Number two is am I leaning toohard into the business side?
Or am I leaning too hard intothe people side?
Remember, that dance, that danceand that sense of balance and
(12:35):
healthy tension is where youwant to be.
And then the last one is what'sone recalibration step I can
take this week to realign myvision?
Take some time to really askyourself these questions and sit
deeply and quietly with them.
The bean does not change what'sreal, right?
The skyline, it's still there.
(12:57):
You, you're still there.
The distortion just makes itharder to see clearly.
Leadership is the same.
The vision, the purpose, theworth, they are all still there.
Sometimes they just get warpedby pressure or distraction or
doubt.
Because in the end, your job asa leader is not to avoid
(13:18):
distortion.
Friend, it is to notice it.
And it is to step back andrecalibrate.
Because in the end, yourleadership will either be the
mirror that distorts your team'sview of themselves, or it'll be
the mirror that reflects backthe clearest, truest version of
what's possible.
Which one will yours be?
(13:44):
If today's episode challengedyou, moved you, or lit a fire in
your soul, don't keep it toyourself.
Share it with somebody who'sready to rise.
Can I ask you to take 30 secondsto leave a review?
It's the best way to say thankyou and help this show reach
more bold leaders like you.
Because this isn't just apodcast, it's a movement.
(14:04):
We're not here to play small.
We're here to lead loud, onebold and unapologetic step at a
time.
Until next time, stay bold, staygrounded, and make moves that
make mediocre uncomfortable.
Leadership requires courage.
(00:01):
You have to execute and thenstep back to monitor the
outcomes.
Resist the urge to keepfiddling.
Execute, then evaluate.
Now that balance is delicate.
You can go so hard on thebusiness that you forget the
human son.
Or you can lean so heavily intothe people that you lose sight
of the business.
(00:22):
Leadership is a dance betweenthose two things.
And it takes clearcommunication, consistent
expectations, and intentionalcoaching to hold that balance in
place.
Welcome to Evoke Greatness, thepodcast for bold leaders and big
(00:44):
dreamers who refuse to settle.
I'm your host, Sonny.
I started in Scrubs over 20years ago doing the gritty,
unseen work and climbed my wayto CEO.
Every rung of that ladder taughtme something worth passing on.
Lessons in leadership,resilience, and what it really
takes to rise.
You'll hear raw conversations,unfiltered truths, and the kind
(01:08):
of wisdom that ignites somethingdeeper in you.
Your courage, your conviction,your calling.
This show will help you thinkbigger, lead better, and show up
bolder in every part of yourlife.
This is your place to grow.
Let's rise together.
(01:34):
If you've ever wondered whetheryou're still fully connected to
your vision or felt a disconnectalong the way, this episode is
your recalibration guide.
We'll explore how to spot thedrift, unpack what causes it,
and give you the tools torealign with clarity and
purpose.
Okay, let's hop into it.
Welcome back to another episodeof Evoke Greatness.
(01:55):
Have you ever stood in front ofChicago's iconic beam?
It's that massive mirroredsculpture in Millennium Park
that stretches the skyline andbends her own reflection until
it hardly looks like you.
It's beautiful, but it's alsodisorienting.
You see yourself not as youtruly are.
You see the city, but not quitein its real shape.
(02:17):
Leadership can feel the same.
No matter how clear your visiononce was, there comes a point
when you're not seeing it fromreality anymore.
It can become a distortedversion of it.
And if you don't recognize thatskew, you risk leading from a
false reflection.
Today, I want to talk about howto recognize when your vision
has become disoriented, theflags to pay attention to, how
(02:40):
psychology plays into this, andwhat separates good leaders from
great ones when it comes torecalibrating.
I'll also share a season from myown leadership where the
reflection didn't match thereality and what I learned about
balancing both the business andthe people.
Great leaders don't lose theirvision overnight.
It doesn't just vanish, itslowly bends, like that beans
(03:04):
warped reflection.
And here's how it often happens: we get tunnel vision. (03:05):
undefined
We get so fixated on one metric,be it growth or profit or market
share, that we forget the biggermission.
And then we step into an echochamber.
We surround ourselves withvoices that only nod along.
And pretty soon you mistakeagreement for alignment.
(03:28):
And then busyness becomesdisguised as progress when we
pack our days full of meetingsand emails and fire drills that
feel productive but don't movethe needle.
And we've got those externalpressures.
We've got investors, we've gotcompetitors, or that cultural
noise that starts steering yourdirection instead of your
(03:50):
values.
The danger is subtle.
When your vision distorts, youdon't just drift.
You can actually end up pullingyour entire team with you.
There was a season in myleadership where I had the
vision, I had the people, what Ididn't have were the numbers.
And when growth lags behindvision, it forces you to ask
(04:12):
some hard questions.
Do I truly have the right peoplein the right roles doing the
right things at the right time?
When the answer is no, difficultdecisions have to be made.
Because the truth is, the peoplewho start the journey with you
aren't always the same peoplewho will carry that vision
across the finish line.
(04:33):
Executing on those decisions aretough.
It pulls both at your head andat your heart.
But here's the risk (04:39):
if your actions are not aligned with
your vision, even a two-degreeshift off course can actually
take you miles away from yourdestination.
That's where leaders get trappedinto endless tinkering and
adjusting and reworking,micromanaging, trying to avoid
making the hard call.
(05:02):
But leadership requires courage.
You have to execute and thenstep back to monitor the
outcomes.
Resist the urge to keepfiddling.
Execute, then evaluate.
Now that balance is delicate.
You can go so hard on thebusiness that you forget the
(05:22):
human son.
Or you can lean so heavily intothe people that you lose sight
of the business.
Leadership is a dance betweenthose two things.
And it takes clearcommunication, consistent
expectations, and intentionalcoaching to hold that balance in
place.
And when you get it right, whenyou hold both head and heart
(05:45):
intention, you not only protectthe vision, but you inspire
people to carry it forward withyou.
And that's where the ChicagoBean metaphor comes back in.
Leadership is a reflection.
And sometimes what you're seeingisn't accurate.
You have to step back far enoughto recalibrate so that the
picture lines up with your truevision.
(06:07):
So how do you know if yourreflection is skewed?
Here are four red flags toreally evaluate in your own
day-to-day.
So the first is words that don'tmatch up with the actions.
Your team may hear one thing,but they actually experience
another.
That's distortion.
When you're constantlyfirefighting, if every day feels
(06:30):
like survival mode, you'vereplaced vision with reaction.
And team disengagement, that'shuge, right?
Low morale, turnover, orcynicism, those are usually
reflections of your clarity, nottheirs.
And then a loss of perspective.
If you can't remember the lasttime you unplugged, thought
(06:51):
deeply, or asked freshquestions, you're leading from a
warped mirror.
So ask yourself, which of thesered flags is showing up in your
leadership right now?
Here's the kicker.
Your brain is actually workingagainst you.
You may recall that I've talkedbefore about confirmation bias,
but your brain looks for proofthat you're right and it ignores
(07:14):
evidence that says you're not.
So be careful for confirmationbias.
And then there's theDunning-Kruger effect.
And sometimes that'soverconfidence that masks blind
spots.
You think you're clear, butyou're really not.
And then there's availabilityheuristic.
That's the loudest or mostrecent problem, weighs more
(07:36):
heavily than the big picture.
This is why leaders are oftenthe last to notice distortion.
Good leaders recognize the pullof bias.
Great leaders, they activelyfight against it by seeking
feedback, inviting challenge,and overall staying curious.
There's another kind ofdistortion that we don't talk
(07:57):
about enough.
And that's when your personalreflection gets skewed.
For me, this showed up asimposter syndrome.
I battled it for a large part ofmy career, questioning my own
worth, asking myself if I reallybelong in the room, if I really
deserve the seat at the table.
And whether we like it or not,that internal dialogue bleeds
(08:19):
out into how we show up asleaders.
Then we pack those negativethoughts deep inside of our bags
as we grow and we don't dealwith them.
And I promise you that if youdon't do the work to deal with
them, they will eventuallybubble back up to the top.
And they don't return quietly.
They show up in ourrelationships or our leadership
(08:39):
style.
They show up in the way we treatothers.
You've probably encounteredsomeone like this in your
journey, the leader whomicromanages because they don't
trust themselves, the leader whocriticizes unnecessarily because
they don't feel good about whothey are.
Or the leader who blocks yourgrowth, not because you're not
capable, but because they'reafraid of the light shining on
(09:02):
anyone but them.
This is what happens whensomeone doesn't do the work.
But here's the truth (09:07):
you are worthy of being where you are.
And you are worthy of getting towhere you dream to be.
As leaders, we have to be honestenough with each other to call
this out when we see it.
We have to be open enough tofeedback and vulnerable enough
to share where we've missteppedso that others can grow
(09:31):
vicariously through us withouthaving to make all of the same
mistakes we made.
That is a large portion of why Istarted this podcast in the
first place.
This is the part of leadershipthat requires courage in the
mirror, not just courage in theworkplace.
(09:52):
When you realize the reflectionis skewed, recalibration is not
optional.
It is essential.
Here are five ways to thinkabout recalibration.
First one is step back from thebean, right?
Distance creates clarity.
Whether that's a weekend away orstrategy only time, you need
(10:15):
space to see straight.
The second is returning to corevalues.
Ask yourself, why did we start?
Who do we serve?
What do we stand for?
Your values are the compass.
Invite honest mirrors.
Number three is so crucial.
(10:38):
Surround yourself with truthtellers, not yes men.
When people surround themselveswith minions, they do not stay
true to themselves.
They're just filled with a room,that echo chamber of people who
nod their head to what you say.
You don't want that.
You want to be challenged.
Number four is redefine success.
(10:59):
Check your scoreboard.
Are you measuring what trulymatters?
Or just what's easy to count?
And number five is practicingradical reflection.
Journal, pray, meditate, or justsit in silence.
Clarity doesn't come in noise,it comes in stillness.
(11:22):
Here's the difference when youthink about what makes a good
leader good and what makes agreat leader better than a good
leader.
Good leaders sense whensomething is off.
Great leaders, they act quicklyand transparently.
Good leaders talk about visionwhile great leaders embody it.
(11:43):
Good leaders, they toleratedistortion because it's
comfortable.
And great leaders demand claritybecause they know their
reflection sets the tone foreveryone else.
So as you think about today'sconversation, there are a couple
questions that I want you to sitwith this week.
I want you to take the time toresonate over these questions
(12:07):
and say, where are theseapplying in my life or in my
career?
The first question is (12:11):
where have I noticed distortion in my
leadership or my business or mypeople or even my personal
worth?
Number two is am I leaning toohard into the business side?
Or am I leaning too hard intothe people side?
Remember, that dance, that danceand that sense of balance and
(12:35):
healthy tension is where youwant to be.
And then the last one is what'sone recalibration step I can
take this week to realign myvision?
Take some time to really askyourself these questions and sit
deeply and quietly with them.
The bean does not change what'sreal, right?
The skyline, it's still there.
(12:57):
You, you're still there.
The distortion just makes itharder to see clearly.
Leadership is the same.
The vision, the purpose, theworth, they are all still there.
Sometimes they just get warpedby pressure or distraction or
doubt.
Because in the end, your job asa leader is not to avoid
(13:18):
distortion.
Friend, it is to notice it.
And it is to step back andrecalibrate.
Because in the end, yourleadership will either be the
mirror that distorts your team'sview of themselves, or it'll be
the mirror that reflects backthe clearest, truest version of
what's possible.
Which one will yours be?
(13:44):
If today's episode challengedyou, moved you, or lit a fire in
your soul, don't keep it toyourself.
Share it with somebody who'sready to rise.
Can I ask you to take 30 secondsto leave a review?
It's the best way to say thankyou and help this show reach
more bold leaders like you.
Because this isn't just apodcast, it's a movement.
(14:04):
We're not here to play small.
We're here to lead loud, onebold and unapologetic step at a
time.
Until next time, stay bold, staygrounded, and make moves that
make mediocre uncomfortable.
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