Connecting to Admired Leadership
Drift Demands Redirection
Episode Summary
A conversation with CRA | Admired Leadership Managing Director Megan Kronen and host Wes Bender, exploring one of the most insidious forces in leadership: drift. Megan unpacks why drift rarely announces itself, how leaders can spot it before it becomes a crisis, and what it actually takes to redirect — both personally and organizationally. The session covers practical guidance on calendar discipline, gaining team subscription to a shared purpose, navigating drift that originates above you in the organization, and why redirection always has to start with the leader first.
Episode Notes
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Key Highlights
- Drift doesn't announce itself: It happens quietly, in the gap between your intentions and your daily calendar. By the time most leaders notice it, the team is already significantly off course.
- Your calendar is your compass: A fast gut check — are your priorities on your calendar, or just everyone else's? If you can't find protected time for your most important work, drift has already set in.
- Subscription beats expectation-setting: Telling a complacent team what's expected of them rarely works. Getting them genuinely bought into a shared purpose — and clear on what's in it for them — is what actually moves people.
- Redirection starts with you: Changing other people's behavior is genuinely hard. Before trying to redirect your team, redirect yourself. Your own consistency and focus will do more to pull others back on course than any directive will.
- When drift is coming from above, tread carefully: Questioning a leader's direction in a group setting almost always backfires. In a strong one-on-one relationship, seeking clarity is fair — but the risk-reward calculation depends heavily on context.
Notable Quotes
- "Drift is that idea that you're not paying attention to the massive purpose and that massive big rock you're working towards — and instead are just stuck in the day-to-day monotony."
- "Are you scheduling time for your priorities, or are other people's priorities filling your calendar? That's the gut check."
- "It's very difficult to get other people to change their behavior. Hard stop."
- "When we think about drift demanding redirection, it should always start with you."
- "Drift is passive. Redirection is futuristic — it's actionable. If I'm not being outwardly actionable, that's a problem."
Featured Speakers
- Megan Kronen is a Managing Director at CRA | Admired Leadership. She leads the firm's Relationship Short Course and works across multiple industries advising senior leaders on relationships, strategy, and leadership development.
- Wes Bender is the host of the Connecting to Admired Leadership webinar series at CRA | Admired Leadership.
Resources Mentioned