Leaders are not failing because they lack skill, they are failing because their mindset, operating system, and playbook no longer fit a polycrisis environment. Dave Schoof argues that the real leadership challenge is to work with uncertainty, trust, and followership without becoming rigid, and to slow down enough to notice the invisible dynamics shaping decisions. His intelligence background and decades of executive coaching make this a grounded conversation about how to adapt when old formulas stop working.
What You’ll Learn
- How to spot when a proven leadership playbook has stopped working and why doubling down usually makes the problem worse
- How the 3C framework of competency, consistency, and care can be used to diagnose trust gaps in teams
- Why followership is built through authenticity, vulnerability, and making room for others to see themselves in the mission
- How to slow down before acting so you can detect unspoken tensions, hidden information, and system-level blockers
- Why the most effective leadership intervention is often a mindset shift, not a new technique or skill
Key Discussion Topics
- The meta crisis and why leaders now face layered, intersecting forms of change rather than isolated disruptions
- Reading uncertainty as a field of signals, not a problem to be eliminated
- Building trust through competency, consistency, and care, plus the role of vulnerability in credibility
- How leaders can create availability and guardrails without becoming overstretched or unavailable in practice
- Systemic barriers to trust, including unspoken agreements, team history, and organizational culture
- Why inspiration is emotional, relational, and tied to who a leader is, not just what they say
- The danger of rigid certainty, automatic pilot, and over-reliance on a single leadership style
- Relational intelligence, systems intelligence, and other forms of awareness that improve judgment under pressure
Guest Background
Name: Dave Schoof
Bio: Dave Schoof is an executive leadership consultant and executive coach at IMD. He works with senior leaders, founders, and executive teams navigating transition, trust, and uncertainty, drawing on nearly two decades in US counterintelligence and national security and more than 20 years in coaching and leadership development. His perspective is especially valuable because he works at the intersection of systems thinking, relational intelligence, and decision-making under pressure.
Follow Dave on LinkedIn: Dave Schoof
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Additional Resources
Hospice in Modernity
About Business Unbound
Every week, your host, Florian Haufe, dives deep into conversations with visionary global leaders to bring you insights, inspiration, and the real stories behind success.
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