Jackie Insinger - Spark Brilliance Spark Memos
Your weekly boost of practical leadership wisdom - rooted in neuroscience, backed by data, and crafted for real-world results. Each memo offers a spark of insight to help you lead with clarity, empathy, and purpose - especially when things get messy.
I've been dreading my birthday
I've been dreading my birthday Hey Spark Family, My birthday is tomorrow. I used to love birthdays. Genuinely. The whole thing. I have dreaded the last few, and this one more than any of them. Let me say clearly what this is not about. It is not the number. I still feel way younger than I am (count my blessings!), I have so much I’m excited to build and accomplish, and I am so incredibly grateful for my family and who I have become in a way I could not have imagined at twenty-five. The...
You know the leader you are. Your team knows a different one.
You know the leader you are. Your team knows a different one. Hey Spark Family, I asked a leader recently how his team would describe him. He answered without hesitating. Approachable. Steady. Someone people can bring anything to. Then I asked his team. They used a different word. Careful. Not because he was unkind. Because somewhere along the way, they had learned to manage the conversation before they had it. Think about timing. Pre-edit the hard part. He had no idea. And here is why that...
You think your team is on board with AI. They feel something else.
You think your team is on board with AI. They feel something else. Hey Spark Family, I sat with an executive recently who was genuinely encouraged by how her organization was adapting to AI. Adoption was up. Nobody was pushing back. The tools were getting used. She had every reason to feel good about it. Then I spent time with her team. They were using the tools. They were also quietly wondering what it meant that a system could now do the part of their job they were most proud of. Not one of...
Your leadership diagnostic is ready
Your leadership diagnostic is ready Hey Spark Family, I have been waiting to share this with you, and I could not be more excited that today is the day. But first, let me tell you why it matters. Most leaders can feel it long before they can name it. The strategy is sound. The team is strong. Everyone is working hard. And still, the results keep landing just under what all that effort should have earned. If you are leading something high-stakes right now - growth, a transformation, a merger,...
The trust your team has in you is not what you think it is.
The trust your team has in you is not what you think it is. Hey Spark Family, I want to share something that landed differently for me when I read the newest workplace research. Fifty-six percent of employees have left a job primarily because of a bad manager. Not the work. Not the pay. Not the company itself. The person leading them. That number, from Monster's 2026 Workplace Relationships Report, stops me every time. Because it names what I have been watching in leadership teams for a long...
Your team is getting through the work. They are not in it.
Your team is getting through the work. They are not in it. Hey Spark Family, Gallup's new data just landed. And it changes how you should think about the second half of the year. Right now, eighty percent of your workforce is either not engaged or actively checked out. Only twenty percent are genuinely engaged. That baseline is your starting point for July through December. The second half of the year is when leaders have the most opportunity. It might feel like the year is already written,...
Why high achievers quit before they fail
Why high achievers quit before they fail Hey Spark Family, I'm in Austin this week, and I found myself sitting across from someone I care about, watching a pattern I've seen a hundred times before. He's brilliant. Capable. The kind of person people rely on and look up to. And right now, he's setting expectations for himself that are almost impossible to meet. The bar is high, higher than it probably needs to be. And somewhere deep in his brain, he knows it. So here's what happens next. The...
The accountability gap no one wants to admit
The accountability gap no one wants to admit Hey Spark Family, I've had a version of this conversation more times than I can count. A leader is frustrated. Someone on their team isn't performing. Expectations aren't being met. The work is inconsistent, the follow-through is missing, and the leader has been watching it for a while now. And then I ask the question that usually shifts everything. Have you told them directly? The pause that follows says everything. Not always. Not in those exact...
Your strategy can't outperform this
Your strategy can't outperform this. Hey Spark Family, Let me ask you something. You can tell me your revenue. Your churn. Your headcount. Your burn rate. Can you tell me how well your organization is led? Most executives can't. And that blind spot is one of the most expensive in business. Because leadership is the signal everything else echoes. The way your leaders show up doesn't stay at the top. It travels. When the signal is clear, the organization moves as one. When it's noisy,...
The hidden cost of a comfortable team
Engaged but not challenged isn’t success. It’s a ceiling you built without realizing it. Hey Spark Family, I worked with a leadership team a while back that had, by every visible measure, built something genuinely good. Low turnover. Solid engagement scores. A team that got along well, worked hard, and consistently delivered what was asked of them. The leader was proud of what they had built, and she had every reason to be. It had taken years of intention, trust, and real care. Then we dug a...
Your weekly boost of practical leadership wisdom - rooted in neuroscience, backed by data, and crafted for real-world results. Each memo offers a spark of insight to help you lead with clarity, empathy, and purpose - especially when things get messy.