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.
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...
Are you moving fast, or moving forward?
Most leaders are moving faster than ever. That does not always mean they are making progress. Hey Spark Family, I was talking with a leader recently who said something I have heard in a dozen different ways this year. “We are moving so fast. I just don’t know if we are actually moving forward.” That sentence stayed with me because I think it names something many leaders are feeling, even if they have not said it out loud yet. Her team was not lazy. They were moving constantly. Meetings were...
The scripts that made you successful are often the exact ones keeping you stuck
The assumption that’s limiting your leadership Hey Spark Family, I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had with a leader who had built an exceptional career. He was decisive, direct, fast, and clear. He had a strong point of view on almost everything, and people found that confidence genuinely compelling. He got things done. He moved quickly through ambiguity. He was, by most measures, exactly the kind of leader organizations reward. And he was starting to hit a ceiling he could not quite...
What leaders get wrong about growing their people
What leaders get wrong about growing their people. Hey Spark Family, I once asked a leader how he invested in his team’s development. He had a good answer. He sent people to conferences. He approved training requests. He made sure everyone had a learning budget and encouraged them to use it. He was proud of that, and honestly, he should have been. A lot of leaders don’t even get that far. Then I talked to his team. They described a leader they respected. Someone fair, supportive, and...
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.