Apparently, everything in life is now a business lesson.
Scroll through LinkedIn for five minutes and you’ll find stories about burnt toast, lost luggage, or a child’s tantrum, all ending with ‘and that’s what X taught me about leadership’.
Missed your train? Resilience.
Spilled your coffee? Adaptability.
Forgot your password? A lesson in perseverance.
Honestly, I’m starting to feel like if I don’t turn my next trip to Tesco into a TED Talk, I’m missing a professional development opportunity.
Now, I’m all for reflection, it’s a huge part of what I do when I am coaching. Taking time to notice patterns, understand triggers, and extract meaning from experience is powerful. But there’s a difference between reflecting and performing reflection for the algorithm.
We’ve somehow reached a point where vulnerability and insight have become marketing tools. Every post is polished to perfection, every story has a moral, and every leader is apparently having daily epiphanies at the school gates. It’s exhausting and, ironically, not very authentic.
When I’m working with individuals, one of the first things I encourage them to do is pause before packaging (catchy right). Not every moment needs to be squeezed into a leadership framework. Growth often happens in the quiet, unglamorous bits, the parts that never make it into a post.
True self-awareness comes from curiosity, not content creation. It’s about noticing what’s happening for you and your team without rushing to label it as ‘resilience’ or ‘empathy’ or ‘transformational leadership’. Sometimes it’s just frustration, or fatigue, or the fact you haven’t had enough coffee!!
The leaders who stand out to me aren’t the ones broadcasting constant life lessons. They’re the ones who reflect privately first, who ask, ‘What did that teach me about how I lead?’ before they even consider sharing it. Their growth is steady, grounded, and real.
Because here’s the truth: the most powerful leadership lessons often don’t make for great posts. They’re found in awkward feedback conversations, moments of self-doubt, and the quiet choice to do better next time. No hashtags required.
Authentic leadership isn’t found in the story you tell online; it’s in the way you show up when no one’s watching.
By Julia Aspinall
Julia Aspinall is Marketing and Pr at Skewb Climate. To speak with her about this topic in more detail, you can connect with her on LinkedIn.
