Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast

Episode #385: "Alertness: A Leadership Discipline You Can't Delegate"

Release Date: February 26, 2026
Hosts: Perry Holley and Chris Goede

Overview

This episode explores the essential, yet often overlooked, leadership trait of alertness—defined not as mere caffeine-fueled wakefulness, but as a disciplined awareness of oneself, one’s organization, and the wider environment. Drawing inspiration from legendary coach John Wooden, Perry and Chris break down why being alert is a responsibility that leaders cannot delegate, share personal stories and practical frameworks, and challenge leaders to develop their own "alertness loop."

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Alertness—Beyond Awareness

• Alertness is distinguished from general awareness; it's an active discipline of noticing, learning, and sensing what's happening around you (and within you).
• Quoting John Wooden: "Alertness is the ability to be constantly absorbing and learning from what's going on around you... It's critical for those in charge to be doing this." [02:30]
• Alertness is not about dashboards or notifications, but about a leader’s presence and perception.

2. Why Leaders Lose Alertness

• Busyness as the Enemy: Most leadership failures don't stem from a lack of care, but from failing to notice missed signals amid busy schedules.
  • Perry: "Most leadership failures rarely happen because a leader doesn't care... They come from missed signals. Maybe cultures eroding, high performers disengaging, customers quietly leaving, competitors pivoting... If you're not alert, things are going to happen on your watch." [03:27]
• The lure of constant output and speed often reduces a leader’s ability to notice early warning signs.

3. Asking the Right Questions

• Prompt for listeners: "What's happening in your organization right now that you won't see clearly until it's a problem?" [04:40]
• Leaders often don’t ask what they're not seeing—remaining alert means proactively seeking out blind spots before they become crises.

4. Personal Reflection & The Cost of Missing Signals

• Perry shares a personal story about losing a key employee and only learning why during the exit interview:
  • Perry: "Why didn't I know that? Was I pretending it was okay? Was I just oblivious?" [06:10]
• Leaders must ask if they are conditioning themselves to ignore warning signs, intentionally or not.

5. Alertness Can Be Learned

• Alertness isn't an innate trait; it's a conditioning and practice, available to anyone willing to slow down and notice.
  • Perry: "You can't slow the pace of what's going on around you, but can you slow yourself down to be alert?" [07:10]
  • Chris: "This can be developed, this can be learned... You have to ask yourself questions and be able to reflect." [07:39]

6. Three Dimensions of Leadership Alertness

• Self-Alertness:
  • Evaluate your own tendencies, moods, judgment, and default behaviors.
  • Chris: "The higher you go, the less feedback you get. That's where self-alertness becomes even more important." [08:44]
  • Reflect: How is your mood affecting the team? What pressures cloud your judgment? Where are you defaulting instead of thinking intentionally?
• Organizational Alertness:
  • Go beyond numbers—notice energy, engagement, communication patterns.
  • Perry: "Are you noticing if someone stops contributing at meetings? Do people bring you bad news, or just good? If not, is there safety for honesty?" [11:14]
• Environmental Alertness:
  • Be curious, not reactionary, about market, customer, or competitor shifts.
  • Chris: "We don’t want to chase every trend, but we need situational awareness—even just asking external experts for perspective." [12:06]

7. Building Margin and Avoiding Overwhelm

• Coach Wooden taught that leaders must build margin into their lives to maintain alertness.
  • Perry: "If your calendar won't allow time to reflect, your leadership will drift." [13:35]
  • Overwhelm leads to missed signals; alertness requires time for reflection.

The "Alertness Loop": A Weekly Reflection Practice

Chris and Perry propose a simple practice for sharpening alertness—just 10 minutes a week answering targeted questions:

1. What surprised me this week?

   • Reveals gaps where you or the organization weren’t alert.
   • Chris: "If nothing surprised you, ask your team!" [15:44]

2. What did I notice that others might have missed?

   • Trains you to observe beneath the surface; don’t just be self-aware, be others- and situationally aware.
   • Perry: "Am I reading the room? Am I paying attention to what’s not being said?" [15:50]

3. What assumptions am I operating under that may no longer be true?

   • Challenges lingering biases and “rose-colored glasses.”
   • Chris: "If you ask this regularly, it can save you—and your organization—from a lot of pain down the road." [16:22]

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Perry: "Leadership failures rarely happen because you don’t care—it’s because you stop noticing." [03:27]
• Chris: "The awareness has to come before the action." [04:40]
• Perry: "You can’t slow down the world, but you can slow yourself down to be alert." [07:10]
• Chris: "You can outsource data analysis... but when it comes to what's happening on your team, you can't delegate that." [17:18]
• Perry’s quip: "Are you present—or just anxious and controlling? Problems signal early, not suddenly." [16:51]
• Chris’s “coffee break” metaphor: "Cars will signal 'need a coffee break?'—leadership works the same: signals come long before crisis." [17:38]

Conclusion

Alertness is a non-delegable leadership discipline. Leaders set the tone—if you’re not alert, your team won’t be. Problems don’t happen overnight, but the signals do—if only you’ll notice.
Perry recaps with a challenge: "Are you present when you’re with your team? Are your eyes wide open—not just to data, but to people, signals, and shifts?" [16:51]

The episode wraps with a call to action: Commit to building your alertness muscle, because trust and culture depend on it—and small signals noticed now prevent big problems tomorrow.

Useful Timestamps

• [02:30]—Defining alertness (John Wooden’s perspective)
• [03:27]—Busyness as the root of missed signals
• [04:40]—Key reflective leadership question
• [06:10]—Personal failure to notice (Perry’s story)
• [07:10]—Alertness as learnable practice
• [08:44]—Self-alertness application and reflection
• [11:14]—Organizational alertness (reading the room)
• [12:06]—Environmental alertness and using outside perspectives
• [13:35]—Building margin, avoiding overwhelm
• [15:44]—"Alertness Loop" questions
• [16:51]—Presence vs. control (final reflections)
• [17:18]—Alertness as non-delegable

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