Beyond Incremental... Breakthrough Leadership
The leadership newsletter for product leaders who want breakthrough impact, not incremental improvements. Weekly frameworks to multiply your influence and accelerate your career.
🔹 Burnout isn’t what you think
Leadership Advantage - Issue 41 by Andrea Michalek Once the holiday season starts, it has a way of revealing what leaders ignore the rest of the year. You are still hitting deadlines. You are still showing up to every meeting. You are still holding everything together. But under the surface, something feels off. You are more tired than usual. You feel stretched thin. Even wins do not hit the way they used to. This is quiet burnout, the kind that creeps in at year’s end. Not exhaustion from...
🔹 Don't drift into 2026. Start in motion, with a breakthrough plan
Leadership Advantage - Issue 40 by Andrea Michalek Hello Reader, Don't drift into 2026. Design it. This is your complete system to go from reflection to action, so you can lead with clarity, confidence, and momentum in the new year. If you've followed my work this year, you know I've been immersed in writing my Beyond Incremental book and refining the framework at its core. You also know I recently launched the Beyond Incremental Assessment, which helps leaders see clearly where they excel...
🔹 Great leaders don’t just lead well, they know exactly where they’re stuck.
Leadership Advantage - Issue 39 by Andrea Michalek Most leadership advice pushes you to do more: More clarity.More delegation.More velocity. But doing more doesn’t help when you’re solving the wrong problem. You don’t need more output. You need a better diagnosis. Great leaders don’t just lead well. They know exactly where they’re stuck. That’s what makes forward movement possible. It took me months to figure that out. I've been working on my book framework since January. Three circles:...
🔹 Design Your Next Breakthrough
Leadership Advantage - Issue 38 by Andrea Michalek Every leader knows the rush of inspiration: the all-nighter, the surge, the just one more thing moment. Last week, I shared one of mine: the 48-hour build that became the first version of my Beyond Incremental website. But breakthroughs don’t come from bursts of energy alone. They come from creating systems that make that energy repeatable. This week, I put my own framework to work: evolving the first version of my site into something more...
🔹 Breakthrough Work Feels Different
Leadership Advantage - Issue 37 by Andrea Michalek My daughter got it right: "Wow, that was quick." I'd just told her I built the first version of my website in 48 hours. What I didn't mention initially was that I barely slept during those two days. Which led to the obvious question: Why do we do that? This Is What Breakthrough Leadership Actually Feels Like That moment captures something fundamental about what I now call breakthrough leadership. It goes beyond time management or productivity...
🔹 The Opposite of More
Leadership Advantage - Issue 36 by Andrea Michalek High performers are wired for more. More goals. More progress. More achievement. It’s a part of our DNA. But, I have learned the hard way, that more for the sake of more isn’t the goal. You see it all the time. Someone who, from the outside, looks to be at the peak of success. Yet inside, they’re restless, unfulfilled, and still chasing the next big milestone. But at what cost? A solopreneur who’s grown year over year for five straight years,...
🔹 When “focused” still feels too heavy
Leadership Advantage - Issue 35 by Andrea Michalek You've already said no to most things. So why does the wagon still feel impossible to pull? The Pumpkin Patch Moment I have this photo of my daughter at a pumpkin patch. She's maybe three years old, determinedly pulling a wagon with a few pumpkins in it. Her whole body is leaning into it. She's making progress, but you can see the effort in every muscle. The thing is, she already chose carefully. There were thousands of pumpkins in that...
🔹 Your team is busy. Nothing's getting done. Here's why.
Leadership Advantage - Issue 34 by Andrea Michalek They told me I’d be fine in 72 hours. It took 3 years. Two prescription pills triggered a brain injury that turned my world sideways. Doctors called it a rare side effect. They said the symptoms would fade once the drugs were out of my system. They were wrong. Progress during my recovery came unpredictably: one skill returning as another slipped away. While some of my symptoms improved (like my ability to speak), others worsened (like my...
🔹 The team that changed how I lead
Leadership Advantage - Issue 33 by Andrea Michalek I used to preach that solo work was the future. Then I built a team I’d stake my career on, and it changed how I see leadership forever. Every leader’s real job is this: Build the best team you’ve ever been a part of. Anything less is falling short. So the question becomes: What would you change if THAT was your primary goal? Ask yourself: Is the day-to-day work of your team meaningful? Are they burning energy on the machinery of work instead...
🔹 The Performance Paradox: Why Your Best Intentions Are Sabotaging Breakthrough Results
Leadership Advantage - Issue 32 by Andrea Michalek You know you need to innovate faster, but you feel trapped in systems that demand certainty for breakthrough decisions. What’s worse, these systems were built with the best intentions and stifle breakthrough innovation while keeping people feeling productive and responsible. I’ve seen this play out in my own teams, and in dozens of leaders I’ve coached. Here's how to recognize the traps The Analysis Trap: You mistake thorough planning for...
The leadership newsletter for product leaders who want breakthrough impact, not incremental improvements. Weekly frameworks to multiply your influence and accelerate your career.