LeaderLENS Skool Community

19 Feb 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:57

In this introductory monologue, Michael Clegg, founder of Leadership Squared, presents the LeaderLENS Skool Community. He argues that most team dysfunction stems from an environment problem rather than an employee problem. Clegg highlights a stark gap in leader self‑awareness: while 95% of leaders claim high self‑awareness, only 10‑15% truly possess it. He distinguishes internal self‑awareness (introspection) from external self‑awareness (how one is perceived), emphasizing that external awareness can only be obtained through feedback. He explains how tone and behavior drift away from original intent, creating gaps in communication, understanding, and alignment that employees tend to fill with negative assumptions, leading to what he calls the "execution tax"—the hidden cost of reduced accountability. The LeaderLENS community is positioned as a practical resource to reduce this execution tax, offering tools and applications for leaders, founders, and entrepreneurs to improve people‑focused dynamics in their workplaces.

Chapters

Hi, I'm Michael Clegg. Everybody calls me Clegg, including my wife. I'm the founder of Leadership Squared. I've been in leadership development for 20 plus years and this is my second school group. I am very excited to share this one with you because of what I've learned. And it's simple. Most teams don't have an employee problem. They have an environment problem. But here's the big reason why. 95% of leaders believe that they have high self awareness. But in reality, only 10 to 15% actually do. Most people confuse that because if you're a leader, chances are you're introspective, you're reflective. But that's internal self awareness. External self awareness is an entirely different thing. It's how you show up and impact those that are around you. And the only way that we can get that information is by asking for feedback. Leaders don't understand how they show up. Tone and behavior drift from the original intent. And remember, we judge ourselves on our intent and others judge us on our actions. And when we miss that mark, that drift creates a void. And inside of that void creates a gap, a gap of communication, a gap of understanding, a gap of alignment. And employees, like human nature, naturally fill that void with negative items. They don't fill it with positive things. We all know that accountability tends to soften, and we call that the execution tax. Leadership Squared was built to reduce the execution tax. Inside our leader lens community, you're going to get practical applications that you can take back and use in your workplace today. It doesn't matter if you're a leader, if, if you're a founder or an entrepreneur, you are going to deal with people. And that's what this group is about. People.