Dave Lourdes

Dave Lourdes I help people who aren't growing or progressing fast enough to make an impact NOW!

4 things every struggling leader has in common... none of them are capability problems.Spent decades coaching senior lea...
24/04/2026

4 things every struggling leader has in common... none of them are capability problems.

Spent decades coaching senior leaders across industries. These four patterns show up every time a leader is getting in their own way.

Swipe through. If you're nodding at more than two, DM me.

Stay daring,
Dave

Self-awareness isn't soft.It's the hardest thing I ask a leader to develop, because it requires being willing to see you...
23/04/2026

Self-awareness isn't soft.

It's the hardest thing I ask a leader to develop, because it requires being willing to see yourself the way your team already sees you.

It's not the version you present in the performance review or the version you'd describe to a recruiter.

It's the version that shows up under pressure when the meeting goes sideways, when the numbers are bad or when someone pushes back on a decision you've already made.

That's your actual leadership brand, and your team has known it for years.

The leaders I've seen transform their teams don't have better strategies, they have better self-knowledge.

Stay daring, Dave

Five things I've never once seen in a Daring Culture.Spent years walking into organisations that weren't performing the ...
22/04/2026

Five things I've never once seen in a Daring Culture.

Spent years walking into organisations that weren't performing the way they should.

These five things showed up every single time.

None of them are unfixable. But fixing them requires someone willing to name them out loud first.

Swipe through. If you recognise more than two, your culture has work to do.

DM me CULTURE and I'll send you the 12-question Culture Audit.

Stay daring,
Dave

16/04/2026

30+ years.

Still saying it.

Stay Daring.

I've been facilitating for a long time, and every now and then a room surprises you.We were two days in. A Senior team ...
15/04/2026

I've been facilitating for a long time, and every now and then a room surprises you.

We were two days in. A Senior team of High performers. The kind of group that's polished enough to have a really productive offsite and solve absolutely nothing.

One person hadn't said a word since we started. Not checked out... I could see them watching, processing and waiting.

Day two, mid-afternoon, they spoke up.
No preamble, just this:

"Because we're seen as high performing, the small stuff gets a pass. But it's not small, because then we go for coffee individually and talk about each other."

Three seconds of silence... I didn't fill it.

Then someone across the table said quietly: "I do that."

And then another. And another.

Until someone said what everyone was now thinking: "That's it. That's the actual problem."

I didn't design that moment. No framework produced it. No exercise unlocked it.

What produced it was a day and a half of slowly, deliberately making it safe enough for one person to finally say the true thing out loud. You can't manufacture that. But you can create the conditions for it.

DM me if you're building a team that's ready to go there.

Stay daring, Dave

The most dangerous cultures aren't toxic.They're comfortable.No one's storming out. Performance is passable. Everything'...
13/04/2026

The most dangerous cultures aren't toxic.

They're comfortable.

No one's storming out. Performance is passable. Everything's technically okay.

But quietly, the best people stopped bringing their A-game. They figured out what gets rewarded, and they adjusted. You probably didn't even notice.

Comfortable cultures don't die dramatically. They just slowly become places where nothing interesting happens anymore.

Daring Culture exists because the work is about making the uncomfortable stuff happen… the pushback, the hard conversation, the thing everyone knows but no one's saying.

That friction isn't a problem, it's proof the place is still alive.

What's the thing your team knows but won't say out loud? Drop it below or DM me.

Stay daring,
Dave

Your people know exactly why the change program isn't working.Nobody's asked them.I've been in enough organisations to k...
01/04/2026

Your people know exactly why the change program isn't working.

Nobody's asked them.

I've been in enough organisations to know that the people who design the initiative and the people who have to live it are almost never in the same room. And then everyone wonders why nothing changes.

Stay daring, Dave

The loudest person in the room is rarely the best leader in it.I've sat in a lot of rooms over 30 years.The leaders who ...
30/03/2026

The loudest person in the room is rarely the best leader in it.

I've sat in a lot of rooms over 30 years.

The leaders who actually changed the direction of a conversation, the ones people were still quoting six months later in the pub... weren't the ones filling the silence.

They weren't making statements just to be heard. Or asking questions just to look like they were listening.

They waited, listened, and then they asked the one question that made everyone else realise they'd been solving the wrong problem.

Presence isn't volume, never has been.

What's the best question a leader has ever asked you in a room?

Drop it below, or DM me if you'd rather keep it between us.

Stay daring, Dave

I'll never be an expensive yes person with a whiteboard.Most facilitators see the red flag and let it go. They hide behi...
30/03/2026

I'll never be an expensive yes person with a whiteboard.

Most facilitators see the red flag and let it go. They hide behind a clever question. They dress it up with just enough psychological language to sound smart. They protect the toxic leader because they want to get invited back.

A senior leader said something in my session last week that was costing his entire team. I stopped the session, called it out. Directly and to his face... in front of his whole team.

No sugar coating, no bu****it.
That's the job.

Some facilitators collect the fee and keep their mouth shut. I'd rather lose the booking than sit in a room watching a leader slowly wreck a team while I nod along and say absolutely nothing.

If your facilitator isn't willing to say the thing nobody else in that room will say... to the person nobody else has the guts to say it to?

You didn't hire a facilitator. You hired an expensive yes person with a whiteboard.

Stay daring, Dave

"Why won't people just take ownership?"I hear this every week. Usually from a leader whose team has three different inte...
25/03/2026

"Why won't people just take ownership?"

I hear this every week. Usually from a leader whose team has three different interpretations of what the goal actually is.

Accountability without clarity is just blame with better branding. Swipe through.

Stay daring, Dave

Every office has a Values Poster.Usually near the printer. Or the lifts. Somewhere official enough to feel intentional.I...
23/03/2026

Every office has a Values Poster.

Usually near the printer. Or the lifts. Somewhere official enough to feel intentional.

Integrity. Innovation. Excellence. Teamwork. Respect.

Beautiful words. Professionally printed. Completely ignored.

Here's what nobody says out loud:

Your values poster isn't your culture. It's your aspiration at best. Your alibi at worst.

I've sat with leadership teams who could recite those words verbatim... while throwing each other under the bus in the same meeting.

Real culture isn't what you put on a wall.

It's what you tolerate. What you reward. What you model on a random Tuesday when nobody important is watching.

If your team can quote the poster but can't name a single moment those values changed a real decision, you don't have a culture problem.

You have a courage problem.

And that one's fixable.

Stay daring, Dave

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