08/28/2026
Strong leaders have scars.
Leadership has a cost. Difficult decisions, failures, responsibility, and the weight of leading others leave marks. Those experiences can build credibility and empathy, but only if leaders are willing to face what they’ve been through and learn from it.
In this leadership article, Phillip Stoller explores why the strongest leaders aren’t necessarily the ones who appear untouched by struggle. They’re the ones who learn how to carry their scars without letting those scars harden them.
Read “Strong Leaders Have Scars”
I worked nights in the War Department telegraph office, where the wires never slept and the air smelled of sweat and lamp oil. He often came after dark, hat in hand, shoulders rounded, asking quietly if anything had changed. We’d pass him the strips as they came off the wire, names, numbers, place...