Leaders carry growing responsibility. Bigger teams. Bigger decisions. Bigger stakes.

But growth in responsibility doesn’t automatically mean growth in thinking.

Dr. JJ Peterson explores a counterintuitive leadership truth: when leaders stop trying new things, their thinking gets smaller — even as their influence expands. The issue isn’t intelligence. It isn’t experience. It’s rigidity.

The brain is designed to change. Novelty builds cognitive flexibility. Exposure to unfamiliar environments interrupts autopilot. Creative hobbies, new skills, and even small disruptions in routine reshape how the brain approaches ambiguity and problem-solving.

Trying something new outside of work isn’t indulgent. It’s strategic.

Learning stained glass doesn’t make someone a better marketer. Curling doesn’t automatically improve strategy. But putting yourself back into beginner mode rewires how you respond to uncertainty, failure, and complexity — and that changes leadership.

Growth doesn’t always look impressive. Sometimes it looks like falling on the ice, laughing, and getting back up again.

• Why leadership fails when thinking becomes rigid
• How novelty strengthens cognitive flexibility
• The connection between environment shifts and creative problem-solving
• Why beginnerhood is a leadership practice, not a weakness
• Simple ways to disrupt autopilot and expand perspective

Leadership requires adaptability, perspective, and the willingness to experiment before certainty arrives.

If this resonates, consider sharing it with a leader who may need permission to try something new — not to master it, not to monetize it, but to stay mentally alive.

Because ambition and humanity are not opposites. And the most strategic thing a leader can do might be to become a beginner again.

Before he ever worked with leaders on message and clarity, Dr. J.J. Peterson spent years performing improv comedy — an environment where nothing is scripted, mistakes are guaranteed, and collaboration determines whether a scene survives.

What most people misunderstand about improv is that it isn’t chaos. It has rules. And those same rules quietly shape what effective leadership looks like when certainty is low and pressure is high.

Drawing from his experience on stage and in leadership rooms, Dr. Peterson explores how leaders can create momentum, protect dignity, and keep people engaged — even when things feel messy, unfinished, or uncertain.

• Why strong leadership isn’t about control, but attention and trust
• How “Yes, and” keeps people contributing instead of shutting down
• Why leaders need a clear point of view — not vague optimism
• How to handle mistakes without creating fear or humiliation
• What it means to name reality instead of performing confidence
• Why leadership works best when leaders stop trying to win the room

Most leadership happens without a script. The question isn’t whether things will wobble — it’s how leaders respond when they do.

If this resonates, consider sharing it with another badass softie leader — someone ambitious, thoughtful, and deeply human — who’s navigating leadership without a script and trying to do it with heart.

Most people think a story has to be a seismic, life-altering event to matter. Something dramatic. Something obvious. Something big enough to justify being told.

But leadership is rarely shaped by moments that announce themselves.

In this conversation, Dr. J.J. Peterson talks with storyteller and creativity guide Tricia Rose Burt about why the stories that shape how we lead are often the ones we overlook—and how creativity helps us recognize, shape, and share them.

Together, they explore storytelling not as performance or branding, but as a leadership practice: a way of integrating lived experience, building trust, and making meaning in the work we do.

This is a conversation for leaders who feel disconnected from their creativity, unsure whether their story “counts,” or curious about how story and imagination strengthen—not soften—leadership.

• Why most people underestimate the stories they’re already carrying
• How storytelling reveals why you lead the way you do
• The connection between creativity and effective leadership
• Why showing a story builds credibility faster than telling credentials
• How recognizing your story opens the door to inspiring others

Creativity isn’t a detour from leadership.

Storytelling isn’t a nice-to-have.

They’re how leaders stay human, flexible, and meaningful—especially when the work gets hard.

To learn more about Tricia Rose Burt and her work, visit triciaroseburt.com.