Day 0: Become One of the Greats

My clients ask me some version of the same question: How do I become one of the greats? In other words, something they can look back on and say, “Undeniably, I did good.”

In the past, leadership looked different. A person could stand at the front of the room and tell people what to do. What mattered most was authority, certainty, and knowing more than everyone else. People felt safe when someone was in control.

That world is gone.

Today, information is easily accessible and understood through AI. Greatness no longer comes from having the answers. It comes from asking better questions and knowing how to engage with what emerges.

A real-world example is Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a company focused on building powerful AI in safer and more transparent ways.

In this 60 Minutes clip, he asks what he can do to make sure he does not lead a company that could “end up like the cigarette companies or the opioid companies, where they knew there were dangers and didn’t talk about them.”

Great leaders do not ignore, blame, troll, avert, brag, fabricate, or hide behind long-winded explanations. A shiny trophy means nothing. There is short-term power in those moves, but it is hollow. It does not create lasting change that is good for humanity.

Instead, great leaders have deeper conversations. They ask questions that help people see new connections. They create conditions for insight, trust, and durable progress. They don’t get it right the first time.

After years of coaching tech leaders and helping them think through what they want and what they can do, I have found a framework that consistently helps people grow into this kind of leadership and become influential and inspirational figures:

Connect. Disconnect. Interconnect.

Over the next 10 articles, I will share this framework so you gain a system for stepping out of outdated models, creating distance to see clearly, and forming new networks of meaning that support better decisions. Here is a preview:

Connect.

If you want to communicate more effectively, it is not just learning a sequence of words that gives you access to power and resources. To become one of the greats, start by noticing your current relationships with ideas, people, and technology. What are your beliefs? What feels off? What patterns do you see? What do you assume?

Disconnect.

To upgrade your system, you need to let go of those relationships. Have conversations with yourself, with people, and with technology. Unplug connections that no longer serve you. Be brave, stay with the discomfort, and see your current reality without judgement.

Interconnect.

Plug back in but in new ways. You can create a new web of thinking between ideas, people, and technologies without changing one thing in your life. You can create insight that did not exist before. This is how system-level thinking forms. This is how real leadership emerges.

Greatness in the age of AI is not about what you know.

It is about how you conceptually relate.

And the quality of your relationships with ideas, people, and technology is what will shape your legacy.

Subscribe to this blog, so over the next 10 articles, you can learn what it takes to become one of the greats.

Together, we can achieve more.