Coming Fall 2026
Disengaged
Turning Passive Teams into Proactive Micro-Cultures
The real story of team performance isn't sitting in a dashboard. It's playing out in the invisible signals people absorb every day. Disengaged helps leaders read those signals, see how they're being perceived, and build micro-cultures that bring out ownership and initiative.
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Too many leadership books give you advice.
This one gives you a mirror.
Capable people lose energy and initiative in environments that slowly diminish them — long before performance visibly slips. Leaders look outside the team for the next answer, while overlooking that their people are their greatest resource. Disengaged shows you how your leadership is actually landing, how your environment is shaping behavior, and why people may be responding in ways you never intended.
Inside the Book
What you'll discover
Both a mirror to see yourself more clearly and a roadmap to build a stronger micro-culture — in three parts: the problem, the seven habits of well-intentioned mismanagement, and the design playbook.
- Why capable teams become passive long before performance visibly slips
- How leadership patterns, team design, and everyday signals shape ownership, initiative, and trust
- The difference between managing symptoms and addressing the real conditions driving disengagement
- What it takes to build a proactive micro-culture where judgment, accountability, and performance grow
- Why this matters even more in the age of AI, when human initiative and adaptability become the advantage
The Shift
This book helps you move
Constant oversight and firefighting
→
Stronger ownership and self-led execution
Pushing for accountability
→
Conditions that make accountability natural
A team that waits and watches
→
A team that thinks, contributes, and takes initiative
Reactive management
→
Intentional leadership that drives business outcomes
The Design Playbook
The PROACTIVE framework
The book's final part shifts from diagnosis to design: nine levers that shape the systems driving team behavior.
Who This Book Is For
Written for the leader you're becoming
Founders & Business Owners
Tired of carrying too much yourself? Spot strong leadership more clearly, avoid choosing leaders who weaken teams, and build a stronger leadership bench.
Managers & Senior Leaders
You know your team is capable of more. Understand what's slowing performance down and create the conditions for stronger initiative, trust, and execution.
Aspiring Leaders
Understand how strong teams are built before you inherit one — and get a deeper lens on what leadership is really shaping every day.
Professionals
If you've ever found yourself shrinking under poor leadership, this book may help you understand why. A little like therapy — and a little like the book you wish your boss had read.
Fall 2026
Too much workplace misery gets normalized as part of the job
Disengaged is for everyone who believes leadership can do better — and that better leadership changes not only how teams perform, but how people live. Join the Invisible Lessons newsletter to follow the journey and be first to know when the book arrives.
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