Leading Together

with 6 Levers

Leading Together is for senior leadership teams who want to become more cohesive and high performing. In each newsletter, 6 Levers co-founders Shaun Lee and Joe Olwig break down real-world case studies and share insights from their work with executive teams across industries. You’ll hear the patterns behind what makes leadership teams thrive—and what holds them back. Most importantly, every newsletter shares practical applications you can apply with your team.

How Curiosity Unlocks Strategy

Hi Reader, When Amy Edmondson was a PhD student at Harvard, she set out to study how effective teamwork influenced patient safety in hospitals. Her hypothesis was simple: the best teams would make the fewest mistakes. But when the data came back, it showed the opposite.The highest-performing teams were reporting more errors. Her first reaction? Panic. Something had to be wrong. But then she paused. And instead of dismissing the data, she got curious. She asked a different question: What if...

4 days ago • 1 min read

Jazz Needs Scales. Your Team Needs Structure.

Hi Reader, I’ve been sitting with this quote from Steve Denning lately. It’s one I keep coming back to and one I find many of the teams we work with need to hear: “There are those who believe that creativity is about getting rid of structure, systems, and processes and letting a thousand flowers bloom. I believe structure is necessary because structure and creativity have the same parentage. It is structure that enables creativity... Without structure, there is nothing for creativity to get...

25 days ago • 1 min read

Leadership Isn’t a Solo Act—It’s a Team Effort

Hi Reader, Meet Didi, a leader who gives everything she has to her team until there’s nothing left to give. In Episode 6 of Netflix’s The Man on the Inside, we watch as Didi, the director of a retirement community in San Francisco, moves through a relentless day. One staff member after another comes to her with problems they’ve been conditioned to believe only she can solve: The restaurant is out of salt shakers. The Wi-Fi is down. The leader of the resident council is demanding her time. The...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Lessons from Costco—The Power of an Activated Identity

Hi Reader, Clear organizational identity isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic advantage. When leaders make their identity clear and actively integrate it into how they operate, it creates alignment, builds trust, and drives long-term success. Few companies demonstrate this better than Costco. At Costco, identity isn’t just words on a wall—it’s deeply embedded in how they operate. Two of their guiding principles, Take Care of Our Members and Take Care of Our Employees, shape every...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Does your Leadership Team have an Operating Framework?

Hi Reader, How does your leadership team make decisions, set priorities, and adapt to change? If you don’t have a clear answer, you’re not alone. Many leadership teams operate without an intentional system, relying instead on intuition, urgency, or tradition. That might work—for a while. But as complexity increases, these gaps become major barriers to execution, alignment, and growth. Consider these critical questions: Do you have a way to set priorities and monitor and adjust them? Do you...

2 months ago • 1 min read