Description

Why Thinking for Yourself Is a Leadership Skill

Leadership today isn’t lacking opinions—it’s lacking discernment.

In this foundational episode of Shatter This with Heather Simpson, Heather dismantles one of the most quietly dangerous assumptions in modern leadership: that being informed, vocal, or confident automatically makes you a leader.

It doesn’t.

True leadership requires the ability to think independently—especially under pressure, especially when consensus is loud, and especially when clarity is inconvenient.

In this episode, Heather explores why independent thinking is not a personality trait, but a trainable leadership skill, and how outsourcing your thinking—to trends, algorithms, or group consensus—slowly erodes your power and agency.

This conversation sets the philosophical foundation for the entire show.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why access to information has not led to better leadership
• The difference between being informed and being discerning
• How conformity disguises itself as responsibility
• The cost of outsourcing your thinking in business and life
• A practical framework to strengthen how you think—without telling you what to think
• The leadership standard required to build something that lasts

This episode is for leaders, founders, and thinkers who are done reacting—and ready to lead with clarity.

Listen if you:

• Feel overwhelmed by noise and competing narratives
• Want to make decisions that hold up over time
• Are building something meaningful and don’t want to lose yourself doing it

If this episode shifted how you think—even slightly—share it with someone who’s building something real.

Follow the show and leave a review to help this conversation reach the leaders who need it next.