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🎙 You Can’t Teach Initiative: Why Effort Still Matters

In this episode of the Elite Leader Insights™ Podcast, Donald C. Kunkel Jr. unpacks one of the hardest truths in leadership: you can teach almost anything — but you can’t teach initiative.

Whether you're leading a team, mentoring others, or building a high-performance culture, effort is the silent driver of results. Drawing from leadership experience, core principles of the TECCA™ Influence System, and practical coaching insights, this episode explores how to spot initiative, how to cultivate it, and what to do when it’s missing.

This is a wake-up call for leaders who are exhausted from carrying the team alone — and a challenge to stop pouring energy into people who aren’t ready to own their growth.

You’ll learn:

• Why initiative is a mindset, not a skillset
• How to distinguish potential from performance
• What to do when you’re leading people who aren’t meeting you halfway
• A coaching-based strategy to redirect your leadership energy where it counts

Resources Mentioned:

• The Foundations of Influence: The Power to Lead & Inspire
• TECCA™ Influence Assessment and Power Profile™
• Elite Leader Insights™ Newsletter

Final Thought:
Initiative can’t be taught — but it can be rewarded, modeled, and expected. Don’t confuse coaching with carrying. Influence is how we lead — in life and leadership.

Elite Leader Insights™ is hosted by Donald C. Kunkel Jr., founder of the Elite Leadership Center™, author of The Foundations of Influence: The Power to Lead & Inspire, and creator of the TECCA™ Influence System.

🌐 Connect with Us: LinkTree | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter (X)

Elite Leader Insights is hosted by Donald C. Kunkel Jr., founder of the Elite Leadership Center, author of The Foundations of Influence: The Power to Lead and Inspire, and creator of the TECCA Influence System

🌐 Connect with Us: LinkTree | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter (X)