846. When Being Smart Isn’t Enough: Adam Quiney on Transformational Leadership

What happens when the strengths that helped you become successful start limiting the way you lead?

On this episode of Daily Influence, host Gregg-Brooke Koleno sits down with executive coach, former software developer, and former attorney Adam Quiney to explore why leadership growth often requires more than acquiring new skills or knowledge. Adam explains that highly capable leaders can become so accustomed to knowing the answer, being right, and relying on proven approaches that those same strengths can make it difficult to recognize what they are protecting, avoiding, or unwilling to see.

Adam shares how his own leadership development required vulnerability and a willingness to be humbled rather than simply becoming more self-aware. He discusses why certainty can sometimes signal that a leader may be overlooking something and offers a practical exercise: pay attention to the behaviors you judge most strongly in other people, then become curious about where those same tendencies may appear in yourself.

The conversation also examines the difference between understanding leadership intellectually and actually transforming how you lead. Adam argues that transformation often requires stepping forward before you fully understand the answer rather than continually trying to solve the problem through more analysis, knowledge, or effort.

Gregg and Adam also discuss mindfulness, curiosity, relationships, and responsible influence including Adam’s challenge to become genuinely fascinated by the people around you instead of assuming you already have them figured out.

In this episode:

• Why intelligence, competence, and certainty can eventually become leadership limitations

• How to recognize when you may be protecting your ego, identity, control, or need to be right

• Why awareness alone does not necessarily create transformation

• How judgment of others can reveal potential blind spots in yourself

• Why vulnerability and uncertainty are essential parts of leadership development

• How curiosity can change the way you experience relationships, networking, and everyday interactions

• Why responsible influence requires paying attention to your impact, not just your intentions

Adam leaves listeners with an invitation to approach both others and themselves with greater curiosity, empathy, grace, and acceptance—and to notice the moments when an automatic reaction could instead become an intentional choice.

Connect with Adam Quiney:

Website: adamquiney.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamquiney

Substack: Search for Adam Quiney

Podcast: The Transformational Leader with Adam Quiney