What Do You Want? The Question at the Heart of Leadership

What do you want?

It’s a simple question, but according to leadership strategist and business coach Julian Lighton, it may be one of the most important questions a leader can ask.

In this episode of Stepping Into Your Leadership, Christine Courtney sits down with Julian to explore how leaders and teams can navigate uncertainty, make better decisions, and move from simply working alongside one another to truly working together. Drawing from his experience in Silicon Valley, coaching, sports, and theater, Julian shares practical frameworks for understanding how teams develop, navigate conflict, and become more effective.

Christine and Julian explore what it takes to move from “I” to “we,” including creating psychological safety, encouraging productive disagreement, clarifying roles, and building shared purpose. Julian also shares his memorable “woolly mammoth” analogy, illustrating why some challenges simply cannot be solved alone—and why effective leadership means getting others invested in the goal.

Whether you’re leading a team or stepping into leadership for the first time, this conversation offers practical ways to think differently about collaboration, decision-making, and what it takes to turn a group of individuals into a team.