The Inner Game of Leadership: Elevating When it Matters Most

Imagine this real-life scenario:

You’re sitting in an audience of 10,000 top customers. Your leadership team is by your side, eager to witness a presentation that could make or break your business. The spotlight shines on the presenter, who, over the course of their ten-minute session, proceeds to tear your product apart. There’s no rebuttal. No contingency plan. The session ends, and just like that, the damage is done.

You’re shocked. Your entire organization is blindsided. Your customers are watching, and there’s nothing you can do to undo what just happened.

You step out of the ballroom, struggling to process the shock, and the world keeps spinning as if nothing catastrophic just occurred. Your managers gather around you, the fear palpable in the air. You can practically feel their panic. 

You have no script for this moment, no manual on what to do next. But you know one thing: you need to say something. You need to inspire. You need to lead. This is the ultimate test of leadership. So, what do you do?

This exact scenario happened to me back in 2007 at a major medical conference. As I stepped outside the ballroom, the only thing running through my mind was, “Keep your head up.” That was the message I gave my team. I told my ten managers, "Keep your heads up. Engage with your key customers with positivity. Listen to their concerns, but don't commiserate. And most importantly, get them to the event later this evening—our chance to tell the other side of the story."

Fast forward a year and three months. I’m sitting in my company president’s office, and she’s asking me how my business managed to grow by over 40% in a year when the rest of the world saw a 28% decline. There were many factors at play, but deep down, I knew that one moment—walking out of that room and delivering that message to my team—was the turning point.

It was in that moment I unknowingly demonstrated mastery of the inner game of leadership.

The Inner Game: Where Leadership Truly Begins

Effective leadership doesn’t begin when you speak your first word or make your first decision. It begins long before that. It starts with the moment when you must decide how you’ll show up in the face of chaos, uncertainty, and fear. Will you lead with clarity or succumb to confusion? Will you project confidence, or will doubt take the wheel?

In that moment after the presentation, I faced a critical decision: to let the situation overwhelm me or to stand firm and guide my team with resolve. I chose the latter. That decision, grounded in clarity, became the bedrock upon which our team rebuilt and thrived.

Mastering the Mind You Lead With

The truth is, a leader's ability to inspire others hinges on their capacity to first master themselves. How you interpret the reality around you, how you manage the internal dialogue that runs in your mind when no one is looking, and how you respond under pressure determines the impact you have on your team.

If you can’t control your own narrative, you’ll never control the narrative for your organization. The way you think about a situation—like the disastrous presentation—is the lens through which your team will view it too. If you’re anxious or reactive, your team will mirror that energy. If you’re grounded and clear, that’s the energy they’ll pick up on.

The message I delivered to my team after the session wasn’t just a series of instructions. It was an embodiment of my own inner clarity—a decision to be calm, to lead with confidence, and to turn a potentially devastating moment into an opportunity.

Clarity: The Weapon You Didn’t Know You Had

In a world brimming with distractions and constant input, clarity is a leader’s most powerful weapon. But here’s the kicker: clarity doesn’t come from doing more or pushing harder. It comes from stillness. It comes from pausing long enough to hear your inner voice, to tap into your true purpose, and to filter out the noise that threatens to drown you.

In that pivotal moment after the presentation, I didn’t have time to craft the perfect response. But what I did have was clarity. I knew who I was, what my values were, and what was at stake. That clarity helped me make decisions on the spot, shape my response, and set my team on the right course.

Presence: Leading with Intention

The world doesn’t need more reactive leaders. It needs leaders who are present, intentional, and conscious. Building your inner game is not about meditating on mountaintops or adopting an Instagram-friendly mantra. It’s about being ruthless with your focus, disciplined with your energy, and unflinchingly aware of your emotional state.

When the stakes are high, you can’t afford to be caught off guard. Your ability to stay grounded in the chaos will be the difference between success and failure.

That’s what allowed me to step into the moment after the presentation and rally my team without being consumed by panic.

The Power of the Right Story

The real turning point in leadership is not the external circumstances—it’s the story you tell yourself in the face of those circumstances. After that session, I could have easily fallen into despair, blaming external forces for our misfortune.

But I chose to tell a different story: a story of resilience, of opportunity, of turning the tables in our favor.

The story you tell yourself shapes the actions you take. It fuels the energy you radiate. And in leadership, that energy is what others will follow.

The Game-Changing Question: Who’s Writing Your Story?

In the aftermath of that presentation, I had to ask myself one critical question: What’s the story I’m telling myself right now—and who wrote it?

Leadership is a constant exercise in self-awareness. Every decision you make is shaped by the inner narrative you carry with you. And the best leaders are those who consciously choose the story they want to live and lead by.

That single moment, when I chose to keep my head up and lead with clarity, became the foundation for a year of unprecedented growth for my business.

But it wasn’t just about business success—it was about demonstrating mastery of the inner game, a game every leader must play. And it’s a game that, when won, changes everything.

Lead from within, and the world will follow.

Omar L. Harris is the managing partner at Intent Consulting, a firm dedicated to improving employee experience and organizational performance and author of Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams; The Servant Leader's Manifesto; Be a J.E.D.I. Leader, Not a Boss: Leadership in the Era of Corporate Social Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; Leading Change: The 4 Keys; Hire the Right W.H.O.M.: Sourcing the Right Team DNA Every Time; and The J.E.D.I. Leader's Playbook: The Insider's Guide to Eradicating Injustices, Eliminating Inequities, Expanding Diversity, and Enhancing Inclusion available for purchase in ebook, print, and audio on Amazon.com. Please follow him Instagram, Twitter, and/or his website for more information and engagement.