Leadership doesn’t always give us the luxury of perfect information, unlimited time, or a clear path forward.
A team isn’t performing as expected. A difficult conversation needs to happen. An organizational change is creating resistance. A new opportunity appears at exactly the wrong time. Or perhaps you’re simply realizing that what worked for you six months ago isn’t producing the same results today.
In those moments, leaders can become so focused on solving the immediate problem that they miss an important question:
What is this situation asking of me as a leader?
That’s where I use the SOAR Framework:
Scan → Opportunities to Challenges → Align Actions → Reset for Results
SOAR is designed to help leaders step out of automatic response, look more intentionally at what is happening, and move toward action.
S — Scan
Before deciding what to do, scan the environment.
What is happening around you?
What has changed?
What are you hearing from your team?
What are the data telling you?
Where are you seeing patterns?
And what are you noticing about yourself?
Leaders can become so close to a problem that they begin solving before they fully understand it.
Scanning widens the lens.
Instead of immediately asking, “How do I fix this?” ask:
“What do I need to see before I decide what to do?”
That shift from reaction to curiosity can change the quality of the decision that follows.
O — Opportunities to Challenges
Most leaders are very good at identifying challenges.
The missed target. The staffing issue. The conflict. The resistance. The communication breakdown.
SOAR asks us to look at those challenges differently.
Where is the opportunity within the challenge?
A struggling team may reveal an opportunity to strengthen accountability.
Resistance to change may expose a communication gap.
A difficult employee conversation may create an opportunity for coaching and growth.
A disappointing result may reveal a process that has needed attention for months.
This isn’t about putting a positive spin on a legitimate problem.
It’s about refusing to let the problem become the only thing you can see.
Great leaders learn to hold both:
This is a challenge. And there may be an opportunity here.
A — Align Actions
Insight without action doesn’t change results.
Once you’ve scanned the situation and identified the opportunities within the challenge, ask:
What action is aligned with the result I want to create?
Not: What will make this discomfort go away?
Not: What is everyone expecting me to do?
And not necessarily: What have we always done?
What action aligns with the outcome?
Sometimes that means having the conversation you’ve been avoiding.
Sometimes it means listening before deciding.
It may require resetting expectations, asking for help, delegating instead of rescuing, changing a process, establishing a boundary, or making the decision you’ve been second-guessing.
Alignment connects intention to behavior.
Because knowing what needs to change isn’t leadership.
Acting on it is.
R — Reset for Results
This may be my favorite part of SOAR because leadership isn’t a one-and-done process.
You act.
You watch what happens.
You learn.
And then you reset for results.
Ask:
What changed?
What worked?
What didn’t?
What am I learning?
What does the team need now?
What needs to be adjusted?
Resetting doesn’t mean the original decision was wrong. It means you’re willing to respond to what you’re learning rather than becoming attached to your first solution.
That’s an important leadership capability.
Effective leaders don’t confuse consistency with rigidity.
They remain anchored to the result while being willing to adjust the path for getting there.
What SOAR Looks Like in Practice
Imagine a leader whose team isn’t following through consistently.
The immediate response might be: “They need more accountability.”
Maybe.
But let’s SOAR.
SCAN: What’s actually happening? Are expectations clear? Is this happening with everyone or only in certain situations? What are team members saying? What behaviors am I seeing?
OPPORTUNITIES TO CHALLENGES: The lack of follow-through is a challenge. But could it also be an opportunity to strengthen clarity, coaching, ownership, or communication?
ALIGN ACTIONS: What action best addresses what I’ve discovered? Perhaps another reminder isn’t the answer. Maybe the leader needs to establish clearer ownership and have a coaching conversation.
RESET FOR RESULTS: After taking action, what changed? Is follow-through improving? If not, what needs to be adjusted?
Notice what SOAR does.
It doesn’t remove accountability.
It makes the leader more intentional about how to create it.
Leadership Is a Continuous Reset
One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership is that experienced leaders eventually reach a point where they simply know what to do.
After more than three decades in leadership, I don’t believe that’s true.
Experience gives us perspective. It gives us patterns to recognize and lessons to draw upon.
But leadership continues to present us with new people, new circumstances, new pressures and new decisions.
The goal isn’t to always have the answer.
The goal is to develop a process that helps you find the next right action.
That’s what SOAR provides:
Scan.
See what’s really happening.
Opportunities to Challenges.
Look beyond the problem to what might be possible.
Align Actions.
Choose actions consistent with the result you want to create.
Reset for Results.
Evaluate, learn and adjust.
And then?
You SOAR again.
Because sustainable leadership isn’t about getting everything right the first time.
It’s about having the awareness, courage and discipline to keep learning—and keep moving toward the results that matter.
Try SOAR This Week
Choose one challenge you’re currently facing and take it through these four questions:
What do I need to SCAN?
What OPPORTUNITY exists within this CHALLENGE?
What ACTION is most ALIGNED with the outcome I want?
What will I measure or observe so I know when it’s time to RESET FOR RESULTS?
You may find that you don’t need another leadership theory.
You need a clearer way to turn what you already know into action
