Lead to Beat: The Leadership Rhythm That Shapes Tomorrow
Jonathan Escobar Marin
Fast Company Press ()ctober 2025)

“Leadership isn’t about pleasing everyone; it’s about doing what’s best for every0ne…and doing it right.”

I agreee with Jonathan Escobar Marin.

Marin focuses on four separate but interdependent elements: fragmentation, ambiguity, turbulence, and entropy — elements that combine to form a powerful force — FATE  –that permeates every aspect of this ever-changing reality, and they are especially prevalent in the business world.”

He provides an abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel that can help leaders in almost any organization — whatever its size and nature may be — to develop a “leadership rhythm” that will “shape” an otherwise uncertain future. The material is carefully organized and presented within five sections:

1. Brutal Focus
2. Distributed Leadership
3. Impact over Activity
4. A Disciplined Drumbeat
5. What Is Needed

In or near the central business district in most major cities, there is a farmer’s market at which (at least prior to COVID) a few merchants offered slices of fresh fruit as samples of their wares. In that same spirit, I now offer a selection of Marin’s lively and timely insights, accompanied by other comments:

o “Great strategies die in the gap between inspiration and implementation.” Thomas Edison agrees: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

o “We need to exploit now what works now while building what will win next.” Marshall Goldsmith agrees: “What got you here won’t get you there.”

My comment: I think what got you here won’t even allow you to remain here, however and wherever you define “here” And “there.”

o “A silo emerges when a legitimate organizational unit chooses self-interest over organization impact — and nobody stops it.”

My comment: Many “silos” are disguised as human beings. So-called “indispensable” employees tend to be hoarders and roadblocks.

o “True learning happens in the tension between your aspiration to win and your current results. Without that aspiration, there’s no gap, no tension, and ultimately no learning.”

My comment: If you think education’s expensive, try ignorance.

o “Ideas get it started. Iteration gets it done. Impact gets it remembered.”

My comment: Woulda/Coulda/Shouldas are losers’ junk food.

o “The most important investment you can make ís in leaders who can make everyone around them better. Companies grow through great leaders and die because of poor ones.”

My comment: Whatever their size and nature may be, all organizations need effective leaders at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise.

o “Transformation is not about proving something works; it’s about making it work.”

My comment:…and work flawlessly.

I commend Jonathan Escobar Marin on Lead to Beat. It is a brilliant achievement. He seems determined (obsessed?) to help as many people as possible to prepare themselves — and help prepare others — for the challenges that await in an uncertain future.

As I worked my way through his book, I was again reminded of a prediction Alvin Toffler makes in Future Shock (1970): “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

This may well be the best single source to provide the material needed to formulate a program that responds effectively to that prediction.

* * *

Here are two suggestions while you are reading Lead to Beat: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a lined notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the checklists strategically inserted throughout the lively ad eloquent narrative. They serve several different functions: issues to think about before making a decision such as probable results, consequences, and cost of resources.

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.