Before I start with what this is, I want to talk about who you are. When I picture you, I don't imagine a person as much as I imagine a set of values. I see a person who has a fundamental belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to do their best. I see someone who puts long-term success and relationships ahead of short term gains. I see someone who is authentic and empathetic, and who perhaps worries that those qualities are a hindrance. I hope to convince you that they're a phenomenal strength.

I've been leading teams for 15 years, and I started out with teams of volunteers. That's a fantastic place to learn. You have none of the traditional incentives at your disposal like money or status, so to lead effectively you have to establish genuine one-on-one connections with people, discover what truly motivates them, and help them connect that drive to your team's higher purpose.

I formed a philosophy during those early years that my approach to leading volunteers would be equally effective in traditional management roles. It took me many years to convince others in the corporate hierarchy to give me that chance, and I had to endure some difficult years in which I was challenged harshly, but I delivered results. With those results came a renewed sense of conviction and a desire to challenge mainstream views of what good leaders and good leadership look like.

Onto what this is. In a way I'm writing an emergent book. Emergent in the sense that its structure, content, and narrative will be revealed over time. With a mix of proactive content drawn from my personal experience, reactive content drawn from the conversations these chapters provoke, and guided content responding to specific requests, it is impossible to know right now what the beginning, middle, and end of the story will be.

And book probably isn't the right word. These words are designed to be spoken, rather than read, so perhaps it is more like a collaborative screenplay. One where we will all have the opportunity to rearrange the scenes as we see fit, and insert characters from our own lives to bring the story to life.

For the sake of giving the project a name, my working title is "Leading as a Low Key Force of Nature". That's a term that I'll be devoting a chapter to, but in short it means someone who doesn't need to be the loudest voice to have the largest impact.

My hope is that, over time, a story emerges where you can see yourself as the main character, and that it helps you build conviction in your own natural strengths as a leader.

I’m playing with the web3 tech stack to let this story evolve across multiple forms of media and communication. Follow along:

• Public chapter posts on Mirror

• Chapters in audio format and public discussion on Twitter

• Private discussion on friend.tech @adamjmdawson