I recorded this unsubscribe on Monday, January 26, 2026. Things are moving fast right now — in the world, in the news cycle, and in our collective experience.
Today’s invitation is to Unsubscribe from the Sign in the Window.
The “sign in the window” comes from a story referenced during Mark Carney’s recent speech at Davos, originally from an essay by Václav Havel — a poet, playwright, dissident, and later president of the Czech Republic. The idea is simple and unsettling: when we put a sign in our window that we don’t actually believe in — just to stay safe, just to go along — we’re not neutral. We are contributing to holding up a system we don’t agree with.
It is by being honest about what we see that we can begin to find another way. That I think is what resonated with so many from Carney’s speech. He was willing to put language to what so many already knew. It validated what we see, know and experience.
What I am seeing — what many of us are seeing - and what I want to clearly name — is a massive failure of leadership at scale. Not everywhere and not from every leader, but massive enough to name it.
I won’t begin to pretend I’m an expert on the global issues unfolding right now. But what I do know is leadership. I’ve been studying it, writing about it, practicing it, and working in it for a long time. And we are seeing glaring abuse and abdication of leadership today.
The model of leadership that has been held up as most virtuous and prized prioritizes power, title and status, over values and accountability. Leadership looks appealing when you think of the rewards, but the real job of leadership is being willing to hold the line on values, even when it puts you at personal risk. We are seeing what happens when leaders fail to do that.
Most of the people I know hold values like humanity, compassion, and integrity. And yet, we’re watching leadership behaviours that don’t reflect those values at all — that instead are driven by personal gain, fear, short-term thinking, or “going along to get along.” Leaders who are either actively harming, or who are not willing to risk their power, status, wealth or position to challenge it when it happens.
We see this and we know it’s wrong. We can take down the sign in the window that tries to make us go along and say that it’s somehow okay. It’s not. You’re not imagining it. And you’re not wrong.
What we’re witnessing isn’t just a failure of leadership — in many cases I would argue, it isn’t leadership at all.
Each of us can be a leader and speak the truth of what we see and what we know. Even if people don’t like it. Even if they disagree. We can take down the sign in the window.
Take care of yourselves,
— Belinda
Subscribe to Unsubscribe
Yes, we see the irony. But trust us—
you’ll want this in your inbox.