We turn American news into leadership education.

Leaders, can I be honest with you today? The research I've been doing has me asking a bigger question: Is it confidence you've lost, or is it vision?

Because right now, leaders are operating in an environment where confidence is anything but stable. The Conference Board's latest CEO Confidence survey found that confidence among 136 CEOs of large U.S. companies rose from 47 in Q2 to 52 in Q3 2026. That sounds encouraging, until you look a little closer. That 52 is still below the 59 recorded just one quarter earlier. And while a score above 50 means positive responses outnumber negative ones, The Conference Board described the mood among these CEOs as "cautious optimism."

So maybe the question isn't simply, "Are leaders confident?" Maybe the better question is: What happens to leadership when confidence becomes dependent on everything happening around you?

Because look at the environment. Gallup reports that Americans' confidence in major U.S. institutions remains near an all-time low, with the average confidence rating below 30% for the fifth consecutive year. Gallup also found in 2025 that only 28% of Americans had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly — a new low in Gallup's trend. And Pew Research Center's 2026 research found that 57% of Americans expressed low confidence in journalists to act in the best interests of the public; only 43% expressed a great deal or fair amount of confidence.

Then there is the information itself. Pew found that only 36% of Americans said they followed the news all or most of the time in 2025, down from 51% in 2016. At the same time, more Americans are encountering news rather than intentionally seeking it.

Think about what that means for a leader. You are expected to know what is happening. You are expected to understand what it means. You are expected to make decisions. You are expected to communicate those decisions. And you are expected to lead people through all of it. Meanwhile, the information environment is changing faster than most organizations can process it.

That brings me back to something I think we forget. Remember when you were a child who dreamed? Confidence was nowhere to be found. Con-fidence was the furthest thing from your mind or mine. Now it seems like many folks can't get enough of conning these days. You weren't sitting there calculating whether you had enough confidence to become who you imagined yourself becoming. You were dreaming. You were building. You were imagining. And when someone told you that you couldn't do it, that's when the doubt started creeping in.

You weren't trying to lead people. You were the captain of the ship. You were leading a dream. A vision. A goal. Somewhere along the way, so many leaders have forgotten that. You've gotten caught up in information overload, everyone else's opinions, outdated ideas about what leadership is supposed to look like, and the constant psychological pressure of trying to keep everyone satisfied. Some leaders have become so emotionally and mentally tied to the people they are supposed to lead that the people are now leading the leader. And that is a problem.

Let's be real. You care about your people. You should. But your people are not the mission. Your people are not the vision. Your people are part of what you are leading toward. It was the vision that attracted you in the first place. It was those late nights. Those sacrifices. Those moments when nobody else could see what you could see. That vision kept you moving even when confidence was nowhere to be found. And that is why I want to challenge something:

When you take your eyes off the vision, you may think you've lost confidence. But perhaps you've lost perspective.

Confidence isn't certainty. Confidence is not, "I know exactly what is going to happen." It's more about: I have enough information, judgment, resources and perspective to make the best decision I can with what I know right now. That is decision confidence. Also there's organizational confidence: We believe our organization can navigate what is ahead. And there is public confidence: I trust this institution or leader to perform as expected. But none of those forms of confidence are created by consuming more information simply because more information exists.

And you and I know, we have information up to our bunkers. Information upload. Information overload. Information backload. Old loads. Outdated loads. New loads. Opinion loads. Algorithm loads. Wooo wee... Wait a minute. While I unload. LOL. I'm back. But seriously — in this global society where leaders are expected to keep up, and keep up fast, we have to remember something fundamental:

You are not really in the overall scheme of things leading people. You are leading the vision. People will come and go. Employees will come and go. Board members will come and go. Executives will come and go. Customers will come and go. Donors will come and go. Even leaders come and go. But a strong mission can outlive all of them.

Look at Nike. People have occupied different positions, departments, executive offices and leadership roles over the decades. But the organization continues to operate around a larger mission and vision. That is the point. Leadership cannot be reduced to managing the people standing in front of you today. Leadership is about protecting, advancing and adapting the thing you were entrusted to build.

And yes, there will be days when you don't feel confident or feel like conning. There will be decisions that scare you. There will be moments when you don't have enough information. There will be moments when the information you have conflicts. There will be moments when the people around you don't agree with you. None of that automatically means you have lost your ability to lead. Sometimes it means you're leading in the middle of uncertainty.

And that is precisely why the quality of the information you use matters. News moves fast. But you still have to make decisions. You still have to teach. You still have to communicate. You still have to build. You still have to lead.

The question is not whether you can consume more information. The question is whether you can turn information into understanding, context, insight and strategic action. That is why I created TCLN Network and The TCLN Advantage.

TCLN is a news-education leadership resource designed to help leaders look beyond the headline and understand what the news can teach us about leadership, organizations, systems, people, power and decision-making. Because news is only the beginning of the information. The advantage comes from knowing what to do with it.

So before you decide that you've lost your confidence, I want you to ask yourself one more question: Have you actually lost confidence... or have you simply taken your eyes off the vision?