Leadership Knowledge and Skills: What's the Difference and Why it Matters
You've read the leadership books. You've filled notebooks at the workshops. But here's the question Vonda and Lori want you to sit with this week: when you walked out the door, did you actually do anything with it? After a detour through Lori's current TikTok obsession — Freddie Fulton, a.k.a. "A Sonnet in a Bonnet," who reads Shakespeare and Poe in a deep Southern drawl and signs off every video with "God is so good" — the hosts get into one of their favorite topics: the difference between leadership knowledge and leadership skills, sparked by an article by Hewlett Rand on LinkedIn.
Be the leader you wish you had
The conversation started at a recent Shop Talk, when member Tracy Parks handed Lori's own words back to her. At a Next Gen meeting, a frustrated young employee had described a boss who managed rather than led — detached, one foot out the door, shooting down every idea. She had no leader worth following, and it showed. Lori's advice, borrowed from a book she read long ago: be the leader you wish you had, and let other people follow you.
Tracy took it and ran. Facing a brutal Mother's Day week — including employees dealing with a death in the family — she told the group she'd had two choices: sit down and cry, or be the leader she wished she had. She chose the second, and that's the whole distinction in one story.
Knowledge is the foundation; applying it is the job
Per the article, leadership knowledge is the foundation of effective leadership — the books, the classes, the workshops. The skills only show up when you apply it, and that's the hard part. The hosts point to Dr. Nicole Price, who talks about exactly this in her leadership and empathy training: she can share everything she knows with a room full of nodding heads, but when they walk out, do the notes go in the trash? Do they sit on a desk for two months until everything goes back to normal? (Dr. Price herself once assumed empathy was something you're simply born with or not — until her research convinced her it can be learned.)
Lori frames it through her teaching days: there were "do the worksheet, don't ask questions" teachers, and there were teachers who never sat down — constantly moving, adjusting to how each student learned. Same knowledge, completely different practice. In a flower shop, applied leadership looks like the crisis moments: the cooler dies during prom weekend, the delivery drivers don't show on Mother's Day, and you keep your head, solve the problem, and fall apart privately afterward if you need to. People are watching how you react — employees, brides, venue owners, customers — and that's when they decide whether you're actually a leader.
Own your bad days and eat the elephant early
Two applied skills get special attention. First, self-awareness on bad days. One beloved Flower Clique member has been known to call a quick team meeting after a rough morning just to say: I'm sorry, I've been a bear today, give me some grace. That's leadership. Without it, employees develop a "which boss am I getting today?" wariness, walls go up, and trust erodes.
Second, hitting problems head on. Tension between employees, a festering issue with a wholesaler, someone acting off on a committee Zoom call — dysfunction is when everyone pretends the elephant isn't in the room. Address it while it's small and it's usually solvable; let it build and someone eventually quits. Sometimes the fix is as simple as picking up the phone afterward: "Hey, are you okay? Is there something we need to work out?" Lori shares a moment when a colleague from an SAF meeting reached out afterward because she hadn't seemed herself (a migraine, as it turned out). That's the level of awareness worth aspiring to — noticing the people in your surroundings, not just the surroundings.
Summer is for the self-check
With the May rush behind you, the hosts prescribe a two-part summer exercise. One: audit yourself. Are you the leader you'd want to follow? Where are you falling short, and would a refresher — like Dr. Price's book on leading with empathy — help? Two: audit your team. Look back at Mother's Day and prom. Who stepped up and surprised you? Who you expected to lead, but didn't? Use those quick five-minute check-ins to ask who's interested in leadership, then invest in the natural, evolving leaders — because another leader on your team is more help for you.
Key takeaways
- Leadership knowledge is the foundation, but leadership only exists when you apply it — don't let the workshop notes go in the trash.
- "Be the leader you wish you had" — especially when the person above you isn't leading.
- In a crisis, keep your head and solve the problem; your team, your customers, and your brides are all watching how you react.
- Have bad days like a leader: acknowledge them, apologize, and ask for grace instead of becoming unpredictable.
- Confront small tensions before they become elephants — and use the summer slowdown to identify which employees stepped up during the rush.