Instead of studying leadership, why not spend some time studying leaders and strategies in the wild? You can learn a lot from leadership experts, but you always see the leader and what he or she does through the expert’s personal lens. Supplement that learning with studying real leaders in real life situations and draw your own conclusions. The posts in this series will help you.

Every week I’ll point you to articles by and about real leaders in real situations and to articles about how real companies are faring in the marketplace. Read them. Think about them. Draw your own lessons and conclusions from them. Then try to apply those lessons in your own real life.

This week I’m pointing you to articles about Kimberly Howard, Edie Rodriguez, Kenneth Ziegler, Therese Tucker, and Aaron Levie.

From Jill Jusko: The Curious Mind of Kimberly Howard

“Always be learning, suggests Owens Corning VP as she encourages women to excel.”

From Laura Begley Bloom: How This Cruise Industry Exec Is Smashing Barriers

“Rodriguez is one of only a few women in high-ranking positions in the entire cruise industry, which is dominated by men. She was named 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in Florida and Afar magazine called her one of 10 visionaries making travel better.”

From Adam Bryant: Kenneth Ziegler of Logicworks on Embracing Dysfunction

“The chief executive of a cloud-management company says that as long as people don’t think they’re more important than the team, he can work them.”

From Maria Aspan: Meet the Woman Who Broke Silicon Valley’s Gender Barrier–and Built a $1.5 Billion Tech Company

“The Silicon Valley gender narrative is firmly entrenched: Women don’t get computer science degrees and don’t start successful tech companies. Don’t tell Therese Tucker any of that.”

From Tracey Lien: Box CEO Aaron Levie learned to trust his friends and change directions

“Levie grew up in Seattle, the youngest of three children. His mother was a speech-language pathologist; his father was a chemical engineer at a paper company. Levie initially had an interest in filmmaking, going as far as applying to film school at USC, but was rejected (‘It turns out I was really bad at making films’). One of his other interests was problem-solving.”