The Leadership Skill Nobody Talks About (But Every Woman Needs)
By Tiffany McQuaid
I've been in business for over 22 years. I've built a brokerage from the ground up, led teams through market crashes, navigated a male-dominated industry, and somehow still show up every Monday morning ready to go. People ask me all the time what the secret is.
Here it is: it's not the strategy. It's not the degree. It's not even the hustle.
It's INtrepidness.
That's a word I talk about a lot in my book, The INth Degree. INtrepidness is resolute fearlessness. It's the daring ability to keep going when everything in you wants to stop. It's the skill that has accelerated my career more than anything else. And I believe it's the same for most women in leadership.
Here's why. When you're not afraid of failing, you try things. When you try things, you learn things. When you learn things, you grow. That cycle (try, fail, learn, grow) is where real careers are built. But it only starts when you stop waiting for permission or a perfect plan.
Most women I know are brilliant strategists. We analyze, we prepare, we anticipate. That's a gift. But it can also become a trap. We over-think. We wait until we feel ready. We want all the data before we make a move. INtrepidness is what kicks you out of analysis paralysis and into action.
So how do you build it? You do hard things on purpose. You take the speaking engagement you're terrified of. You pitch the client that feels out of reach. You say yes before you're ready, then figure it out. Every time you do something that scares you a little, you're training your brain to trust yourself.
That's leadership development. Not a seminar. Not a certification. Doing the scary thing anyway.
Now, strategic thinking. I hear women say all the time that they need to "get better" at it. I'd push back on that. Most women are already strategic thinkers. What we sometimes lack is the confidence to trust our read on a situation and act on it.
Here's how I've strengthened my own strategic instincts over the years. First, I study outcomes, not just plans. I look at what actually happened and why. Not what should have happened. Not what the expert said would happen. What actually happened. That gap between expectation and reality is where the best strategic lessons live.
Second, I surround myself with people who think differently than I do. I've had a 20-plus year mentorship relationship with Barbara Corcoran. She sees things I don't. That perspective has been worth more to my career than any course I've ever taken.
Third, I ask better questions. Not "what should I do?" but "what's the real problem here?" That shift sounds small. It isn't. The leader who identifies the real problem first almost always wins.
And adaptability. This is the one I feel most passionate about, because I think we confuse it with flexibility. They're different. Being flexible means you bend. Being adaptable means you evolve.
In The INth Degree, I write about what's in your control and what isn't. The market. Other people's behavior. The weather. None of that is yours. What IS yours is your response to it. Adaptable leaders have made peace with that. They don't waste energy fighting the market or the moment. They ask, "Given what's true right now, what's the smartest move?"
The habits that keep me adaptable are simple. I stay curious. I read widely. I talk to people outside my industry. I ask my team what they're seeing that I'm not. And I stay connected to my INth Degree vision: who I am and where I'm going. So when things shift around me, I have something stable to return to.
Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It's about being the kind of person who keeps going when the answers aren't clear. It's about trusting yourself, thinking strategically even under pressure, and adapting without losing who you are.
That's the work. And honestly? It's the best work there is.
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