Discover how Role Model Leadership offers actionable, battle-tested leadership tools that anyone can use to become an exceptional leader.
Simple Tools for Better Leadership
In today’s workplace, managers often face challenges that leadership books and training programs don’t fully address. How do you diagnose why a high-performing team suddenly loses momentum? How can you handle difficult conversations without damaging relationships? How can you help team members think bigger about their impact?
These everyday leadership struggles motivated Graham Hall and Kate Burklow, two Learning & Development (L&D) leaders at Amazon, to spend their spare time to create practical frameworks drawn from their combined experience in military and corporate environments.
“We kept seeing the same patterns,” explains Hall, who spent 19 years in the military, including serving as Training Director at the Royal Naval Leadership Academy before joining Amazon. “Leaders would face a situation, react based on instinct or mimicry rather than reflection, and often make things worse despite good intentions.”
Burklow, who built Amazon Grocery’s first leadership academy and now serves as Senior Program Manager for Grocery L&D, recognized similar patterns. “There was a clear gap between leadership theory and daily practice. We wanted to create simple tools that could help leaders pause, reflect, and make better choices in the moment.”
Drawing from their experience, Hall and Burklow started developing frameworks that addressed common leadership challenges they encountered at Amazon. Their first model, The Motivation Cube, offers a structured way to understand team disengagement.
The Motivation Cube: Diagnosing Team Disengagement
The Motivation Cube helps leaders examine motivation through three key dimensions: Purpose, Autonomy, and Mastery. When a leader notices their team’s energy dropping, they can use the Cube to systematically check each dimension:
- Purpose: Are team members clear on why their work matters?
- Autonomy: Do they have the independence they need to work effectively?
- Mastery: Are they growing and developing their skills?
“The power of the Cube isn’t in its complexity, it’s in its simplicity,” Hall notes. “In about ten minutes, you can identify specific motivational gaps and develop targeted solutions. It turns a vague sense that something’s wrong into concrete actions you can take.”
The Motivation Cube is one of ten models Hall and Burklow have developed and tested at Amazon. Other frameworks they’ve created include:
- Caring Walrus: Guidelines for holding difficult conversations while preserving trust.
- Think Bigger: A structure for expanding the scope and impact of initiatives.
- Omni-Leadership: An approach to finding leadership opportunities in everyday interactions.
- Critical Thinking: A framework for making decisions under pressure.
- Powerbases: Understanding different types of influence and how to use them responsibly.
- Self-Awareness: Tools for recognizing how your actions affect others.
Each of these models distills specific insights from Hall and Burklow’s hands-on leadership experience. For instance, Caring Walrus emerged from observing hundreds of difficult conversations and identifying patterns that either built or eroded trust. Think Bigger originated from coaching sessions where leaders needed help expanding their perspective beyond immediate problems.
Practical Tools, Not Revolutionary Theories
“These aren’t revolutionary new theories,” Burklow emphasizes. “They’re practical tools that help leaders apply existing leadership principles more effectively. We’ve found them useful, and we think others might too.”
To share their knowledge, Hall and Burklow made their core models available on RoleModelLeadership.com, where they are accessible for free. There are no paywalls or required purchases, just a simple request to credit the source when using the models.
“Right now, we’re focused on sharing these core tools widely,” Hall explains. “We created them to help our colleagues, and we believe they can help others facing similar challenges.”
A Straightforward, Practical Approach
The website reflects this no-nonsense approach. Each model is presented with clear explanations and real-world examples, focusing on practical application rather than theoretical background. Leaders can quickly understand a framework and start applying it in their next meeting or conversation.
Expanding the Toolkit
Hall and Burklow plan to expand their offerings in the coming months, developing additional supporting materials and resources to help leaders implement the models more effectively. While the core models will remain free, some future resources may be offered as premium content.
For leaders interested in trying these tools, Hall and Burklow suggest starting with The Motivation Cube. “Pick a team situation where something feels off,” Burklow recommends. “Spend ten minutes working through the dimensions. Even if you don’t solve everything, you’ll likely gain useful insights about what’s really happening.”
Other models can be adopted as specific needs arise, Caring Walrus for an upcoming difficult conversation, Think Bigger when a team needs to expand its impact, and Omni-Leadership when developing new managers.
Looking Ahead
As Hall and Burklow continue refining their models based on feedback and new experiences, they maintain their day jobs at Amazon. In their spare time, they share insights through RoleModelLeadership.com, always striving to make leadership development more accessible and actionable.
“Leadership development doesn’t have to be complicated,” Hall reflects. “Sometimes you just need a simple framework to help you step back, think clearly, and make better choices. That’s what we’re trying to offer.”
For leaders looking to improve their leadership practices, RoleModelLeadership.com offers free access to all the core models and supporting materials. The website emphasizes practical application over theory, helping leaders tackle real challenges with tested, straightforward approaches.
Through their work, Hall and Burklow hope to help others benefit from their experience while encouraging leaders to reflect on and improve their own leadership practices. It’s a simple mission, but one they believe can make a meaningful difference in how people lead and work together.
