As someone who coaches, advises and speaks to leaders for a living, I do my best to arm them with insights and strategies to handle our volatile, uncertain, and always-on world. Now, with leadership conferences and workshops cancelled due to the global pandemic, it’s time for me to demonstrate that I practice what I preach. [...]
Last week while having dinner with a group of friends, our discussion turned to work. What came next was an interesting conversation about why anyone today would even want to be a leader. One friend shared that she was utterly exhausted by the endless cycle of new demands and the constant flood of in-box messages. [...]
I recently listened to a Harvard Business Review podcast called “The Anxious Achievers.” (Wow, there’s a phrase I can relate to!) Besides loving the title of that program, I have been drawn to the idea that we need to change the way we think about managing our stress and anxiety. Steve Cuss, author of “Managing [...]
We leaders are, by definition, doers. We finish. We deliver. We get results. And we love the feeling of accomplishment that comes with crossing things off our “to-do” lists. The tougher the task, the better we like it. We revel in being the person others come to with impossible tasks, and we somehow make them [...]
Avid gardeners know from experience that accelerating the growth of a tree…requires pruning it. To make it grow bigger, you have to cut it back. That counterintuitive principle also applies to professionals. If we want remarkable business growth, we need the courage to prune things back, our schedules, our projects, and our commitments. We must [...]
We can all look back on the choices we made as leaders and think of plenty of things we'd do differently. Hindsight is 20/20, right? That's especially true for me as a leadership speaker, reflecting on my time as an operations executive a decade ago. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm proud of what [...]
Today, technology has seeped into every crevice of our organizations, from manufacturing, operations, marketing, and beyond. That explains why technical professionals play such an essential role in their companies’ success. While some tech experts prefer to continue as strong individual contributors or follow the domain expertise path, others will be recognized for their outstanding value [...]
Many companies today are worried they don't have the right leadership to succeed in the digital and disruptive age. Maybe they've got it all wrong. What if they actually have the right leaders—but they’re being held hostage by the same old expectations, metrics, and rewards? Here’s the problem. The very nature of business is continually [...]
I don’t typically write or comment on issues of diversity and inclusion. But an often-overlooked aspect of the topic — cognitive diversity — is starting to come into the spotlight, and I have some insights on it because of the focus of my work. In my experience, I've seen that companies produce the best results and [...]
Just because you have a management title doesn’t automatically mean you’re a great leader. But making that sometimes-subtle shift is essential for the success of your career and your organization. There’s a lot at stake. So what’s the real difference between management and leadership? Effective managers are task-focused and might be described as dependable and [...]
