The defining feature of life is continuous, unpredictable change. And most workplace practices for dealing with it today are obsolete. Adapting to the speed, ambiguity and complexity of change requires an ability to comprehend wanted or unwanted disruption as a random possibility rather than an inherent risk. For a leader, that means accepting uncertainty and […]
Read MoreHumans are natural-born liars. Our capacity to believe and tendency to lie are inseparable aspects of how we function as a species. Our inbred instinct to misrepresent reality is as fundamental to survival as camouflage is to insects. Deception isn’t a character flaw; it’s an evolutionary adaptation developed specifically to enable sophisticated forms of manipulation. […]
Read MoreSuccess is largely attributed to traits like intelligence, discipline and tenacity. Science tells us a mindset driven by a desire to explore, question and learn is just as important. Perhaps more so. What would happen in your organization if you could replace complacency and an acceptance of same-old inertia with curiosity at every level? For […]
Read MoreCulture shapes everything an organization does. It’s a powerful gravitational yet often unintelligible force that dictates performance. But efforts to re-engineer it usually fail. Why? Because culture is an enigma rooted in behaviors ignored, intransigent mindsets and assumptions rarely challenged. It’s ingrained in the language and social patterns executives refuse to openly acknowledge and talk […]
Read MoreMost assume competence grows with experience. It actually decays. In physics, “half-life” describes how quickly something loses half its value. Leadership capacity follows the same law – often more ruthlessly than many are willing to admit. What you know, what you trust, and how you make decisions degrade in real time. Given uncertainty, complexity and […]
Read MoreWe have an attention and understanding crisis in the world today. We no longer seek to hear one another out. We prefer to assert, persuade, correct and proposition. Listening is widely praised but less often practiced – particularly in today’s multi-generational, multicultural workplaces. Many assume listening implies agreement or acquiescence. It does not. To listen […]
Read MoreA CEO I’ve worked with for years describes it this way: “I’m immersed in too many operational issues … working harder, longer, faster … yet I don’t feel as effective as I once did.” Another told me: “Everyday I’m asked to make decisions for situations that have never occurred before.” There’s no drama or complaint. […]
Read MoreThis is another signal year for me. Just over 25 years ago, I sold a company and created the brand named after this website. It continues to be dedicated to the mission of proving that leadership is an act of intention and evolution – having the savvy and courage to outgrow one’s limitations and step […]
Read MoreHow we respond to AI depends entirely on our mindset. For many, an instinctive reaction can be one of extreme trepidation or blind enthusiasm. The reality lies somewhere in between. Most leaders understand that AI will reshape how their organizations will do business in the coming years but few are equipped to confidently lead them […]
Read MoreRelatability. Every relationship has its own chemistry or dynamic – as distinctive and defining as the people within it. And like anything that endures, relationships need steady attention and adjustment. The real question is whether there’s a willingness to make those changes. Some comfortably adapt to shifting circumstances, new insights and personal growth. Others can’t, […]
Read MoreConflict is woven into the fabric of our existence. It’s as inherent to our being – who we are – as is the necessity to breathe. Yet, when we disagree with others, we are often engulfed in silence, stifling our thoughts, muffling our beliefs, paralyzed by the fear of disrupting the harmony in the relationship […]
Read MoreLeadership evolves through a series of inflection points, both external and internal. It can become a disheartening and lonely place when major decisions are needed under unprecedented complexity and even greater ambiguity – where new uncertainties, unnerving risks and bottom-line consequences are heightened, and where every crisis seems to involve stakeholders above and below who […]
Read MoreI’ve worked with a lot of high achievers over the years as an executive performance coach. Some were what I’d call positive narcissists – confident, driven and ambitious. Others were wracked with self-doubt and exhibited classic imposter-syndrome tendencies: convinced their own high standards were unattainable and feeling like they should always be doing more. Across […]
Read MoreThe ability to solve problems enriches our lives. Without challenges to tackle, we wouldn’t learn, grow, find happiness or gain wisdom. Yet many fear problems, pretend they don’t exist or dodge them hoping they’ll quietly disappear. Trivial problems sometimes do. As Charlie Brown once told Lucy, “Don’t worry … it’ll just go away.” But the […]
Read MoreWe’re shaped by the emotional experiences of our formative years. Just as migrants are considered “out groups” and face discrimination, so too has each generation when entering the workplace. Because they inevitably disturbed the prevailing culture. Older workers, for example, tend to feel a sense of annoyance or frustration about what they perceive as an […]
Read MoreReputable research says that, between the ages of two and five, children ask about 40,000 “why” questions. As adults, we tend to stop asking those kinds of questions on the assumption we know why. For better or worse, we have a genius for getting comfortable with the way things are, especially when they creep up […]
Read MoreThis seems to be a common discussion topic of late. So I think I’ll chime in. I once assumed people aren’t really “stupid.” Being human, we just happen to do a lot of stupid things. I thought stupidity was a behavior, not a inbred glitch in our mental software. Maybe I was wrong about that. […]
Read MoreWhy do seemingly normal, rational people defend narratives for which there is no discernable evidence? It’s illogical and dumbfounding. It’s also a reality distortion field that describes the complicated and divisive world in which we live. In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries deemed “post-truth” to be the word of the year. It was defined as “denoting circumstances […]
Read MoreWe each have the power to give up counter-productive beliefs, replace ignorance with new-found wisdom, shift our conclusions in light of new evidence, and free ourselves from outdated dogma. The ability to change our minds, adjust our attitudes and update our assumptions is one of our greatest human capabilities. Einstein called it the measure of […]
Read MoreSome necessary qualities in life have no expiry dates – they only get better with age. Confidence and perspective are two of these. They’re intertwined: a lack of confidence breeds a lack of perspective. Together they enable us to become more comfortable with the hard lessons of failure rather than focusing inconsolably on regrets. They […]
Read MoreMemory. As neuroscience continues to unravel the captivating enigma of our memory, my fascination only deepens with age. The challenge or, more accurately, the puzzle of forgetting is a frustrating reminder of just how intricate our memories are. The continuing deluge of research findings intrigues me almost weekly. Our memories do much more than merely […]
Read MoreThe root cause of going from business success to business extinction is a failure to occasionally regroup, reassess, refocus and realign the underlying assumptions, risks and priorities that drive the organization. These enterprise-altering forces occur at a faster rate than ever before and must be identified and adjusted to reflect the dramatic changes in the […]
Read MoreLife is filled with disappointments. Things don’t always turn out as planned and we often get less than we had hoped for. Since all learning is error driven, living a joyful existence is about absorbing and embracing the insights we gain when we fail. And because we fail often, the learning never ends. Achieving perspective […]
Read MoreThe brain is a belief machine; it embraces notions that are untrue, even patently absurd. This includes what we are capable of doing or not doing. To paraphrase Einstein, the world we create for ourselves is a consequence of our internal monologue – it cannot be changed without altering our self-assessment. Our thoughts determine the […]
Read MoreGetting Advice. Who among us hasn’t asked for advice from an expert and then looked for another when we didn’t like the answer we got? Who do you tend to search out when you don’t know what to do? Someone who generally gives you the counsel you want to hear – who confirms the correctness […]
Read MoreAlthough many leaders I’ve known have used this word to describe ineffective employees, I’ve never quite understood the concept. We’d actually be better off if more people spent more time thinking about what they should be doing or how. Yet about two-thirds of adults today claim that overthinking or overanalyzing is a real problem for […]
Read MoreHaving clarity of purpose and leading with it top of mind is crucial to being a smart leader. Knowing who you are, what you can and cannot do, which battles are worth fighting and which ones should be avoided is the sine qua non of leadership. Purpose comes from within – a calling to which […]
Read MoreReading. I’ve conducted anecdotal surveys of the reading habits of about 250 C-suite executives over the course of five years. The primary question posed was this: “what books have you read during the past nine months that have significantly influenced your thinking?” Consistently, year after year, fewer than 20% had read such a book. While […]
Read MoreWe are social animals – we have an innate desire to be connected and aligned with others. In order to cultivate this feeling of belonging, we too often go along to get along, stay silent about what we genuinely believe or lie about our private thoughts. In simple terms, our behavior changes when we’re in […]
Read MoreFoundational technologies that transform the human experience, from the printing press to telephones and computers and everything in between, follow one immutable law – they get better, faster, cheaper and easier to use. Every remarkable tool in our lives came from our unique, deep and endlessly complex capacity for curiosity and invention. And now we […]
Read MoreWhat fascinates me most about the evolution of management theory is how much of what’s old becomes new again under different circumstances. The notion of encouraging employees to feel safe in the workplace, and therefore willing to say what’s on their minds, was discussed by Edgar Schein of MIT almost 70 years ago. He noted […]
Read More