I sat in a meeting when someone asked, “how could you bring next year’s results into this year?” I sat in another meeting and, after sharing two different and conflicting goals, I was asked, “how could we define these approaches so they didn’t conflict?” In yet another meeting I said something about cheap, fast, and …
Sometimes a little question can have a lot of power CONTINUE READING
Pressure and stress are not the same thing. A person can apply constant pressure and still not create any stress. And others can create stressful situations without pressure. Pressure can be productive. Stress rarely is.
Here’s what we know – everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes a failure is our own fault. Sometimes it’s because we were counting on something or someone else. It could be in our control, or not. But one thing is for sure: we all make mistakes. Given that reality, here’s the bigger question: how do you handle …
It’s been a long time since Bill Russell was a Boston Celtic. It’s also been a long time since Pete Rose was a player manager. Maybe because it’s been so long we’ve forgotten that they used to exist. The Player Coach: a role for those who are leaders that also are individual contributors. In business …
If you want great communication among your team, they need to see it modeled, and know what it takes. It starts with these four choices. Choices that will develop great communication habits.
As leaders we will engage and inspire our teams most effectively when we’re both consistent and agile. I recently learned this lesson first hand, from my wife.
There are a ton of great articles about the value and benefit of getting rid of jerks within your organization. One of my favorites is, Why Firing Brilliant Assholes Is Required to Build a Great Engineering Culture. Don’t get me wrong. Jerks aren’t fun. They’re not great. They can ruin teams and cultures. But sometimes …
A couple of weeks ago I had a phone call I was dreading. For as much as I don’t mind navigating thru a conflict, the days before a tough call can easily play tricks in my head. I started thinking of ways it could go sideways. I started worrying about what I might say that …
How do you prepare before challenging phone calls? CONTINUE READING
Sometimes it’s hard to know if leaders should lead from the front, or whether they should lead from the back. While people may recommend different approaches, here’s my simple approach.
The deal finally closed. Today. After months of negotiating, after months of finding middle ground, after months of looking over details, numbers, and contract clauses – the deal was finally wrapped up. Today we announced the acquisition of iThemes – a company run, and partially owned, by my friend Cory Miller. Did I do the …
Here’s why you should buy your friend’s company, if you can CONTINUE READING