Hi Reader, Last week I was speaking at a conference, unpacking the characteristics of high-performing leadership teams. When I got to the characteristic of “highly disciplined operating rhythms,” I asked the group to raise their hand if they were not satisfied with the quality of their meetings. Ninety-five out of one hundred hands shot up. I think the other five were daydreaming. And this is almost always the case, isn’t it? Most leaders are unsatisfied with the effectiveness of the meetings...
9 days ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader, The number one driver of organizational health is the strength of your leadership team. When that team is cohesive and committed to supporting each other and carrying the weight of leadership together, it makes it much more likely that all the other teams in the organization will end up mirroring their performance. But the opposite is also true. When they are dysfunctional, disconnected and not realizing their potential, the effects ripple everywhere. If the leadership team matters...
16 days ago • 6 min read
Hi Reader, What would you trade for more meaningful work? A 2018 Harvard Business Review study found that 9 out of 10 people would trade over 20% of their lifetime earnings for greater sense of meaning at work. Why would people be willing to make that trade? As one CEO we work with closely put it, “it’s the difference between a job and a career.” A job is something you endure to get through the week; a career is something that fuels you and grows you. When meaning is absent, people go home...
23 days ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader, If you were asked to think of the leader who had the most positive influence in your life, and then asked to name the top three words that come to mind when you think of them, what would you say? Gallup asked this very question to over 70,000 people around the world. And one word stood out clearly above the rest: Hope. You might have guessed Trust, a concept often connected to psychological safety, strong culture, and high-performing teams. But in Gallup’s study, Hope was mentioned...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
Hi Reader, When it comes to building a learning organization committed to continuous improvement, there may be nothing more essential than creating a culture of feedback. Think back to a significant moment of growth in your own leadership journey. Odds are, feedback played a role. Maybe someone gave you a nudge that helped you see what was possible. Maybe they pointed out a blind spot that helped you improve. Maybe they simply saw potential you didn’t yet fully see in yourself yet. That...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, When it comes to teamwork, we often invest the most thought and energy into the least frequent forms of collaboration. We obsess over meeting agendas, offsite facilitation, and optimizing our Zoom calls. But the truth is, those moments represent a small fraction of our total collaboration time. The bulk of our work happens asynchronously in Slack threads, project docs, Loom videos, and email chains. It’s ever flowing and often very, very messy. And yet, in many organizations, it’s...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, researchers profiled what they call “super facilitators” - leaders who’ve stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room and instead create the conditions for their teams to think, decide, and execute together. Rather than dominating the room, they guide it. They slow down to make space for many voices. They actively shape team conversations so that decisions and accountability aren’t just flowing from the top, they’re being...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Hi Reader, Years ago, I worked with a CEO who loved to celebrate people throughout our organization. One day he highlighted Dave, a facilities team member, during a leadership meeting. He invited him into the meeting and then began to gush over him as he stood next to Dave. “Did you know Dave got the entire cafeteria primed and painted in half the time it took the last contractor? I’ve been a school administrator for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anyone as productive. In fact, he’s not Dave....
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, We once worked with a CEO who had personally managed the finances of his business for more than 30 years. Everything ran through him, and no one else in the company understood the financial model. When we finally convinced him to share the financials with his leadership team for the first time, something remarkable happened. In that very first meeting, one of the leaders spotted an opportunity in a revenue stream she hadn’t realized was so significant. She adjusted her priorities...
2 months ago • 3 min read