Photo by Anh Henry Nguyen on UnsplashI was talking with a client recently—a newly promoted senior executive who’d just inherited 20 direct reports and a double digit million dollar budget challenge. “I’m trying to get the signal through the noise – there’s so much inbound right now coming from both directions.” Sound familiar?Most of us have been there. The
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The 3-Minute Rule, Confident Uncertainty and Looking Inside
You may think that head-of-the-table communication is primarily about being polished, eloquent, and having all the answers when you speak in high-level meetings.But really, executive communication is less about performance and perfect delivery and more about creating clarity and impact through connection, authentic presence, and engagement.If you focus on a few key principles like decision-first communication, confident uncertainty, and reading…
New Role? Your 90-Day Plan is The Easy Part – The Real Work is Figuring Out How You Want to Show Up
Photo by explorenation # on UnsplashI’m not a career coach but I have been fortunate to support c-level executives in doing this kind of work and then either reinventing themselves in their current roles, landing new incredible “first and second mountain” jobs, or avoiding what would have been some very unfortunate choices. Recently, a couple of clients and I…
Why Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them
Photo by Igor Omilaev on UnsplashI was catching up with a client of mine – COO at a hot growth-stage company. He was telling me about his crazy-busy life and the headaches that come with his digital workplace. Sound familiar? With several big companies suddenly calling everyone back to the office, he’s feeling pretty torn about what to do next.…
Increase Buy In, Empowerment and Efficiency with Two Sticky Notes
Photo by Amanda Jones on UnsplashI love using strategically placed sticky notes to help me keep useful concepts top of mind. One of my favorite acronyms is “W.A.I.T.” or “Why Am I Talking?” Whether it’s in conversation with my clients, my wife, or my kids, this mantra reminds me to take a humble moment to check in with myself to…
Two Ways to Find Your Dream Job or Hire Your Next Rock Star
Photo by Iván Díaz on UnsplashAn executive joins Company A where he’s excited to leverage his experience to make a huge impact at an important inflection point in the company’s trajectory and his own career. Meanwhile, the CEO at Company B seeks to up level her team by hiring an executive with perfect experience relative to the current and future…
Daily Rituals
Photo by Medienstürmer on UnsplashThe practice of daily rituals has been coming up a lot lately. My clients are either looking to implement them or, at a minimum, recognizing that something’s missing from their routines. Between all the productivity, longevity and beauty experts on social media, there are so many things I’m being told will lead to transformation of one…
One Smart Greek Leadership Proverb
Photo by David Clode on UnsplashFor obvious reasons, back when I was in the restaurant business, the proverb “the fish stinks from the head” was an effective leadership development metaphor chefs could relate to. Seems it’s likely to have come from the 1st century Greek philosopher Plutarch who wrote “the responsibility belongs to the rulers, and the fault is…
The Trouble with Growth Capital
Photo by Mathieu Stern on UnsplashAn entrepreneur gets the itch, writes a business plan, finds seed capital and becomes a founder. She launches the business. People love it. The business grows. She expands the team. The team needs things. The founder has no more friendly doors to knock upon. She goes into a huge and uncomfortable learning curve to…
Five Dangers of Tacit Approval
Photo by vonvix on UnsplashMy partners and I had a rule that we did our best to live by; “the first one to recognize insanity has a duty to stop it”. This might have meant pressing pause on an argument that wasn’t heading anywhere productive or tapping out the other when one of us was too [insert adjective] to…