Twice in the same day last week, clients told me that they felt they needed to “get out of the weeds” and “focus on more strategic issues.” So, what stops them? We have all heard the justifications: • “I need to make sure that what we deliver is right.” • “I know this material so […]
Intent vs. Impact: A Leader’s Most Common Way to Stumble
Alana was a brilliant scientist with a history of developing big data techniques and leading successful academic research teams. A global pharmaceutical firm recruited her as they were developing products based on data, information and insights regarding pharmaceutical usage. She was an ideal candidate to push the business through a difficult and urgent product development […]
Up and Out, In and Down: Leading at Multiple Levels
Rick’s Experience One of my clients named Rick was brought into a finance organization that for all intents and purposes was broken. The company had grown rapidly through both acquisition and organic growth, and his predecessor had paid attention primarily to internal workings and processes. As a result, no one in the broader organization was […]
Why We Prefer Nasty Bosses to Be Horrible All the Time
Lucy Kellaway (http://podcast.ft.com/s/listen-to-lucy/, “Why we prefer nasty bosses to be horrible all the time”) has a great little talk about an interesting finding – apparently, people are less unhappy with a boss who is consistently irritable than one who is unpredictable. Now, you coaches out there, don’t get the idea that we should encourage our […]