Give it the right name

Have you ever noticed that jazz radio DJs all seem to have these low, unhurried, silky voices? And yet flip over to a news channel and everyone sounds breathless and self-important. Nobody trained them to sound that way. The role called to them. They were already that...

Manage the emotions

We confuse capability with capacity. When someone misses the mark, we move quickly to judgment. They are not skilled enough. Not driven enough. Not smart enough. The verdict arrives before the investigation. What we rarely stop to ask is whether the person in front of...

Two seconds

We confuse transmission for communication. We send the message and assume the work is done. The update was shared. The direction was given. The meeting happened. We move on. But something is missing. The gap between sending and receiving is where most organizations...

The one who annoys you

I’ve been in rooms with brilliant leaders who hadn’t been challenged in years. You can feel it. A certain settled quality to their thinking. Confident in ways that have nothing to do with evidence. Surrounded by people who have learned, often through hard...

Wow or why bother

Nobody forgets the package wrapped with care. Nobody forgets the report that stopped them mid-sentence. Nobody forgets the dinner that became a story they still tell. The wow factor isn’t expensive. It’s intentional. It’s the two extra minutes spent...

The floor has moved

We have a habit of treating disruption like weather. We notice it, complain about it, and wait for it to pass. It doesn’t pass. When the internet arrived, we watched senior leaders wear their email ignorance like a badge of seniority. The corner office...