Are you having fun yet?

Life is finite. You already knew that. What you might be avoiding is the second part: misaligned, unappreciated, and stagnant is a choice. Not always a conscious one. But a choice. The research is unambiguous. Gallup’s decades of workforce data show that engaged...

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...

Who declared victory?

Imagine a sport with no scoreboard. No defined winner. No agreement on what the game even is. We’d call that chaos. We’d never watch it. We’d certainly never play hard for it. Yet we build organizations exactly this way. We set vague goals and call...

Almost is not enough

We celebrate participation. We reward effort. We count the hours. But the scoreboard doesn’t care how long we sat at the desk. In sport, we recognize almost immediately. The double fault. The goal was scored in the wrong net. The finalist who never got off the...

The cost of nothing

Kindness is free. That is not entirely true, of course. It costs something. A second. A glance. The decision to notice another human being. The barista who handed you that coffee this morning. She has been on her feet since 5 am. The doorman who held the door. He is...