Eliminate the noise

‘Eliminate the Noise’—a Steve Jobs expression. ‘Focus on the signal.’ The great people do this repeatedly. They are focused. Yet most of us embrace complexity and quantity as a badge of honor. Being distracted is applauded by many. I work with...

Focus on what you know

We live in a business culture that celebrates the unknown—the next breakthrough, the disruptive technology, the untapped market. Yet while we fixate on what we don’t know, we often overlook the profound power of what we already know. Every successful scaling...

The container or the contents

The debate misses the point entirely. Some people dismiss audiobooks as “not real reading.” They’re wrong about what matters. Reading isn’t about the mechanics—eyes tracking words, fingers turning pages. It’s about absorbing ideas,...

Who coaches the coach

The executive sits across from me, frustrated. Revenue plateaued. Team morale dropped. Market share slipping. “I’ve tried everything,” he insists. Everything except the one thing that matters most: looking in the mirror. We all have blind spots. The...

Leadership theatre always fails

Reed Hastings didn’t become Reed Hastings by copying other media executives. Yet most leaders do exactly that—they grab tactics from admired bosses and stitch them together like a corporate Frankenstein. Consider how Satya Nadella transformed Microsoft. He...