When problems become patterns

You missed the quarterly target by 3%. The new hire quit after two weeks, and a key client complained about response time. Each feels like an isolated incident. Something to fix and move on from. But step back. Look at the pattern. The missed target follows three...

Ego blinds everyone

The most powerful and richest people on the planet are locked in a very public struggle. But this isn’t about policy or progress. It’s about ego. Ryan Holiday nailed it in “Ego is the Enemy.” He wrote, “The ego we see most commonly goes...

Stir sleeping dogs

In business, underperforming products or segments are referred to as the dogs in the portfolio. Too often, companies merely let them lie. Yet the issue is that in time this creates a culture that will inevitably impact all other segments. If one dog is sleeping, why...

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...

The curve that wins

Change breaks people before it makes them. The Kübler-Ross Change Curve shows us exactly how this breaking happens: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Most leaders pretend this emotional chaos doesn’t exist. They announce a change and...