Blog

Usefulness is the Key to Where Work Happens

By |2024-02-04T16:11:53+00:00February 4th, 2024|Featured Articles, Leadership|

My latest for Medium looks the limits of power in getting people to return to the office. The alternative: a focus on making the best, highest use of everyone's time--and that includes when and where they are together. "Forcing employees back to the office is likely to depress engagement. For some, it decreases productivity. It encourages passive resistance and quiet quitting. Or active resistance and actual quitting. Think instead of pursuing usefulness. If you make time in the office ...

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Best Books of 2023 — My Take

By |2023-12-20T01:23:17+00:00December 20th, 2023|Featured Articles, Uncategorized|

It was an honor to be asked by Shepherd Books to name the three books that I read in 2023. It was tough as I'm constantly reading. I wanted to give a varied selection, and here they are. What books resonated with you over the past year? The Covenant of Water is so brilliantly written. The Four Factors of Trust presents a useful framework backed by significant data. The Babysitter is a gripping thriller. Whatever your tastes, there's one ...

  • Dominoes being stopped from falling by an extended hand.

Three Essential (and Overlooked) Skills for Crisis Leaders

By |2023-08-24T01:23:45+00:00August 24th, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership|

BOOM! It’s the moment when everything goes sideways. The crash. The shot. The lawsuit. The technical meltdown. In that instant, time blurs. Pressure spikes. Vision narrows. The crisis is real. Based on my years of researching and working with crisis leaders, here are three underappreciated things that the best get right and the worst, well, you get it. First, is breathe to center and calm yourself. Second, don't get sucked in. Step back to get perspective. And third, create ...

The Courage for Bottom-up Change

By |2023-06-21T01:09:18+00:00June 21st, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership, Writing|

For as long as I can remember, organizational change has been cast as something that cascades from the visionary CEO to the reluctant frontline. Many of the big changes we've seen in recent years, however, have surged up from below. From #metoo to the "great reassessment" to the demands for DEI, the energy fueling change has come from workers in the trenches, not executives ensconced in the boardroom. "Leading here requires speaking — and hearing — truth to power. ...