My last message, “The Displaced CEO,” elicited a strong reaction. Many of you replied to that email, telling me how attracted you are to the tactical, short-term priorities and how difficult it is to stay in the Architect’s seat. One CEO was even more pointed. She said, “I want to sit in the heavy silence of…
In most organizations, attention aligns in layers. Frontline staff solve today’s problems. Managers handle the month. Directors own the year. But there is only one role in the company designed to look over the horizon. To identify where the market is going and how we will win there. That is the role of the Architect….
When I was a young leader, our company followed a rhythm you could set your watch by. We would hold a strategic planning meeting in the spring to review our core purpose and values, progress on our BHAG, and update the five-year plan. Over the summer, we turned that plan into a budget that we’d…
I was heads down developing workshop content for a client’s team meeting. I had the outline open, the cursor was blinking, and I was stuck. I knew what I wanted to do, but the structure wasn’t coming together. The longer I stared at it, the more my mind started to wander, and before I knew…
After a 5-hour flight, we were finally taxiing into the gate. There was a lot of excitement around me. I was headed to LA for training, but a large group of people nearby was headed to Hawaii. They had a tight connection to make the flight to their dream vacation, and they were gathering their…
I spent two hours the other morning struggling to write a single email. I made two different starts. Neither of them felt right. As the deadline for sending it loomed, my frustration and anger rose, further clouding my thinking. My natural instinct in those moments is to bear down. To push harder, forcing the words…
When I was about 11, my parents took my sister and me skiing for the first time. They weren’t skiers, but they wanted us to have the experience. We spent a day in lessons, and by the next afternoon, we were practicing turns on the bunny slope. Right at the bottom of that slope stood…
I’m trying a new experiment that I want to share with you. If you’ve been following along for a while, you know I’ve experienced considerable financial anxiety throughout my entrepreneurial journey. While I’ve made a lot of progress toward equanimity, I still worry about money more than I’d like. A few years ago, I simplified things. I moved…
January’s bleak. It’s cold outside. My news feed is depressing. There are no real holidays until Easter, and no days off until Memorial Day. It makes me want to hibernate. But I have some big goals that I want to accomplish this year. I’m creating, growing, and refining my business. I have a kid who…
I am guessing you have some big plans for 2026. You may be aiming to grow your business, launch a new service, or finally land that next-level role. I have been there. In the past, when I wanted to reach a big milestone, I would set aggressive goals—deadlines, targets, the whole bit. And when I…