When you have a diverse team of people with different skills and abilities who are all accomplished in their chosen fields, they will likely see the world differently. (This is a feature, not a bug!) Imagine asking your sales leader, head of production, and controller to review your company’s financial statements. Will they agree on…
I was recently a guest on Kimberly Seldon’s “Business of Design” podcast, and she hit me with a zinger right off the top. What one thing are people doing that is really ruining their chances of succession? Immediately, I said, “ Staying involved in the client’s work.” The more time you spend on client work, the…
At the beginning of this year, I decided to stop complaining. I noticed that I tended to complain about things I didn’t feel I had the agency to do anything about. Whether it was the daily news, long-standing intractable habits of my family members, or business dilemmas that didn’t go how I wanted them to,…
When I was given the chance to lead in a corporate setting, I (quite naturally) copied the leadership models I saw around me. Some leaders delivered results with a lot of top-down “command and control” behavior. Others would try to serve their team by being the hero, swooping in to save the day whenever there…
A group of agency owners recently told me their most significant obstacle to having more “best days” was simply too many meetings. They felt overwhelmed, with no time to process one conversation before diving into the next. While scheduling adjustments can help, the real solution lies in fundamentally shifting how you are being in those…
“All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” — Charlie Munger Last week, I talked about who I was on my best days and how different that person was from me on my worst days. I want to be that best-day-Brad more often! So I looked again at…
I have my good days and my bad days. I’m sure you do, too. Both of those people are me. Both use my talents and abilities in the best way they can see to use them in that moment. One creates empowered, aligned leaders, and the other creates resentment, fear, and chaos. Having more “good…
A farmer plants a bamboo seed in the ground. He waters it every day for the first year, but nothing seems to happen. The same happens in the second, third, and fourth years—nothing visible grows above ground. However, the bamboo is developing a strong root system beneath the surface. Finally, in the fifth year, the…
Starting something is so exciting. Like the new office supplies on the first day of school, the joy of a new birth, or a wedding day. There’s nothing like the hope and anticipation of starting something new. Likewise, there’s a satisfaction in an ending. A completed project, graduation; even the end of a life enables…
Our CEO led an all-hands meeting of a company we had just acquired. In that meeting, he did two things. As the new leader of this team, I wasn’t sure how to follow his story! I obviously couldn’t strike a grave, “I’m the new sheriff in town” tone. Nor did I have a ready madcap…