Think about a leader you admire. Who stands out to you as someone you’d want to emulate? Take a moment, I’ll wait. Do you have someone in mind? For me, that person is often Martin Luther King, Jr. His courage and moral clarity undeniably changed the course of history. I’m particularly struck by the creativity…
I talk a lot about how to show up as your best self every day. When I’m living as my best self, I’m more patient and a better listener. I’m more open to new ideas and can find more creative solutions. I have more energy and I’m genuinely present with the people I’m with. This state of being, this presence,…
Over the last few weeks, the same conversation keeps coming up with the leaders I coach. They tell me how well their businesses are doing—record first-quarter sales, overflowing demand, and maxed-out teams. They’re even considering hiring more people. Then, without missing a beat, they say, “But I think we might have to lay some folks…
Walking into a meeting, my head is caught in a web of worries – we missed our sales target, I’m disappointed with the lead generation, and several projects are running behind. My irritation flares as the agenda items feel irrelevant to my immediate concerns, and soon, the meeting descends into unproductive conflict. On a different…
You’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it in. As a result, you’re scanning your inbox, firing off decisions, jumping from one meeting to the next. It feels productive, like you’re getting things done. But at the end of the day, you’re spent—and somehow, your inbox has more emails than it did…
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…