As soon as I got on the call, I could tell that she wasn’t herself. When we worked together, her creativity and openness to new ideas made her unstoppable. Today she seemed smaller. 2026 has been a good year, and yet she sees storm clouds on the horizon. “Nothing is coming easy this year, and…
The judge had instructed us to reach a verdict before we left for the day, and after several hours of deliberation, we were no closer to a resolution. Passionate voices rose on both sides, but each built a narrative from their own stories about what might have happened. In the courtroom, neither side proved its case, so…
Carl was my client Paul’s right-hand person for years. But during this transition, his behavior was becoming a liability. Nonetheless, Paul defended him out of loyalty. Paul had sold his company to a more corporate entity about a year earlier. The new owners pushed Paul to implement more rigorous processes and controls, and his team…
For the first third of Anchor Advisors’ history, we offered management consulting. We helped founders create the systems and processes that enabled their firms to grow. We worked with over 300 businesses and found 10(ish) problems we solved over and over again. It didn’t take long to develop strong playbooks for solving those problems. I…
“You win some, you lose some.” I really hate that phrase. I hate it because losing feels lousy; I want to succeed, perform, and win. At the same time, if my standard is that I have to always win, if I can never have an off day, or misjudge a situation, or stick my foot…
A few years ago I planted 20 raspberry vines. The person who sold them to me told me not to expect berries the first year. They need to root the first year. Fair enough. The second year I did get some berries. My total yield that year was less than a pint from 20 plants!…
Leaders are always asking me, “Brad, how do I find time to do the really important work? When do I get to think, or look at what’s next? I spend all my time trying to keep the wheels on the bus and the clients happy.” I think of one of my very first clients whenever…
I’ve been having conversations with leaders about how increasing uncertainty is impacting their leadership practices. One conversation with the head of development at a local social services agency stood out as markedly different from the responses I got from for-profit leaders. I heard lots of for-profit leaders talk about shifting toward short-term planning practices: quarterly “rocks”…
During the first four months of this year, I was very focused on a new business playbook to front-load my client creation for 2026. That focus was partly driven by fear. The relative calm of late 2025 felt fleeting – who knows what is right around the corner. I wanted to secure some new work…
In smooth seas, the Captain isn’t on deck. But when there’s a storm or an enemy ship on the horizon, they leap to the bridge and take charge. We don’t need leaders to help us keep things the same. That’s what managers do! Leadership is needed most in the unknown, when the stakes are high…