Being an Extraordinary Leader
Leaders come in many varieties. Anyone over the age of 25 has already learned that through experience. The awful bosses stay with us in the form of cautionary tales. But the extraordinary leaders don’t just stay in our memories. They change us. When you work for someone like that, you become better than you thought […]
Sometimes It’s Not the Execution
In case of bad results, we blame the execution. My client had what we would certainly call a stretch goal. Actually, more like a Big Very Hairy Super-Audacious Goal, to co-opt Jim Collin’s language. His board had given an ultimatum. Grow the company’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) to $30m, or we will exercise our right […]
If Culture Eats Strategy, What Eats Culture?
Everyone knows the line: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s usually attributed to Peter Drucker, although for the life of me I can’t find any evidence he said it. But Drucker aside, the meaning is what matters. Without the right culture, even magnificent strategies fail. But culture is not the apex predator of strategy. Something […]
The Autonomy Ladder
While there may be oddball, hyper-controlling bosses out there, most of us don’t want to lead an organization full of people who can’t make decision, solve problems, or initiate action. That’s especially true in high-growth start-ups. If employees need non-stop handholding, growth slows. The Self-Generating Team So, ideally, you want a team of people you […]
The Scale-Up Squeeze-Out
There often comes a time in every high-growth start-up when new executive leadership is hired –and sometimes, they replace or displace the stalwart early team members. I’ve heard this phase called “Scale-Up” as distinct from “start-up”. When a start-up begins, it is usually one or two founders, and they work tirelessly to get things going. […]
Less is More in Strategy
Prefer to watch rather than read? Here’s a short 6-minute video. Gardening Sometime early in the pandemic I decided I wanted to have a flower garden. I began planting things. Some of them grew well, some not. Eventually, it became a colorful garden. But soon, my pretty blooms got straggly, and stopped flowering. I was […]
Is It a Fact?
Let’s say you are on your way home from work. It’s a Thursday. You get a text from your boss. It says: “Please see me tomorrow morning.” Before you have finished reading, you will probably have a physical reaction. It may be a sudden surge of adrenaline, a sinking in your stomach or an instant […]
Measurement Madness
There is a well-known saying that “what gets measured gets managed”. Depending on your source, it was first said by either physicist Lord kelvin, or Peter Drucker. It’s generally true. After all, if you plan to run a marathon, you start by finding out what distance you can run right now. That’s the starting point. […]
Binary Bias — Video Preview
It’s natural. Humans see the world in binary terms. Good/Evil, Dark/Light, Right/Left. We are simply hard-wired that way. That tendency served us as well in caveman days, when we needed to make snap decisions about whether to fight or flee a saber-toothed tiger. But today in our lives and in our work, it may be […]
Pandemic Pivot
In the middle of an economic catastrophe, you and your business are facing challenges and obstacles you never expected. To be honest, while I am incredibly sad and pained by the suffering happening right now there is also a perpetual current of excitement pulsing through me. That excitement is for the unleashed innovation and creativity […]