A lot of early-stage startups that I meet want to talk about their exit strategy. They spend a lot of time figuring out how to build a company that they can sell for a good price. If exit is your goal (and remember it may not be the only way ...
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Yesterday morning, I saw Sally Helgesen talk about her new book, "How Women Rise". I went with 2 ladies I work with who I thought might find it interesting. For me, I was hoping to better understand some challenges that many women face in rising to senior leadership roles, so ...
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It can be sadder than it is aspirational. I see many families, including mine at times, and especially those with kids, stressing over everything. And joy disappears as everything else becomes the priority. Many companies do the same. Everything's important. Everything's a priority. I recall sitting in board meetings where ...
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I remember the first time I had to deal with a team member who wasn't meeting the needs of his role. We'd gone through the support, the training, trying to find another role. But ultimately none of that worked. So I took the next step. Which was to sit on ...
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I had a tough decision to make, and I sought the advice of a senior member of my team. He told me what he thought. As he was more knowledgeable in that space than I was (or ever will be TBH), I went with his advice. It didn't work out ...
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“Good leaders don’t hide their emotions. Be vulnerable. Be authentic.” Simplistic tosh that continues to do the rounds in the industry that is training the next generation of leaders, and undermining their ability to lead effectively. The challenge is that there is a lot of nuance to this that is ...
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“Out of office” is an interesting game that too many of us play. We set up the autoresponse religiously when we go on holiday, then still surreptitiously check our inbox while we’re away. Before we know it, we get sucked into the inbox and suddenly we’ve lost hours. For some, ...
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In our drive for structure, we should always remember that structure is there to support an outcome, and is not an end goal in its own right. Leaders and consultants alike are guilty of creating frameworks and matrices. McKinsey’s famous MECE (mutually exclusive, completely exhaustive) is a wonderful triumph of ...
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