I grew up in a baseball family. My brother played, my father coached, and my mother was the team scorekeeper. My mom loved being the scorekeeper because it kept her away from the stands where all of the parents were second guessing the coach (her husband) and critiquing his communication style. You see, my dad was loud. His directions and feedback were loud and clear not only on our field, but 2-3 fields away. One player’s mom asked my mom how she tolerated my father yelling at the kids all the time. She laughed and said she ignores most of … Read More
Your Superstar Resigned. Now What?
Every team has a Lebron James, Kevin Durant, or Dwayne Wade. That one team member who not only brings in the most results, but also keeps everyone motivated and serves as the face of the team. We consider these A-players corporate royalty and do what we can to reward them for their high level of achievement. But, even when you’ve given your MVP everything they’ve asked for, sometimes they still leave. Whether it’s Lebron James leaving the Miami Heat after 3 consecutive NBA finals appearances and two championships, or Kevin Durant who could do nothing wrong in the eyes of … Read More
Don’t Be the Smartest Person in the Room
There’s a commercial for Experian that caught my attention recently. It begins with, “Everything you’re pretty good at now, you were once…well….pretty bad at.” I had an immediate emotional reaction to that message. That one sentence can transport you back to those early days in your career when you thought you knew everything, but had experienced virtually nothing. You stumbled. You fell. And then you got back up and learned from those embarrassing mistakes we like to call “learning opportunities.” On one hand, you may feel embarrassed thinking back to those cringe-worthy learning experiences, but on the other hand, look … Read More
Leading Through the Dark Days
“The first rule of leadership: Everything is your fault.” – A Bug’s Life Do you remember when you were an individual contributor or “high potential” early in your career and you used to say “If I was the leader, I’d…” and you’d finish that sentence with a simple solution to the organization’s problems? Those were the days. It reminds me of the expert advice offered to parents by people without children. I often say “I was so much better at parenting until I had children.” The same is often true of leadership. It all seems so easy from the outside. … Read More
The “What Do You Want for Dinner” Moment in Leadership
“What do you want for dinner?” “I don’t know. What do you want?” “I don’t know. Whatever you want.” In households across America, this is a daily conversation. Most days, what I want more than dinner itself is just to not have to make a decision about what to have for dinner. By the end of the day, we’ve been presented with thousands of decision points that literally push us to the point of exhaustion. Research shows that as the day progresses we make worse and worse decisions, or we hit a wall and venture into complete decision avoidance. In … Read More
Managing the Crazy Ones
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who … Read More