Some teams are like plants that never take root. We can water them, move them to better soil, even talk to them every day, but nothing grows. The team’s output is low. Accountability is spotty at best. The work gets done, but never in a way that pushes quality or the mission forward. Performance plateaus, […]
Let the Dead Teams Die Read More »
Ask most leaders what’s missing in their team, and you’ll hear the same thing: “People need to be more accountable.” We act like accountability is the cure-all. Deadlines slip? Hold people accountable. Output drops? Hold people accountable. But accountability isn’t the root. More often, the issue is a quiet mismatch between what someone is told
Accountability Isn’t the Problem Read More »
Meetings are the worst, aren’t they? They often feel aimless, provide us with little value, and a different agenda can be found under every rock we turn over. One on ones are no different. It begins as an opportunity for us to connect with our boss, but in the end we leave the meeting with
Your One on Ones Probably Suck Read More »
Look. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record but for the 1,001st time. What the Corps calls leading Marines, others call agility. I talk about it here when I compare discipline to agility. And here where I share the Marine Corps’ method of decentralizing leadership. I even talked about it nearly a
What the Corps Calls Leading Marines Others Call Agility Read More »
I know a three-step way that’ll help you be an effective agile coach or scrum leader anywhere you go and improve your agile teams in the process. In fact, I’m surprised that I’ve never seen anyone offer this up previously, and it’s actually quite simple. The devil is in the details, and navigating the nuance
Perhaps You’re the Problem – Let’s Fix That Read More »
I spent a decade in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence operative and martial arts instructor. It was both some of the most formative and exciting years of my life mixed with excruciatingly long runs, incredibly high expectations, and several harrowing experiences. And it was a blast. After I resigned from the Marine Corps
Mastering the Signal in a World of Noise Read More »
People fixate on goals, and it’s easy to understand why. Many don’t realize there are alternatives to goals. And I’m not talking KPIs or OKRs either. To me, these are still goals, just better dressed. I’m talking something different. Imagine a tapestry of constructs that can be interwoven to better achieve progress. So today let
Goals Are Rarely Enough Read More »
Can we agree that most people are terrible at asking questions? I understand why. Promotions come because we’re quick to solve problems and arrive at answers, not for our skill at staying curious. However, what got us where we are isn’t what will get us to where we want to go next. As a leader,
Asking Better Questions And Why It Matters Read More »
Leaders, let’s talk. Being the first to speak or the person to speak the most does not make you an effective leader. It just makes you an extravert. In fact, there’s a name for this phenomenon, and it’s call the babble hypothesis. People who talk more–regardless of what they say or their intelligence–are more likely
Extraverted Leaders Are Winning Read More »
I spent a decade in the Marine Corps, and there’s a lot of about discipline that most people misunderstand. I’ve come to realize this from the number of clients who have hired me specifically to help them apply discipline to their decisions both personally and professionally First, discipline is never loud, assertive, or attention seeking.
What Is Discipline? Read More »
