“I’m working on the mustard on my chin. It used to be way worse.” I helped a CEO (let’s call her Jane) of a financial services company identify her over-responsible tendencies and how she caused herself overwhelm. She was spread incredibly thin and wasn’t making time for what was most important. I discovered she had…
There are scores of strategies to manage yourself, and I want to talk about the one most often forgotten: self-love. Anyone who has raised children knows that love doesn’t mean giving a person whatever they want. Self-love is no exception. One of the reasons I don’t like the term self-discipline is because it connotes forcing…
As 2018 comes to a close, it is apropos for us to take a look back and see how far we’ve come. This is a great time of year to reflect on growth and lessons learned. It’s also good to look deep and see the areas where we still need work. For me, 2018 meant…
I’ve had a number of conversations with my clients recently that sound kind of like this: Me: So how are your development meetings with your employees going? Client: Um, yeah, I’m kinda not doing those. Me: Okay, why not? Client: Well, I just don’t feel like I know how to do it yet. Me: What’s…
You’ve probably heard of Fight/Flight/Freeze—the catchier nicknames used to describe the Acute Stress Response. Today I want to share with you a story about a fourth response that I see happening in business settings: Appease. It deserves special attention, especially as it relates to employee engagement. Appease is the most subtle and dangerous stress response…
Welcome to my new look. I hope you like it. Clear and Open is leveling up! And it wouldn’t have happened without some significant failures. That’s what this week’s article is about. Guilty confession time: during my first year of college I was heavily addicted to role-playing games. There were some days where I played…
Here’s a fun story about my own stubborn naiveté, the infamous TSA, and what it means to take ownership of responsibilities. It also helps you save a bunch of time the next time you fly, and since the TSA is too incompetent to communicate their policies proactively, I’m offering my services to them here by…
What is your company’s most important asset? Your people? Your brand? Your intellectual property? What if it’s none of these things? What if the most important assert were your culture’s relationship to truth? By this I mean, generally speaking, how honest people are with themselves and others. Honesty is a quality that people tend to…
Right now, somewhere in you, you are suffering. And part of that pain is inevitably a resistance to change. Here, I’m going to tell you the most-resisted change that keeps leaders and managers from success. Your relationship to change and the way your people relate to change is the most important asset you have. It…
First, a crazy thing happened to me after I wrote this. I hope you’ll read to the end where I can tell you. Every day, we’re faced with doing the right thing vs. the easy thing, and it’s easy to see that all the problems in our world can be reduced to when people do…