Leading a team is one of the awesome roles in the management journey. All the oars pulling together. Each one doing their part to achieve a common goal.

Yeah, that looks good on paper.

And it has its moments.

But any time people are involved, it can get clunky. And funky. At any time. When you least expect it.

Intellectually, you understand the value of diverse skills and perspectives.

But wouldn’t it be easier if everyone was more like you?

Not really. Diversity is important. Maybe critical. But managing diversity is the leader’s role.

While skills and backgrounds may be…

Much of your success will be based on sustained effort over a long period of time.

You’re checking that box. Daily. Hourly.

Grinding.

But getting from here to there, aren’t there some accelerators?

If you think of short-cuts, it sounds like you’re trying to skip some steps. Maybe those steps are necessary.

But you’d like to speed up your development. You want to get an edge.

To avoid delays.

To make decisions faster.

To get more traction.

I’ve found a process that helps you accelerate results and also prevents you from making some colossal mistakes.

It will have a profound…

For most of us, our daily exchanges with casual acquaintances and strangers are pretty lame.

You know: “How are you?” “Fine.” “ Glad to hear it.” End of conversation.

Perfunctory. The words just come out.

Sometimes, we don’t want to be rude, but we try to avoid the conversation altogether. After all, it could be a colossal waste of your time. Or the person might be one of “those” people, who will tell total strangers about what hurts, what’s swollen, or what itches.

Most of the time, our conversations with our employees aren’t much better.

“How was your weekend?”

“OK…

Sometimes you feel like life is pulling you in opposite directions.

You understand the importance of hard work and grinding every day…but you want to be making progress and don’t want to waste time and energy.

You understand the need to prioritize every day, but do you focus on the short term or the long term?

You feel you have a sense of urgency, but it isn’t always displayed by the members of your team. At best, it is uneven. You want to ensure that the energy and urgency remain at a high level, but you can only bang on…

You’re trying to be as effective as possible each day.

Likewise, you try to organize your time and your priorities to maximize productivity.

But important tasks keep surfacing.

People keep tugging at you for your time and attention.

What is the overriding driver for you each day?

What is the major filter you use to identify your priorities?

You need to keep goals in mind — your personal goals, your team goals, and those of the organization.

You can stay busy all day — every day — focused on what other people think your priorities should be.

Identifying the highest…

Effective communication comes in different forms, at different times, for different audiences.

Sometimes you want to influence or motivate…and the words escape you.

You want to create a sense of urgency, but your team members seem comfortable with a slower pace.

Hmmm.

You want to convey the benefits of hard work and persistence, but you know that society is reinforcing immediate gratification and the idea that a viral message can change your life overnight. Too many people listen to that siren’s song. Too few people seem to want to grind.

Grrr.

Sometimes the timely comment or speech is effective. Infographics…

Self-awareness is key to successful leadership. Strengths and weaknesses. How you are experienced by others.

How about what drives you? What is it that gets you out of bed every day to hustle?

You’ve seen people who get up late and immediately begin their days with dawdle and distraction. They go through the motions. They’re zombies.

But that’s not you. You have drive. A sense of urgency. Purpose.

Two business leaders bring different perspectives on how you should approach your work. You can learn from both.

Andy Grove was the CEO of Intel from 1987 to 1998. He refused to…

There are certain things you know for certain.

Like stress is unhealthy. You should do everything you can to eliminate it. You’ll live longer.

Since you’re probably like me and haven’t achieved a Zen-like alternative state and eradicated all forms of stress from your daily existence, it keeps showing up.

Sometimes you can’t help yourself. 🤨

But is it always harmful?

What if you could control it? Maybe channel it?

The stress response is normal. Don’t beat yourself up. Your heart beats faster. Your breath gets short. Butterflies in your stomach turn into jet fighters on a mission. …