Leader

If you’ve ever made popcorn, you know the smell of freshly made popcorn is just magnifique. There are a few early pops. Then a noisy rush. And then a few stubborn kernels that refuse to play along, no matter how long you wait. Then, the most important question: When do you stop? Same question when you lead teams: How long do you wait for someone to “get there”? Do you keep the heat on because potential exists? Or do you step back before the rest burn to a crisp? Leaders tend

First time managers run into two traps. The first one is over control. You grip everything. You micromanage. You hover. You want everything run by you. You want to prove you earned the role. Eventually, the team stops taking initiative. They wait. They let you make every call. Because you conditioned them to. The second trap is the opposite. You freeze. You are scared to make a move. Your peers now report to you, and you still see yourself as “one of them”. So you avoid tou

You walk onto the pitch. Test match, day one. You’ve got your strategy: play for swing, get behind the line, play with a straight bat. Ten minutes in, the bowler realises the pitch is jagging off the cracks with uneven bounce. The bowler changes his length. And your neat plan is history. Now it’s all about reacting better, and playing the situation at hand. You walk onto court. Ready to dominate with your forehand. But your opponent clearly got the memo. Decided to pin you on

Leadership debt doesn’t come from bad intent. It comes from urgency. From wanting progress. From wanting it too much that they do so much.

We judge potential the same way we judge milestones: by timing, not by depth. A late start often hides quiet preparation, while an early lead can fade just as quickly. Growth rarely follows a schedule, in children or in leaders.

Why so many leaders unconsciously lean toward being fixers instead of preventers? The system rewards those who arrive at the scene of a crisis, not those who made sure one never occurred. The heroes work in daylight. The wise ones, in shadows.

Perfect ideas don’t exist. What succeeds are the logical ones that get shipped and shaped. Great leaders build teams where imperfect ideas see the light, get executed, and evolve.

Some of my most “perfect” hires flamed out. Some long shots became superstars. The difference wasn’t luck, it was alignment. These are the lessons 2,500 interviews left me with about hiring for the long game.

When everything seems lost, don’t replay the mistakes, reframe the moment. Ask, how do we win from here?

A leader is a box in the middle of chaos. The inputs come in as wiggly lines: distorted thoughts, half-baked opinions, incomplete facts,...

Learn how to assess and grow talent using the Floor vs Ceiling framework. Discover why high potential isn’t just about ambition or skill, but also consistency and reliability. This guide helps leaders identify, nurture, and align team members based on their default performance (floor) and their upside (ceiling). Build teams with stability and room to grow - without letting insecurity limit your people.

If you want to be liked by everyone as a leader, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Leadership looks different from the outside. From the outside, it’s strategy decks. Big moves. Team calls. From the inside, that’s not...

The trap of sticking with a project or decision just because you’ve already put time or money into it is very real in businesses.  It’s frighteningly close to how a gambler behaves at the casino.

Range is underrated. Breadth of experience changes everything.

What you do with moments defined who you become as a leader.

Every meaningful decision costs something. The smart ones just know what’s worth losing.

We often confuse stability with sameness. But what we don’t change, we eventually outgrow. This piece is a reminder that continuity doesn’t mean clinging to the past — it means having the courage to evolve.

I used to believe that speed was leadership. Act fast. Decide fast. Move fast. The world rewarded urgency, and so did I. Until I learned...

How Great Leaders Hold Steady in Chaos