Leader

Dependency looks like value in the short term. Over time, it is just a very polite career ceiling.

2002 Nobel prize laureate Daniel Kahneman said "For some of our most important beliefs we have no evidence at all, except that people we love and trust hold these beliefs. Considering how little we know, the confidence we have in our beliefs is preposterous - and it is also essential." And then I thought about NPS. And I laughed. Then felt sad. It was hilarious and all too real at the same time. Nobody woke up one day and decided CSAT and NPS were the twin pillars of customer

Martin Brundle has a phrase he deploys with surgical precision during Formula 1 broadcasts: "a day late and a dollar short." He uses it when a driver attempts a defensive move too late, or commits to an overtake half-heartedly. The gap has closed. The opportunity has passed. And worse, the hesitation has telegraphed weakness to every other driver on the grid. Business is no different. The difference is that instead of losing a position on lap 34, we lose teams, opportunities,

Leadership problems often disguise themselves in different ways. Too often, it’s a question of focal length. But, hardly anyone sees it that way. Get too close and you start solving problems your team should be solving. You add control, meetings, check-ins. You become to bottleneck for everything. Get too far and you rely on vision decks and town halls. You don’t find the right focal length by reading about it. You find it by testing the edges. Step in closer than feels comfo

A year ago, I wrote my first post on my website. I had no sense of where it would lead. I was simply trying to get thoughts out of my head and onto the page. It was not natural, I had to force it out. Why? I still don't understand why at that moment I thought this was something worth doing. Surprising still, I dont know how I stuck with it. What forcing myself to write and publish has since taught me is that many of my ideas stand tall when they live in my mind, but the momen

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.