Leadership
Comedian Marc Maron once said the main way people learn something is simply “somebody told them.” Recency and latency biases mean we tend to prioritize information more based on when we hear it than on how accurate it really is. There are two television writers in particular (in)famous for demonstrating that as long as information is presented authoritatively, people will believe it regardless of whether it is true or not. These are Aaron Sorkin and Taylor Sheridan.
Sorkin had already made a name for himself in films and plays before The West Wing premiered in 1999….
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Leadership
Entrepreneurs are often celebrated for their role in building organizations, driving economic growth, and creating jobs. At the same time, it is clear that entrepreneurship requires a distinct combination of gifts, temperament, and perseverance. Starting an organization demands a willingness to take risks, invest long hours, and, in many cases, commit substantial personal financial resources.
Yet many of the very qualities that help entrepreneurs launch a business can later make it more difficult to scale it. In fact, one of the central tensions of entrepreneurship is that the instincts that fuel early success do not always…
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Leadership
Like many historical events introduced in my childhood, I had forgotten most of the details of the daring expedition of Lewis and Clark. Tod Bolsinger’s Canoeing the Mountains illustrates adaptive leadership practices through the challenges Lewis and Clark faced in their attempt to find a travel route across the western United States. Their response when they discovered the task was much larger and more difficult provides Bolsinger with rich examples of leading change.
Choosing an adaptive approach is generally not our default setting. We prefer to apply what we know and our proven problem-solving approaches to…
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Leadership
The 80-20 rule seems almost magical. The idea that you can achieve the vast majority of your desired results with a relatively small investment of your resources sounds too good to be true. Life just doesn’t seem to work that way. Most people report being overworked, stressed out, and running behind. The more common experience is that the 80-20 rule is determined after the fact, not before and during. In other words, it is tailor-made for armchair quarterbacks and pundits, but a frustrating reality for the rest of us who have to compete in real time.
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Leadership
One of the most unattractive qualities in a leader is a failure to take ownership. The relationship with your leader sours quickly when it becomes clear they are allergic to accepting responsibility. It may start out with a bonding experience to blame leaders above, other departments, or even ignorant customers, but at some point, you begin to notice the obsession with blaming others to look good. Worse than the relational damage is the hit to productivity. Learning does not take place in an environment where great effort is expended to avoid being blamed for anything. Like a…
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