A few years ago, I shared a vivid phrase to describe being passive-aggressive: “Violently polite.” I think it holds up, but I had forgotten about it. I’m glad for the chance to revisit this. In the years since then, I’ve … Read More
A few years ago, I shared a story about a nosy man in a checkout line, and used it to make the point that it’s a bad idea to plan for the worst-case scenario. You can read it here. Does … Read More
A few years ago in a post titled “Strong Team Members Hold Each Other Accountable,” I wrote that once people get in the habit of holding each other accountable without making it personal, teams hum with productivity and gossip is … Read More
A few years ago, I wrote in Healthy Conflict Leads to Commitment that great teams can expect commitment when trust is solid and conflict is productive. Today, I want to emphasize that commitment has two other important components: clarity and … Read More
In a post I wrote called “Leaders Make Sure Results Match the Mission,” I shared Gino Wickman’s approach, presented clearly in the book Traction, called the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). I noted that measuring results against the mission is important … Read More
A few years ago, I wrote that great teams embrace healthy conflict. Does it hold up? Yes, the “healthy conflict” approach holds up. Teams still suffer from lack of productive conflict and healthy debate. There’s a lot of “sparing feelings,” … Read More
Seven years ago I wrote about what to do when you hit “send” on an email while in an agitated or emotional state, and then immediately regret it: How to Dial Back the Hasty Email Does this still happen? Unfortunately, … Read More
~ Alan Seven years ago I shared the technique of conducting a “Vote One to Five” in situations where you’re short on time but need to check a team’s response to an idea, action item or new direction. You can … Read More
Seven years ago, I wrote about “the two kinds of naysayers” in a post titled: Leaders Know the Two Kinds of Naysayers. I wrote this because I was seeing a lot of leaders miss out on two things: 1) their … Read More
You may have heard me talk in the past — or recently — about The Four Levels of Maturity model. I’ve been talking about it for a long time, because it holds up! In a nutshell: Level 4 is the … Read More