Three Leadership Lessons from Spider-Man
Plainly put, Spider-Man leads with a unique formula of leadership of kindness, humour humility, smarts, passion, and responsibility. And here are three leadership lessons that you can take away from Spider-Man. No, this not a “new idea” and “a few people” have “already written about this” in “2010” – this being said, my lessons get to the punchline quicker and better. And the artwork (see below) that I chose to adorn this post is both adorable and (probably) concerning.
Six Critical Thinking Tips from Fiction’s Greatest Detectives
In the world of literature, television, and film, some of the most brilliant examples of critical thinking have come from fiction's greatest detectives. Unraveling mysteries that baffle ordinary mortals, these on-screen and literary luminaries not only entertain us...
Five Adaptive Planning Strategies from Die Hard
Die Hard is one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time. The iconic action film starring Bruce Willis is not just a festive classic that includes holiday outfits and Christmas carols, but it is also a masterclass in adaptive planning. Beyond the explosive action...
Five Ways to Cultivate Dissent on Your Team
Creating a culture of dissent on your team will enhance performance and effectiveness.
Five Ways to Build Psychological Safety on Your Team
I have an awesome colleague named Lindsay and we trust each other. Something that helped us get to where we are is psychological safety. One of the ways that I know such a thing exists is because Lindsay felt comfortable telling me that my articles on this website are...
Five Ways to Connect Your Workplace
The purpose of so many organizational teams, like innovation labs, and startup ecosystems, like Silicon Valley, is to disrupt the status quo. I’ve written about why we need to disrupt our workplaces and how to do it. The thing is that when the status quo is disrupted...
Five Productivity Lessons from Espresso
I love coffee. It’s delicious, chock full of life-enhancing antioxidants and fosters connections and collaboration, too. After spending a few weeks in Italy last year, I developed a love of espresso. In addition to the concentrated caffeine boost that a shot brings,...
Three Reasons Why Your Organization Needs Historians
Historians explain the development of elaborate structures we call cultures – one way that they do this is by examining businesses, non-profits and other communities where work happens.
9 Adaptability Lessons from Heist Movies
One of the biggest trends impacting leaders today is the pace of change. Everything is shifting so quickly and we need to adapt like we’re careening through a crowded market in the South of France or heaving hundreds of millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino into...
Professional lessons from the Loudest Voice
The Loudest Voice is an HBO mini-series that charts the rise and fall of Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News. Played by Russell Crowe in heavy makeup, Ailes is depicted as a ruthless, creepy and strategically brilliant predator. The show is built around several pivotal...
Five Ways to Recharge your Batteries
I’ve needed to recharge this month. Work and life have been challenging. Between moving to a new home, my son changing daycare, and significant stresses at work, I started to notice that my battery was draining a lot faster than it was getting recharged. I was getting...
Three reasons why you need a mentor
Mentorship is a valuable career accelerator. As you grow in your career, it becomes increasingly important to have a guide who can offer radical candor, empathetic listening and even a key to open doors for new jobs and networks. That said, many team members I’ve...
Three Coping Skills I Learned from a Five-Year-Old
A few weeks ago, my oldest kid started soccer. He’s five, like most of his teammates, and the experience is as adorable and hilarious as you’d expect. Despite all this delight, my wife and I screwed up is very first practice by forgetting his cleats, socks and shorts....
Three Things to Consider when Planning a Career Change
Over the past few years I’ve had conversations with friends and colleagues about changing careers. Frequently, it’s with journalists seeking to take a leap into public relations and communications. Other times, its more junior team members who are evaluating career...
Four Professional Lessons from Making a Big Purchase in my Personal Life
Throughout our life, there will be times when we make a big purchase, like buying a car or purchasing your first home. When big amounts of money are involved, it’s easy to get stressed. Momentum and pressure can take hold and push you forwards and towards a decisions...
Three Adaptability Lessons from Pasta
Pasta can teach us things like being resilience and having a growth mindset.
Seven tips for when you have to speak truth to power
Managing up is part of peoples’ jobs. Being able to respond to superiors when you don’t agree with their position is a key skill. Many organizations foster this sort of feedback – particularly those that recognize the importance of radical candor. That said, when the...
Four Leadership Lessons from Show Me a Hero
Show Me a Hero is an HBO mini-series classic. Based on a book by New York Times writer Lisa Belkin and written by David Simon and William F Zorzo, the series explores the political career of Nick Wasicsko, the youngest elected Mayor of Yonkers New York, as he and...
Five Career Building Lessons from the Social Committee
Social committees organize holiday gatherings and team building activities in workplaces around the world. One of the ways that I developed awesome human skills early in my career was by joining the social committee in pretty much every organization where I worked. My...
Four Project Management Lessons from the Fyre Festival
The Fyre festival was supposed to be a luxury music festival starring models and social media “influencers” on Pablo Escobar’s island in the Exumas. Instead, festival goers arrived to chaos - the luxury villas were emergency shelter tents, the gourmet meal was cheese...
Five Questions to Ask Yourself About Minimalism
Minimalism means elevating the things that matter most in our lives and removing what distracts us from our true purpose. Yesterday was Christmas and many of us are probably reflecting on over indulgences and, perhaps, trying to find some quiet time after all the...
Why You Should Embrace Boredom
Many of us are addicted to distraction. We click between multiple screens with multiple apps with multiple tabs while our mobile device streams a podcast in the background. Every few minutes we will pick up our phone to text a friend and then snap a photo and blast a...
Five Office Work Trends and Three Ways to Address Them
The world of work is, and always has been, changing. The thing about these days is that the pace of change is rapid if not continuous if not always. Below is an excellent video from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Harvard Business Review (HBR) that outlines five...
A Goat Cabin Haiku
Shirley tradition. Goats. Beaches. (Safe) fires. Family. There are hobbits here? - A haiku about "the goat cabin" where the Horn Family has made memories for the past three spring breaks. And some shenanigans... [video width="1920" height="1080"...
How to be Consistent like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) is one of the most consistent high-performers on Earth. He has scored over 30 points for the NBA Western Conference’s top seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in 40 games this season and, to underscore how he’s a model of consistency, he has...
Three Leadership Lessons from Spider-Man
Plainly put, Spider-Man leads with a unique formula of leadership of kindness, humour humility, smarts, passion, and responsibility. And here are three leadership lessons that you can take away from Spider-Man. No, this not a “new idea” and “a few people” have “already written about this” in “2010” – this being said, my lessons get to the punchline quicker and better. And the artwork (see below) that I chose to adorn this post is both adorable and (probably) concerning.
An Imposter Syndrome Haiku
Leaders need these things. Confidence. Humility. Imposter syndrome. - A haiku about how, with the best of intentions, blending confidence and humility can lead to imposter syndrome because interrogating our decisions and beliefs fosters curiosity and can also sew...
What Needs to be in Your Next Corporate Retreat
According to the Internet, most corporate retreats suck. After all, many senior leaders aren't even great at running effective meetings, so why would a group of us be awesome at designing and delivering what is essentially a multi-day million dollar business meeting...
The Definitive Community Love Evaluation Framework
Today is Valentines Day and love is in the air. But how much love, exactly? To figure this out, I created a simple tool that helps me evaluate how much I love different parts of my life. I call it the Definitive Community Love Evaluation (Copilot tried to call it "The...
Three Creativity Lessons from Kindergarten
I’m learning a lot about kindergarten. A novel part of COVID worklife for my wife (who is her own woman) and I is that we get to teach our oldest son kindergarten. Feeling swells of exhaustion, inspiration and humility each week is becoming commonplace as we stand in...
Empathy is Harder than Math
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It involves perceiving and connecting with their emotions, fostering understanding, and often responding with compassion and support. Mathematics is the language of patterns and relationships in...
Five Ways to Embrace Your Mortality
We are all going to die. But we also avoid thinking about our mortality. And we are likely to reflect on our deathbeds that we didn’t spend time doing on the most important things during our life. I’ve had some near death experiences – tumbled over a waterfall, got...