Hi Reader, You know the conversation needs to happen. Do you know what you're going to say? Every manager faces situations that require a difficult conversation. An employee ignores procedures. Someone resists feedback. A colleague avoids responsibility. Expectations aren't being met. Knowing something needs to change is one thing. Knowing how to address it is another. A good accountability conversation requires more than finding the right words. It requires clarity about what happened, why...

Reflections on Leadership The Problems We Keep Trying to Solve Leadership Drift This Week The Problems We Keep Trying to Solve Organizations are busy. Leaders make decisions, employees work hard, and problems receive attention. Yet important priorities keep getting crowded out. Capable people become frustrated. The same problems return, even after considerable effort to resolve them. When this happens, the instinct is to work harder, introduce another process, or ask people to do better....

Reflections on Leadership The Price of Feeling Special Leadership Drift This Week The Price of Feeling Special When we choose someone to lead us, we must ask: What are we willing to excuse in a leader because we believe that leader will do something for us? The question shifts our attention from the person we elect to the person doing the electing. It asks us to examine not only a leader's character, but our own. Have we become so invested in what someone promises us that we are willing to...