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Writing
These pieces explore what CXOs carry — privately, and rarely out loud. The interior life of leadership: what it costs, what it produces, and what becomes possible when it's finally examined. Browse by territory, or start anywhere.
The scarcity that isn't
Every leader has the same number of hours. The ones who feel most stretched are not always the ones with the most to do. The question worth asking: what am I spending time on that is not worth the time I am giving it?
7 days ago1 min read
Why follow-ups don't disappear
The volume of follow-ups shows how well you delegate. Handing over the work is one thing. Handing over ownership of the outcome needs a container: clear expectations, shared boundaries, and room to decide, mistakes included.
Oct 191 min read
What Is Genuine Curiosity?
Genuine curiosity is asking in a way that helps other person, or yourself, see something that wasn't seen before
Oct 81 min read
Focus as a Choice
Two photos of the same flower, and the two kinds of attention a leader has to choose between.
Oct 51 min read
We delegate the way we were managed
A manager who needs a detailed briefing gave one to a team member who wanted trust. We tend to delegate the way we wish we were managed. The fix is to ask the team member how they work best before deciding how to support them.
Sep 211 min read
What it is and what it is not
I have been trying to define stillness, and every definition felt incomplete. So I tried the other direction: what is it not? What you are trying to understand may resist the direct approach.
Sep 171 min read
Paying attention to small things
Clayton Christensen observed that strategy emerges from the small decisions you actually make: where you spend time, what you prioritise, what you let slide. The declared strategy is the plan. The emerging one is what your decisions reveal.
Sep 71 min read
You cannot recover what you never knew you had
The loss of what we never catalogued is the most complete loss. It leaves no search terms and no recovery path. Can you name what matters, lest it is lost?
Aug 311 min read
What to protect as you scale up
What scales and what doesn’t? A process can break under volume. Something in the culture, in how people understand why the work matters, holds differently. The question for a leader scaling up is what to protect as you grow.
Aug 271 min read
Papon's feedback loop
At a Papon concert, the audience was part of the performance, and every response told him how the evening was landing. As leaders move up, feedback travels through more stops and arrives late and changed. The loop has to be designed.
Aug 102 min read
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