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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.
Listening is demonstrated by how you respond
Nodding, eye contact and not interrupting signal attention. For the person on the other side, listening is shown in how you respond: did it show that what was said was received?
Oct 261 min read
What Is Already Available
Three weeks in the mountains left me with one clarity: much of what I imagine wanting in the future is available now.
Oct 11 min read
When facts are ignored
In organizations, when inconvenient data is set aside, the explanation that surfaces most often is competence. Sometimes that is true. But what if the facts were seen, and the choice was made anyway?
Sep 241 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
Who you become and what you do
A COO who had been passed over for the CEO role asked himself what would not change once he became CEO. Many leaders chasing a title believe the role will change them. More often, becoming and doing feed each other.
Sep 141 min read
The never ending catch-up
Every CXO I sit with is behind on something. Behind is not only a fact about the calendar. It is a story about the self, recited until it sounds like data.
Sep 31 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 you lose is not always what you think
Both losses looked straightforward: data gone, power gone. What I had actually lost was less visible, the comfort of knowing it was there. Loss reveals itself through absence, much more than through the event.
Aug 201 min read
What is your compass pointing at
Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass points to what the heart desires. As we grow in role and responsibility, the direction we follow starts to come from expectation. When did you last check yours?
Aug 171 min read
Watching from the side
Three days of watching two colleagues facilitate, and not doing. Staying on the side takes a discipline that looks like passivity from outside and feels like effort from within.
Aug 131 min read
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