Category: Power

Don’t try to change your organization; change the underlying forces that make it what it is

In the nine­teenth cen­tu­ry, Charles Lyell, a Scot­tish geol­o­gist, pro­fessed the rad­i­cal view that the same forces that shaped the Earth in the past were still oper­at­ing in the present moment. His the­o­ry chal­lenged the more palat­able the­o­ry at the time that geo­log­i­cal epochs end­ed in major, cat­a­stroph­ic events, such as species being wiped out… Con­tin­ue read­ing Don’t try to change your orga­ni­za­tion; change the under­ly­ing forces that make it what it is

On Disbelieving Your Own Thoughts

A cen­tral chal­lenge of lead­ing is being able to see — see very clear­ly — what is hap­pen­ing. Many things can impede this need­ed aware­ness and insight — inad­e­quate data and wrong infor­ma­tion being two of the most com­mon prob­lems. A third may be our own bias­es, the unex­am­ined per­son­al beliefs that dri­ve poor judg­ment. … Con­tin­ue read­ing On Dis­be­liev­ing Your Own Thoughts

On Insecurity

A fair num­ber of my clients — man­agers and exec­u­tives — at some point in our work togeth­er express inse­cu­ri­ty. This takes many dif­fer­ent forms, from won­der­ing about their val­ue as lead­ers to wor­ry­ing they are imposters to a clear avoid­ance of tough top­ics or evi­dent con­flicts in their rela­tion­ships. It comes through as a… Con­tin­ue read­ing On Inse­cu­ri­ty

The Darkness Is Not Yet Complete

I am dis­ap­point­ed in our coun­try. Focused on win­ning, it is in fact filled with the defeat of our democ­ra­cy. I admit, because it often just seems so hope­less attempt­ing to cross the divide, I find myself resist­ing polit­i­cal argu­ments and exchanges. George Lakof­f’s descrip­tion of the con­ser­v­a­tive moral hier­ar­chy is enough of an expla­na­tion… Con­tin­ue read­ing The Dark­ness Is Not Yet Complete