Driving Alignment

Most leaders focus too much on individual talent and not enough on group dynamics. Here's how to expand your awareness to this critical team-building element.

A team of people who aren’t challenged to think for themselves will default to the easy answers on the hard questions — taking us further and further away from our goal of a delightful customer experience.

Being a modern people leader requires a little vulnerability. It often means not solving the problem and instead, naming the problem; then you can see what happens when you create some space around it before jumping into action mode.

Like all communication that we try to do quickly, it’s in the delivery where what started as a caring impulse turns to something demoralizing.

Here’s a tough question that can lead to great things: Which of our company values are we not living up to that is causing them to be frustrated?

I was shocked by what happened next. When it came for my next meeting, Elizabeth walked into the office with a sparkle in her eye and a pad in her hand (full of notes she’d taken).

When we accept that retrenchment is a natural and necessary part of the growth process we give ourselves, and others, room to breathe.

You can build and run a great business and let your values speak for themselves. Because nobody cares about your values. What people care about is whether you embody them.