Better Today Than Yesterday

Work that helps you follow through on promises to customers creates value — everything else wastes resources. As organizations become bigger, their gravity gets stronger. Their size, bureaucracy, and politics distract you from the work that matters. Spend too much time in this gravity vortex, and one day, you'll find yourself irrelevant. Ben Horowitz said, "Somewhere there is a guy in a garage who...

In my recent emails and messages, I noticed myself starting sentences with 'I know that...' I went back and changed these to 'I believe that...' What I call knowledge is often my perspective based on today's information, my biases, and my blind spots. The older I get, the more I realize how little I know. This week, watch your writing and speaking. Notice when you express absolute certainty. It's...

Title-seeking is dangerous. Work titles began as a way to clarify responsibility. They evolved into frameworks for compensation. Now, in the age of social media, they've increasingly become status symbols. We aren't titles. We play roles. In my last company, we took titles off email signatures. Instead, we put functional responsibility. If I were to take it a step further, I would have had people...

There are two voices in my head fighting for control. The two voices are my lower self and my upper self. The lower version of me is a critical companion as it is responsible for keeping me alive. Its singular focus is my survival. I call this me the “Lone Survivor.” It doesn’t care about anyone else, just me. Lone Survivor This version of me is usually the first to speak up and can be the loudest...

My middle one is coming home from school in a few weeks and we are going to go for a ruck. So, I’m thinking about rucksacks. //Transcript// Hey, I came across a quote this week, and I wanted to share it with you. Let me find it. Here it is. “Because here's another sneaky little truth about life. You can't be an important and life-changing presence for some people without also being a joke and an e...

"What pulls the rope in most workplaces is the elevation and promotion of self (ego), not the elevation of others, purpose, heart, and mind (soul). It's no wonder that people feel so alone in most workplaces today. Interconnectedness gets lost when you have a team or company of people who are making decisions based on their ego's needs: What would be best for their own personal goals, not their co...

No. 1 In the midst of chaos, your mind cannot be chaotic. - General Jim Mattis, “Call Sign Chaos” In chaos or crisis, emotion is unhelpful and clouds judgment. Think about a 911 operator answering a frantic call. The operator is ALWAYS cool and collected while the caller panics. The operator tries to understand the situation (facts) and deploy appropriate resources. Part of their job is to calm th...

No. 1 The will to victory may be demonstrated in places other than actual battle. A Roman general was leading his legions toward the enemy in a swampy country. He knew that the next day’s battle would be fought on a certain plain because it was the only dry, flat place for miles. He pushed his army all night, marching them through a frightening and formidable swamp, so that they reached the battle...

Here are two quotes from The CEO Test  by Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer. The book's content is simple, practical, and actionable for most leaders. Quote No. 1 “A helpful acronym for leaders to keep in mind is WAIT, which stands for, "Why Am I Talking?" because anything a leader says can quickly overwhelm a discussion and make people shut down. Asking yourself, “Why am I talking?” helps determine wh...

A dear friend recommended the book Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. It took me a year to read it, which was a waste of a year. This week I scrolled through my highlights and I feel compelled to share a few with you. You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is rig...

I’ve been thinking about and talking about this topic a lot recently, and I found myself revisiting this post, so I’m resurfacing it for you today. I originally published this in July 2022. Note: This post is made for listening, but I’ve included the transcript if you’d rather read. TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hey there. I wanted to follow up on my other note about one of two things leaders are responsi...

The most powerful force that could be potentially harnessed is dogged incremental constant progress over a very long time frame. -Peter Kaufman I can’t be the only one who lets out a little sigh when the elevator stops on the way down. It’s too early, and this box feels too small. Can I just get to the bottom of the building and out to my daily caffeine spot with as little human interaction as pos...

"…tranquility…comes when you stop caring what they say, think, or do. Only what you do." - Marcus Aurelius There is some change happening in my life. A new job, a kid left for college, and a few other things that add complexity and a touch of anxiety. Most of this change is good, some of it not. All of it is part of life.  Wrestling with a few thoughts and some internal disturbance, I went back to...

I believe the most effective type of team is a “Human Team.” These teams accept their members for their individual strengths and struggles. They want the entire human to show up, not just the tip of the iceberg. These teams are about helping each other, and the collective "us," find our potential. If you are on one of these teams, you feel it. It’s different, and you show up and do the best work o...

Two Quotes “One of the things we try to do at Amazon is minimize the amount of energy that’s wasted on maintaining power and control and ego, as opposed to what really matters, which is helping our customers.” - Jeff Bezos "To be everywhere is to be nowhere." – Seneca A Lesson Learned This past week, I learned about Amazon’s single-threaded leader model. I'll explain that in a minute, but first, a...

Are you on a team or just a group working in parallel? The word "team" dates back to the 8th century and originally referred to a group of animals harnessed together to pull a cart or plow. By the 15th century, it had evolved to its modern meaning—a group of people working together, particularly in competitive contexts like sports or battles. Today, "team" means collaboration, mutual support, shar...

Clarity is arguably a leader's first job. Why are we here? What are we doing? How do we work? MISSION = WHY This is why we exist—the mission. It’s the guiding principle that serves as the foundation for all work. When you talk about it, you should feel your energy rise. When it gets hard, this is what gets you to the other side of the hard. The mission should be clear and have deep meaning to ever...

Some people give space, others take it. Givers let you talk. Takers do the talking. Givers give credit and take the blame. Takers take credit and give blame. Givers seek answers. Takers are the ones with all the answers. Givers focus on improving. Takers are busy proving. We don’t ever exclusively play the role of space taker or space giver. Our role should change depending on the situation. Somet...

I’m working on something that I call a MAP: Me, a Page. The idea is to give someone my instruction manual. I have quirks, beliefs, pet peeves, and ways of working. Why keep them a secret and make them learn it the hard way? They likely aren’t permanent or perfect, but they are me at this moment. In the process of doing that, I thought I’d write down my values. That seemed simple enough, but it’s n...

A few years ago, I was part of a technology transformation at a company. Transformation is really just a big word for fixing everything that's broken. A friend who was leading the project looked at me and said, "Listen, you can have it fast, good, or cheap, but you can't have all three. You get to pick two." That applies not only to technology but probably a lot of things in life. Lessons From Cha...

We are compensated in three ways: * Economical: We get paid. * Educational: We learn and grow. * Emotional: We love the work and/or the people we work with—ideally, both. When we have at least two of these, we feel good. When we have all three, we are fully engaged. At different points in our lives, each of these has varying levels of importance. Each can, depending on the moment and for different...

“Escape competition through authenticity. When you’re competing with people, it’s because you’re copying them. It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing. But every human is different. Don’t copy.” (Naval Ravikant) I don’t like the word authenticity. Maybe it’s too big, or too many books have been written about it. It’s probably because too many management consultants who couldn’t manage a le...

"Your whole life is a kind of apprenticeship to which you apply your learning skills. Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention." (Robert Greene, Mastery) A friend sent me photos from her trip to Yellowstone—an extraordinary place. When I visited, I couldn't help but imagine how it was centuries ago: simple, wild, and a bit scary. The idea of roaming freely is ro...

We spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad. - Matt Haig, The Midnight Library I’ve been thinking a lot about responding, not reacting. Making space between provocation, judgment, and action provides time to explore reality—an opportunity to find the...

"A true student is like a sponge. Absorbing what goes on around him, filtering it, latching on to what he can hold. A student is self-critical and self-motivated, always trying to improve his understanding so that he can move on to the next topic, the next challenge. A real student is also his own teacher and his own critic. There is no room for ego there." (Ryan Holiday, Ego Is the Enemy) Through...