When to Formalise a Process Versus Keep It Flexible
Formalising too early stifles genuine adaptability, and too late creates real inconsistency. Here’s how to judge the right moment to formalise a process.
Management Skills
management skills
Leadership
Knowing When to Override Your Own Team’s Recommendation
Overriding a team’s genuine recommendation is sometimes the right call, and it carries real costs worth understanding before you do it.
Leadership
Leading When You Disagree With a Decision From Above
Disagreeing privately with a decision while leading your team through it well is a genuine skill. Here’s how to do it with integrity.
Management Skills
Setting Expectations With a New Direct Report Early
Clear expectations set early prevent far more problems than they solve after the fact. Here’s how to set them well with a new direct report.
Management Skills
Managing a Team You Inherited, Not Built
An inherited team comes with existing dynamics, habits, and history a manager didn’t create. Here’s how to lead it well rather than fight against it.
Management Skills
The Art of the Performance Improvement Plan Done Right
A performance improvement plan done well is a genuine tool for real improvement, not just a step toward termination. Here’s how to do it right.
Management Skills
Managing Someone Who’s About to Resign
The period between a resignation announcement and departure deserves genuine care, not disengagement. Here’s how to manage it well.
Management Skills
Handling a Direct Report Who Goes Over Your Head
A direct report bypassing you to your own manager stings, and how you respond matters more than the incident itself. Here’s how to handle it well.
Communication
Communicating Bad News Up the Chain, Not Just Down
Delivering difficult news to a manager or executive requires a genuinely different approach than delivering it to a team. Here’s how to do it well.
Management Skills
Managing Someone Who’s Better at the Job Than You Are at Managing Them
Managing someone whose technical skill exceeds your own is genuinely uncomfortable, and it’s also common. Here’s how to do it well without pretending otherwise.
Management Skills
The One-on-One Meeting: What Most Managers Get Wrong
The weekly one-on-one is one of the highest-leverage tools a manager has, and most managers quietly waste it on status updates. Here’s how to actually use it well.
Management Skills
Succession Planning for a Role You’re Not Ready to Leave
Succession planning feels like planning your own exit, and that’s exactly why most people avoid it until it’s too late. Here’s why it matters even when you’re staying.
Teamwork
When a High Performer Won’t Mentor Anyone Else
A brilliant individual contributor who refuses to mentor others creates a real dilemma for a team’s long-term health. Here’s how to navigate it without losing them.
Communication, Productivity
The Art of the Follow-Up: Why Nothing Happens After Meetings
A great meeting with no follow-up produces nothing but a good conversation. Here’s how to make sure what gets agreed actually happens afterward.
Leadership, Workplace Culture
Culture During Rapid Growth: What Breaks First
Rapid growth strains a company’s culture in specific, predictable ways. Here’s what breaks first, and how to protect what actually matters through it.