Insights
Field notes from the arena
Short reads on the pressure, politics and hard calls of leading at scale, drawn from years inside Fortune 100 leadership teams.
Featured · Under pressure
The Blame List Is a Symptom
I sat with a client I’ve worked with for years while he went through his version of that list. When he finished, I said: “You know the next name on that list is going to be mine.”
Blame is what pressure does when it has nowhere left to go.
All pieces
Bring this thinking into the room
Every piece here grew out of work with real leadership teams. A keynote, workshop or consulting partnership takes it further.
Start a conversation →The Fear Isn’t Failure. It’s Irrelevance.
Irrelevance means the game moved and nobody thought to tell you.
Your Team Is Triaging Your Urgents
They were running their own triage system underneath mine.
Leading People Through AI While Facing It Yourself
They couldn’t offload that uncertainty anywhere.
Earn the Permission to Change It
The fastest way to fail is to start changing it before you understand what you’re changing.
“What’s Wrong With Me?” Is the Wrong Question
That’s the blind spot. Not burnout itself—but the reflex to read a capacity problem as a personal failing.
An Introvert in a Culture of Speed
Under pressure, puffing up or shrinking back can feel like the only options.
Where Did the System Break?
Instead of “who screwed up?” the CEO asked, “where did the system break down?”
Two Warring Leaders, the Same Two Values
Each side had assumed they were the only stewards of those two important values.
Check the Story Behind the Behavior
The work is helping my clients catch the story before it runs the meeting, the decision, or the day.
When Your Help Stops Helping
When the gap between effort and results widens, people stop evaluating your intentions and start evaluating your judgment.
The Flak Jacket
When you’re leading through sustained pressure, you can’t expect people to hold their breath until the big finish.
When Your Strength Becomes Your Stranglehold
Pressure doesn’t reveal just character. It reveals—and amplifies—your default patterns.
Is It Actually in Your Control?
How much of what you’re spending cycles on is actually in your control?
Candor Is a Chess Game
The hardest part about Compassionate Candor isn’t the conversation.