Why Your Team Needs You To Be Precise
If you want your team to do bold, creative work, you must take the first risk by giving them clear, precise direction. Here are a few ways to do so.
Why Your Team Needs You To Be Precise
Articles about Leadership
Leading With Gratitude (with Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick)
Leading With Gratitude (with Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick)
Why gratitude is the killer app for building effective cultures.
Leadership Is Language (with L. David Marquet)
Leadership Is Language (with L. David Marquet)
On this episode, L. David Marquet shares insights into how to use the power of language to unleash your team's best work.
Brilliant Brands (with Blake Howard)
Brilliant Brands (with Blake Howard)
What makes a great brand? As the marketplace changes, how do you ensure that what you stand for and how your customers view you align? On this episode, Blake Howard of Matchstic shares insights for developing a brand that resonates.
Aligning What You Think, Do, & Say (with Ron Tite)
Aligning What You Think, Do, & Say (with Ron Tite)
On this episode, Ron Tite shares insights from his book Think Do Say about how to bring better alignment between our words and our actions.
Leading a Creative Company Culture (with Matt Cooper and Sabrina Kieffer)
Leading a Creative Company Culture (with Matt Cooper and Sabrina Kieffer)
What does it take to create a culture in which creative people thrive? On this episode, we chat with Matt Cooper (CEO) and Sabrina Kieffer (COO) of Skillshare about what it takes to attract and retain talent, their personal leadership philosophies, and how they manage their busy work and personal lives as leaders of a fast-growing company.
The Long Hallway
The Long Hallway
A creative project is a bit like a long hallway with multiple chambers. As you navigate down the hallway, you reach checkpoints where critical decisions must be made, and a door closes behind you. On this episode, I elaborate on these three questions and offer some tips for crafting a process that's sane and helpful to your work.
The 10 Stories That Great Leaders Tell (with Paul Smith)
The 10 Stories That Great Leaders Tell (with Paul Smith)
On this episode, we talk about the power of story, and how leaders can use it to help those on their team do better work, stay aligned, and produce great work each day. Our guest is author Paul Smith, whose new book is called The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell.
Feeling Undisciplined? Here’s Why.
Feeling Undisciplined? Here’s Why.
The three reasons that many creative pros struggle to get moving.
Getting The Small Things Right
Getting The Small Things Right
It's tempting to gloss over small areas of misalignment or misunderstanding because they seem like no big deal in the moment. However, those small areas of misalignment can become big problems later. On this episode, we share a few ways this happens to leaders and teams and a handful of questions to help you stay ahead of them.
Three Questions You’re Probably Not Asking (But Definitely Should Be)
Three Questions You’re Probably Not Asking (But Definitely Should Be)
Those who ask the best questions ultimately win. There are some questions that are obvious. These are the ones that directly affect our work and its outcomes. Then, there are questions that hover just beneath the surface of our work, and rarely get asked. On this episode, we share three questions that you're probably not asking, but definitely should be.
The Art of Completing Conversations
The Art of Completing Conversations
A simple strategy for bringing alignment to your team.
10 Things Creatives Wish Their Manager Knew
10 Things Creatives Wish Their Manager Knew
It is a reality that managers and creatives often speak different languages. Each has a different set of responsibilities and perspectives they are bringing to a project, and often the collision of these forces is enough to create massive waves within the organization. With that in mind, here is a list of statements that could begin to spark dialogue between organizational leaders and creatives.
A Framework For Choosing The Best Idea
A Framework For Choosing The Best Idea
Make the decision in a way that everyone can be onboard with.
Wisdom At Work (with Chip Conley)
Wisdom At Work (with Chip Conley)
There are many stages we go through in our career, from novice to being the senior and most experienced person on the team. How we think about our role as we transition through these stages plays a large part in the quality of the body of work that we build. On today's episode, Chip Conley, a strategic advisor at Airbnb, shares insights into the making of a modern elder from his new book Wisdom At Work.
Get Rid Of Ghost Rules
Get Rid Of Ghost Rules
Do you ever find yourself doing things for inexplicable reasons, or making decisions in your work that you can't really explain? It's possible that you're living with "ghost rules". These are invisible narratives that limit your thinking and creating, and can - over time - cause you to underperform. On this episode, we share a few sources of ghost rules (from the book Herding Tigers), and how to begin to overcome them.
What To Do When You Fail
What To Do When You Fail
Everyone loves to win. The accolades, attention, and rewards are addictive. However, if you’re trying to do the work you’re capable of doing, you’ll eventually fail. If you’re leading a team of capable, driven people who are stretching themselves creatively, you’re probably going to fail often to hit your mark. You will eventually fail.
On this episode, we share four important questions to ask in the moment of failure to help you move forward and grow as a creative pro and a leader.
How To Quit Your Approval Addiction
How To Quit Your Approval Addiction
Which do you value more: being liked, or being effective? For many creative pros, they'd say that being effective is their highest ambition, but the reality is that they do many things simply for the sake of approval from others. You can be both liked and effective, but you can't chase both at the same time. On this episode, we share three ways in which you can quit your approval addiction and unleash the work you're capable of.
How To Keep A Creative Project On The Rails
How To Keep A Creative Project On The Rails
No matter how well things go in the course of a project, there are always ways in which you can go off the rails. This is especially true when you're leading other team members or a client through a complex web of decisions. Sometimes, there are circumstances beyond your control that force you to go backwards and re-visit some of your earlier work. However, you should always ensure that a project isn't going off the rails because of a lack of diligence on your part. On this episode, we share four practical tips for keeping your creative project on the rails as you make difficult decisions.