We all know that AI can improve your performance. It helps you do tasks faster and more accurately, but there's a cost: your ability to recall the information you used AI for decreases. In a similar vein, recording a lecture makes it easier for you to quote the lecture later, but it doesn't help you retain the information shared in the lecture. Only taking notes will really help with that. Using a calculator gets your math done quickly and correctly, but erodes your numbe

Good leaders lead each team member differently, meeting them where they need to be met. Maybe George needs more coaching and Amelia needs more training. A good leader will see that and not try to treat them the same. But great leaders are able to meet their people differently on a task-by-task basis, giving them support where they excel, and training where they're learning. The trick is knowing your people well enough to know where they're excelling and where they're stuc

I'm sitting in a hotel room on a family vacation as I write this. My kids are in kids' camp, and my husband is waiting for me on the beach. I've avoided my computer successfully for five consecutive days, so I'll keep this short so I can get back outside! Time off isn’t just part of your benefits package; it's intended to give you a reset in multiple ways. It has measurable, research-backed benefits for performance, decision-making, and leadership effectiveness. And yet,

I've been seeing this a lot in the classrooms I've been in: a manager has a team member who is underperforming (for various reasons, in various ways) and they address it, but nothing changes. They address it again, maybe this time with some consequences (like "we'll have a more serious conversation about this if it continues"), and it continues. They have the serious conversation, and it still continues. Morale is starting to tank because the rest of the team sees them ge

Many years ago, I read the fantastic book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink, and it changed the way I looked at motivation. Instead of thinking about the hundreds of ways I could motivate my people - give them more ownership? chances to belong? free time? cupcakes? - it helped me focus on three major things: A utonomy, M astery, and P urpose. Autonomy Pink argues that autonomy - the desire to be in charge of our own time - is a core driver of

I've been doing some strategic planning work (with some of my favorite people at Wildfire Strategies) for a pair of hospitals in NYC in the last few months, and in one of the hospitals, the CEO had already drafted his ten points of focus for the next few years. We saw two main ways forward: stick to his well-crafted ten points and lose the buy-in of the hospital, or go back to the drawing board and find a way to integrate his objectives into a greater strategy. We quickly c

Your mindset is all about how you see and approach the world (and work, and your team, and your business challenges). There are all kinds of predefined mindsets you can have - fixed, growth, owner, rescuer, whatever - and they all impact what information you seek (and see), and how you interpret it. Done well, it's your greatest asset. But if you're not aware of and in control of your mindset, you're at the mercy of your daily emotions and reactions. And that's not strat

Bad news ages poorly. I've learned this the hard way (and imagine you have, too). Earlier in my career, I was prepping for an all-day offsite with many moving parts - catering, room reservations, handouts, your standard full-day training. But when we got to the training site, the room was all wrong. Not just this-isn't-how-we-imagined-it wrong, but we-won't-all-fit-in-this-room wrong. I asked my team what happened, and the one who had booked the site told me she thought th

I work with a fabulous organization called Wildfire Strategies , and our fearless leader, Steve Salee , has written an article that has shed new light on a bunch of the projects I've been involved with recently. So many organizations and teams I've been working with recently are struggling -- there are hurt feelings, broken trust, unclear or contradictory leadership, and so many more challenges. Steve's article highlights five "wounds" he sees in teams, and every single on

I was running some leadership training recently when a senior leader told me his greatest strength was that he ran his business like a...