The Leader’s Last Job: Make Yourself Less Necessary

There is a peculiar irony in leadership that many leaders never fully appreciate: The ultimate measure of your success may be how well things function when you’re no longer around. Think about that for a moment. Most leaders spend their careers trying to become indispensable. They want to be the person everyone turns to for […]

One of the great myths of leadership is that leaders establish standards by announcing them. They don’t. They establish standards by enforcing them. You can hang a beautifully framed list of organizational values in the lobby. You can hold retreats. You can distribute laminated cards. You can even hire a consultant who uses words like […]

There is a dirty little secret about leadership that doesn’t get mentioned much in leadership seminars. Sometimes, if you’re doing it right, people won’t like you. There. I said it. We live in an age obsessed with approval. We count “likes.” We monitor comments. We curate our opinions. We soften our language so nobody becomes […]

When we hear the word leadership, most of us immediately imagine other people. After all, you need followers to be a leader, right? Otherwise, you’re just some guy walking around issuing inspirational pronouncements to an empty room. But there is a form of leadership that precedes followers, titles, corner offices, organizational charts, and invitations to […]

There is a peculiar piece of advice floating around these days that says personal growth requires us to “be vulnerable.” Like many pieces of advice, it contains considerable truth—and just enough ambiguity to get us into trouble. Vulnerability does not mean wandering through life emotionally naked, announcing every insecurity to anyone unfortunate enough to be […]

Before I begin planning each new week, I engage in a brief exercise that takes only a few minutes but often changes the way I approach the days ahead. I pause and reconnect with my core values. Years ago, I learned a weekly planning process from Stephen R. Covey that began not with appointments or […]

Most of us are far more forgiving of other people than we are of ourselves. A friend makes a mistake at work, and we tell him, “Don’t beat yourself up. Learn from it and move on.” Yet when we make a similar mistake, we become our own harshest critic. We replay the error repeatedly, dwell […]

Most people own a camera. Fewer people own a telescope. Fewer still know when to use each. One of the most useful mental skills you can develop is the ability to switch between what I call Wide-Angle Thinking and Close-Up Thinking. Both have value. Both have a purpose. The problem is that many people use […]

We live in a culture obsessed with time management. Buy a planner. Download an app. Color-code your calendar. Schedule your day in fifteen-minute increments. If that fails, buy a more expensive planner. Yet many highly organized people still end the day exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why their productivity never seems to match their intentions. Why? […]

The world runs on imbalance. Twenty percent of your wardrobe gets worn eighty percent of the time. Twenty percent of your clients generate eighty percent of your revenue. Twenty percent of your friends are responsible for eighty percent of your laughter — and, inconveniently, probably eighty percent of your bad decisions. This charming little phenomenon […]