Moments
With
Marty

Is leading from the front a good thing? Well, the short answer is yes, but it comes with one major caveat. I’ve seen many leaders doing the work of people below them and then painting this as a virtue by saying, “I’m leading from the front.” This concept is completely flawed, and it’s a dangerous […]

I’ve seen the devastating effects of laissez-faire leaders. They seem to think that if you keep people happy, they’ll naturally give you their best work. In my experience, this is almost never the case. You’ll recognize a permissive or weak leader because they’ll verbalize it in some pretty standard ways. Just make a little note […]

We sometimes forget what the true purpose of leadership is. It’s not to entertain your people during their working hours, and it’s not to focus on helping them to live their best lives. The higher up you go in any organization, the less you can achieve yourself, and the more you need to rely on […]

Great leaders set an appropriate decision-making culture. People need to know, for a start, that robust challenge is expected and rewarded, not frowned upon and suppressed. You have to be able to challenge each other, and the people around you need to be able to challenge you as a decision-maker, if you want to bring […]

What is busy work? As the name would suggest, it’s activity that keeps you occupied, but doesn’t necessarily create value. It’s justifiable to anyone who happens to ask, based purely on the hours of effort it consumes. Busy work often has formal authority behind it. For example, you may be bound to follow a process […]

If you need to be liked, and you have aspirations to be a leader, you’re going to find yourself in trouble pretty quickly. Virtually everything you do as a leader puts you into a potential conflict situation. Seeking popularity will stunt your leadership growth, dull your decision-making, and feed your tendency to procrastinate. Popularity doesn’t […]

Why do so many leaders choose to avoid hard conversations? In my experience, it’s much more about a lack of will than a lack of skill. Let’s face it, it’s not that hard to avoid them. For a start, it’s likely that your leader isn’t having the hard conversations with you, so you won’t feel […]