Moments
With
Marty

Have you ever questioned your boss about a particular task, and at the end of a brief exchange, he simply says: “Look, just do it, OK?”  I call these leaders “Nike bosses”, for obvious reasons. Although I’m sure no one sets out to become a Nike boss, sometimes it’s simply the product of a leader […]

Well-run businesses can be boring. They don’t experience frequent crises and they don’t encounter surprises at every turn. Why? Because the leaders understand risk, and they plan accordingly, avoiding the majority of disasters that other companies are routinely forced to face.  As you may know, I started my career in IT, well before this was […]

What are the drivers that make senior leaders so prone to believing their own bullshit? There are several psychological factors at play.  The first factor is that we all want people to think that we’re capable and competent. We want to seem as though we have the answers. And we want to appear noble and […]

A great documentary was made several years ago called Back and Forth, which chronicled the formation and rise to stardom of the rock band, the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl, the band’s founder, and the former drummer of legendary grunge band, Nirvana, had transitioned to front man. He was the Foo Fighters lead singer and guitarist. […]

How do you, as a leader, set appropriate boundaries in your work relationships? How do you strike the balance between establishing trust-based, caring relationships with your people, and maintaining professional distance?  Call me overly-cautious, but I’ve come to the view over the years that leaders simply should not have romantic relationships in the workplace.  I […]

Blaming others when something doesn’t go to plan is one of the most insidious (and unfortunately, most common) leadership behaviors. It’s a cancer in your culture that has to be eradicated.  When a leader tolerates the blame game, excuses become the norm, and organizational politics thrives.  I came to believe over time that excuses are […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]