Moments
With
Marty

Some people really don’t want to lead. But they don’t necessarily know that they don’t want to lead. How do you identify them? Well, they’ll tell you somehow, if you’re paying attention.  The most obvious sign is the constant bargaining. You’ll see them going through it every day. Should I do this? Can I justify […]

There are a few key things you need to do in order to maximize your promotability. The first is to know the difference between being a workhorse and being a trusted advisor.  Everyone loves a workhorse, but workhorses generally aren’t at the front of the line for promotion. They’re mired in the detail of the […]

In a hot job market, you can’t retain every one of your people, which is why it’s important to think about who you really need to keep and why: and it’s important to be deliberate in your approach. First, think about the people who are exceptional individuals. Now, be careful here: exceptional means they produce […]

How do you know when the right time is to let someone go? It’s a significant decision that you shouldn’t make lightly, because you know it’s going to have a major impact on their life? The time to make the decision is… as soon as you know. We all know the inevitable answer long before […]

This post is inspired by an article that Denise Lee Yohn had published in Harvard Business Review in 2018. And, I defy anyone to read that headline and not feel compelled to read the article. Yohn drew on research from hundreds of companies, finding that 90% of all corporate values statements have the words “ethical” […]

If it was easy to build a diverse organization, everyone would have already done it. There’s a couple of limiting factors that I’ve learned from experience make this an incredibly difficult pursuit. The first thing is that disadvantage is historical. When you’re trying to fix historical anomalies, the people who are already in the senior […]

Many leaders claim to have built high-performing teams. Many of them are completely full of shit… and in my experience, most can’t even clearly articulate what a high-performing team is! If you want to build a high-performing team—I mean, really want to build a high performing team—then there’s going to be some pretty tough leadership […]

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 […]

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 […]