Moments
With
Marty

You’ll often hear people explain away someone else’s success by saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know!” It’s easy to discount another person’s achievement by putting it down to their position of privilege… to believe that the only reason they made it was because they received a leg-up, or a head start… […]

One of the most useful leadership models that I’ve come across in my lengthy career is Situational Leadership Theory. The fundamental premise is that, since every individual is different, and has a different level of capability and maturity, you should adapt your own leadership style to optimize results. This means you have to ‘read the […]

The board of directors is increasingly seen as the accountable body for ensuring ethical, responsible behavior from companies. But we still seem to be witnessing some pretty spectacular failures in corporate governance. To me, this isn’t at all surprising. The board has very little influence over what the management team does on a day-to-day basis. […]

What if your people knew exactly what to expect from you? What if they understood your style, the objectives that drive you, and the things you value the most? Most of us never give our people a window into these answers, and they have to learn what we expect largely through trial and error. I […]

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is often summarized as: the survival of the fittest. But, in fact, Darwin’s conclusion was that those who survive aren’t necessarily the fittest – they are the most adaptable. As a leader, one of your most valuable characteristics is your capacity for change. Change is constant. But many of us […]

We talk a lot as leaders about how to give feedback, and it takes many years of experience to actually get good at it. What we don’t talk about nearly as much is what to do when we’re on the other side of the table!  Receiving good quality, helpful, accurate feedback is essential if you […]

Whatever you try to achieve as a leader relies, at least to some extent, on your credibility. If you have strong personal credibility, it makes everything you do inordinately easier. Credibility galvanizes your team… it instills confidence in the people above you… and it ultimately becomes an integral part of your leadership brand. Without it, […]

Many young leaders who have to manage older, more experienced workers find the whole process quite intimidating. Equally, older leaders who may have gotten by in their careers using a more directive leadership style, are confounded by their inability to lead millennials to do what they want them to do! If you’re a leader, you […]

There are fundamentally two types of people in the world: lifters and leaners. Lifters carry the burden for themselves and others… they take on more accountability than the average person, and they don’t rely on anyone else to make things happen. And leaners? Well they’re happy to let the lifters do the work! My observation […]

One of the things that characterizes a high-performing team is the ability to withstand and harness the value that lies in healthy disagreement. A few weeks ago, my TED talk was released, where I spoke about The Surprising Power of Constructive Conflict. It’s definitely worth 11:33 of your time to watch this. In the absence […]