Moments
With
Marty

There are literally thousands of articles and posts written every week about the attributes of great leaders. Humility, Transparency, Fallibility, Integrity. Although it’s fun and interesting to muse on these attributes, they lack clarity.  If you actually decided that you wanted to take action to develop one of these attributes, where would you start? What […]

If you’re in it for yourself, your people will never be in it for you. Ever.  I observed this throughout my corporate career, and came to see it as a fundamental truism of leadership. Self-seeking leaders can’t get the best out of their people, because it’s almost impossible to rally them to a higher purpose.  […]

We generally talk about stress like it’s a bad thing. Putting people under stress is something that many leaders try to avoid. Why? Well, if you put people under stress, then maybe they’ll feel bad and won’t like you anymore. And because of our natural conflict aversion, we want our people to like us. We […]

Your formal qualifications are your ticket to the dance. You can’t practice as a lawyer, a doctor, or an electrician unless you’ve been accredited by a reputable academic institution, as having successfully navigated a process learning and critical assessment. It tells potential employers two things: the first is that you’ve managed to achieve a basic […]

There are many ways to end up in the C-suite. Probably the most common, and the most reliable, is to join a company where you start in a technical role as say, an accountant, lawyer, or analyst etc. and work your way up.  So you just work hard, and wait for your promotions.  In larger […]

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” […]