Moments
With
Marty

If you want to be successful in any organization, you have to have a ticket to the dance. By that, I mean that there are certain prerequisites you have to meet… these might be in the form of qualifications, or capabilities, or experience. Once you have your ticket to the dance, you have to work […]

If I distilled the key things that helped me to grow rapidly over the years, what would they be?  I’ve often said that leaders are learners, but you could spend a lot of time consuming information, without necessarily getting traction: and by traction, I mean gaining the wisdom and insight that would differentiate you as […]

Most organizations have multiple layers of people. The largest organizations can have 6, or 7 or even 8 layers of leaders… and every layer is different. It has a unique purpose, and a unique time horizon that those leaders need to focus on. During my corporate executive career, not working at the right level was […]

When you get promoted, you may have a reasonable expectation that your boss will spend time with you to induct you, to explain what’s important in your new role, and to walk you through the nuances of the transition. If this has happened to you at any point during your career, you should send me […]

We produced a podcast episode several years ago to help you identify some of the unconscious biases that may affect your judgment, perception, and actions. As much as we like to think we’re free from bias, it’s an unavoidable part of the human condition. In that episode, I covered 18 unconscious biases that are likely […]

I talk a lot about high performance. But what about the people who find themselves doing relatively mundane, repetitive, or low-skilled jobs? We tend to imagine occupations like cleaners, fruit pickers, and production line workers when we think about mundane jobs. But many people in your team could also be doing some mind-numbing work, to […]

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 […]

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 […]

I know that the phrase, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, is a tired old cliche… but it just seemed to be appropriate for this moment.  And I can speak with some authority on the matter, at least, because I ran a few marathons back in the good old days: I’m talking about the days […]

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.  […]