Leaders aren’t born, they’re made. This is the audio journal of Dave Stachowiak, host of Coaching for Leaders, a top-ranked management podcast downloaded 15 million times. Each entry is less than five minutes and captures an insight or reflection for leaders. Activate your FREE membership to access full transcripts and discover the entire episode library at CoachingforLeaders.com.
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Your Toolbox
Thursday, February 11, 2021 • Duration 03:59
A few weeks ago, I was assembling a new desk in our studio. Mostly the project was going smoothly, but one pesky bolt wasn’t fitting onto a brace for the desk.
The wrench I had clearly wasn’t working well for the job, but I figured I could just force it a bit instead of having to go all the way back to the garage to get the wrench I really needed.
I pressed on with the wrongly-sized wrench, only to have it slip out of my fingers and slice into my thumb. This resulted in me having to stop the work, address the minor bleeding, get a bandage, and then eventually make it back down to the garage to get the wrench I should have gotten in the first place.
This of course took way longer than if I had just started with the right tool. The entire rest of the assembly also slowed down since I had to be mindful that I didn’t lose the bandage and risk dropping blood on the furniture.
You’ve done something like this too, right? Sometimes it’s just easier to use tool you already grabbed than to stop and get the tool you need.
I fear this happens sometimes with leaders when it comes to the skill of coaching.
All of us have heard about the importance of having good coaching skills. It’s an essential tool in the toolbox of every leader — one of the most important ones, in fact. It’s useful, powerful, even inspiring, when used well.
But it is only one tool and, just like an actual toolbox, one tool isn’t enough for every situation.
Feedback for leaders is also important. So is training. In some situations, being directive is right. Facilitation is essential when trying to surface new ideas. And of course, so is accountability when expectations aren’t met.
If you go onto our website and look in the episode library, there are more than 60 categories of skills databased from podcasts episodes I’ve aired over the years. One of those categories is called “Coaching Skills” but there are a lot of others.
In fact, of the over 500 episodes I’ve aired on the Coaching for Leaders podcast, only about two dozen directly address what I would call coaching skills.
Don’t get me wrong…nobody is happier to see a lot more leaders appreciating and using coaching skills in recent years.
Yet, I fear that I and others have unintentionally sent the message that coaching skills are critical, while other skills are perhaps secondary. After all, I’m the one who named a podcast “Coaching for Leaders”.
But the podcast could be as easily be called Training for Leaders, or Management or Leaders, or Conversations for Leaders, or probably a dozen other words that would reflect the full repertoire of skills that most leaders need.
This is one of the reasons I’ve always appreciated the Situational Leadership model created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard. They challenge leaders to first assess the situation and then respond with the appropriate behavior.
Just like you would do if tackling a house project. Determine what’s needed first. Grab the correct tool, second.
If your coaching skills aren’t getting people where they need to go, it could be that improving your skills might help. But it also could be that you’re using the wrong tool for the situation.
I hope that you’ll use coaching a lot as a leader. It’s a wonderful place to begin from — and it will serve you and others well throughout your career. And, I give you permission to not be so coach-like, if the situation dictates something else.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Changed My Mind
Friday, June 12, 2020 • Duration 04:54
When I was 16 years old, I discovered that the police department in the town I grew up in had an explorer program. Since I was interested in a career in law enforcement at the time, I attended a meeting and quickly joined.
I was never a sworn police officer - nor have I ever done any of the difficult work in policing. However, I did spend two years volunteering in uniform at community events, riding along many times with police officers on patrol, and even graduated from a junior police academy. I once witnessed a police officer get assaulted right in front of me.
I had an up-front view of how complex the job of police officer is and, although I concluded that law enforcement wasn’t for me, it shaped a lot of my worldview - especially from the perspective of the police.
If you’ve ever listened to the Coaching for Leaders podcast, you know that I often ask experts at the end of interviews what they’ve changed their minds on. It’s a question I also pose to myself.
It’s relevant to speak on the events of the day, because George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the police has direct implications for how many of us in organizations do better.
In the recent years, and reaffirmed in the last month, I’ve changed my mind on at least three things.
First, I used to believe that, unless there was substantial evidence to the contrary, we should generally give police departments the benefit of the doubt, since excessive use of force seemed rare and isolated.
On this belief, I was wrong.
Thank goodness for smartphones with cameras. They have opened my eyes to what Black folks have been saying for years about police brutality. After seeing hundreds of these videos in recent years, it’s clear that many of these incidents are deeply rooted in systemic racism, not only in our policing, but in American society as a whole.
Yes, of course police work is dangerous, but so is commercial fishing, agriculture work, and construction. Yes, there are police leaders who have taken significant action to address racism in policing, but many also have not. I’m done giving police departments the benefit of the doubt.
Second, I used to believe that, it’s just a reality for us as a society to accept some “bad apples” in our police forces.
Comedian Chris Rock points out that there are some jobs that are too important to allow for bad behavior. Take pilots for example. No airline allows a margin of error for a certain number of crash landings each year. No nuclear power plant allows its engineers an acceptable number of meltdowns. No hospital allows surgeons a quota for ignoring the needs of certain patients.
I’m left with the uncomfortable conclusion that, particularly on this issue, racism is why I haven’t held police officers to the same standard I would expect of any other professional dealing with life-safety issues. As a result, I’ve changed my mind on allowing a different standard in policing - and in my thinking.
But the most important thing I’ve changed my mind on is my own contribution.
If George Floyd’s murder had happened five years ago and you asked me who killed him, I would have said, “Four police officers.”
I’ve changed my mind on that, too.
Today, I know his blood is also on my hands. While my contribution is different than the people who physically killed him, I and others with privilege contributed to his murder by:
Not speaking out against the militarization of America’s police departments.
Not recognizing that we need better options for responding to complex situations in our society other than just sending in armed officers.
Not pushing any of my elected representatives on this issue.
Not having enough empathy for my Black brothers and sisters who have been doing everything imaginable to get attention on this, for years.
I don’t know where this leaves you, but it leaves me with the commitment to do better on what I’m often inviting others to do:
Appeal to the Nobler Motive
Thursday, November 21, 2019 • Duration 03:28
I began my career working in a neighborhood education center. Early on in my new job, a parent called one day to inform us that her daughter, who was struggling with math, would not be continuing in our program.
I spent a minute or two chatting with the mom. It wasn’t about the money. The child just wasn’t motivated to do the work and she didn’t see the point in continuing to take everybody’s time.
Later that day, my boss (who knew way more about the girl’s struggles with math than I did) heard about the call and took me aside. When she discovered that I hadn’t done much to advocate for the child, she didn’t pulled any punches.
She took a step towards me, waved her finger in my face, and raised her voice:
You call her back now and you tell her she’s wrong.
The demand was so blunt that I thought she was kidding.
She wasn’t.
Of course, she didn’t literally expect me to say those words, but she did expect me to advocate for the child - and she wasn’t going to let me off the hook until I did it. My boss knew from experience that if this girl stopped now, they’d likely never get serious about math.
Feeling like I had little choice, I made the call.
Twenty years later, I remember little about the conversation except that I went in with the intention to advocate for the child. Somehow, I convinced the mom to keep going until the child’s confidence in math improved.
I would not recommend this style of management. My boss got away with it because she was a top performer, but also because she did something amazingly well that Dale Carnegie taught in How to Win Friends and Influence People*:
Appeal to the nobler motive.
Once it was clear I had turned the situation around, it was like her demand never happened. She made it a win for the child — and me.
You did that. You changed that child’s life.
Incidents like that happened again and again in the year I worked for her.
She pushed my colleague and I super hard, every day. When we performed well, she was the first to tell us. When we screwed up, she was in our face with tons of observation and coaching, until we got better.
And when we had a big win, she’d broadcast it far and wide. She’d talk about the kids lives we changed and helped us build our brands within the company. Both of us got fast-tracked for promotion, because of it.
The first week I worked for this boss, I didn’t want to come back. By the time I came under a new boss a year later, I immediately missed her. I had quickly learned that she would fight tooth and nail for any employee who was making a big difference for kids.
Lots of people give feedback. Some do it gracefully; some don’t. But few tie it to the nobler motive — the bigger, larger reason behind the numbers. Be the kind of leader who appeals to what really matters and, even when the feedback is tough, reminds people why they’re really there.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
You’re Not Helping
Thursday, November 14, 2019 • Duration 04:35
A client reached out to me recently and shared a struggle he’s been having.
His organization is going through a difficult time — for reasons that have nothing to do with him, his team, or his part of the organization. Strong headwinds are at play for the entire industry that will likely take several years to play out.
He mentioned that in the recent past, a few higher level leaders have swooped in for site visits and promised resources and changes to help his team better weather the storm. However, these espoused resources never seem to materialize.
Of course, this has only made the problem worse. Members of this person’s team, already struggling to find motivation during a difficult time, get quickly aggravated by promises of help — only to later discover that the promises are empty.
I couldn’t help but empathize with this leader, since I’ve seen this happen before. A usually well-meaning, senior leader comes out for a site visit and make promises to help with something.
And then nothing happens.
I also find myself empathizing a bit with the senior person, too. I’m sure there’s a least a few times in my career when I, hopefully well-meaning, promised things I didn’t deliver on.
When you are visiting a team or site that you don’t see everyday and are surprised about a resource they don’t have, there’s the tendency for a lot of us to want to be the hero and deliver something that helps everybody out.
Sometimes we don’t follow through as senior leaders — and sometimes, we do follow though, only to discover that the situation is, of course, a bit more complicated that we first thought. Good intentions and effort aside, the complexity sometimes requires us to put things on the back burner.
Yet another reminder of these wise words from the book Difficult Conversations*:
Intent does not equal impact.
Our conversation ended up surfacing two actions this leader could take to minimize this issue, going forward.
First, we decided that when a senior leader comes for a site visit, making a simple request in advance could help. The invitation might sound something like this either over the phone or privately, at the start of the visit:
You’ll likely hear some frustrations from my team today, since it’s a difficult time for all of us. I know you want to help support us in the best way possible. If you see a way to help and you’re certain it’s something you can do immediately, we’re really grateful for that. If, however, you see a place to help and the resources/budget aren’t available today, it will help me immensely if we can chat offline first. I’d love to hear what you’re thinking and then find the right way to roll it out, once the resources are in place.
Some senior leaders will get that message loud and clear. Some won’t. That can’t be controlled — but you can still make the request.
Second, in the spirit of teaching people how to help you, some people simply don’t know what to do if they can’t swoop in to save the day. Rather than just telling people what they shouldn’t do, it’s often useful to also be directive on exactly how they can help.
An invitation like this can go a long way:
Thank you for being here to support us. Here’s the way you can help my team the most during this visit. Spend time asking questions about their work. You’re going to hear frustrations. Listen to them. Don’t try to solve them. Once you’ve listened, even if it’s unclear what you can provide right now to help, show them they’ve been heard. They need that right now — and it will also help me a lot in the coming weeks.
I’ve rarely seen a senior person push back on an invitation like this. They may not execute it well, but they’ll likely do better than if you said nothing.
It’s a lot easier to get irritated with the “You’re not helping,” complaint than to do the more proactive work of asking for help. Teach people how to help you, so you’re more likely to get the support you need.
If You Can, Move Your Feet
Friday, November 8, 2019 • Duration 03:17
This week, I’ve heard lots of bad news. This has included things like an unexpected layoff, dealing with a mental health challenge, losing a major business deal, and an unwanted result from a doctor.
The fact that bad things are happening in the world is obviously not news, but it’s personal when it’s someone you know and care about.
As I heard about these different situations from the people who were sharing them, I was struck by the odd coincidence that all of them, not knowing each other, had already made some sort of substantial movement to address whatever had landed in their lap.
I found myself in awe and, despite the challenges ahead, amazed by how willing everyone appeared in working through whatever the situation was.
It reminded me of a passage in the book Difficult Conversations*. This legend is retold:
After observing O Sensei, the founder of Aikido, sparring with an accomplished fighter, a young student said to the master, “You never lose your balance. What is your secret?” “You are wrong,” O Sensei replied. “I am constantly losing my balance. My skill lies in my ability to regain it.”
It’s virtually impossible to lead the kinds of lives that many of us lead and not get knocked off our game pretty regularly.
A lot of the time, it means we look a bit awkward. Sometimes, like a few situations I’ve heard about this week, we get knocked flat on our face.
For all the things we have influence over in our lives, there are infinitely more things we can’t control.
What is controllable is what happens after we get knocked to the ground. We can stay there, forever. We can stay there for awhile, and then get up. Or, we can just get up.
Having done all three of those before and stayed on the ground for years at a time, I’m not attempting to pass any judgement on what you should do in any given situation. Had I had some of the things happen to me this week that I heard about from others, I’d still be on the ground.
The invitation here is the simple reminder for all of us that, even in the midst of chaos, we get to choose if we get up -- and when that is.
When we can get up, rarely does it solve the problem, but it allows us agency to own it. Maybe that’s why this bit of wisdom, attributed as an African proverb, has inspired me more than once:
When you pray, move your feet.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Be a Stress Engineer
Thursday, October 31, 2019 • Duration 03:05
Years ago, I was instructing a training course for a group of engineers building fighter jets. During the introductions, several the participants introduced themselves as stress engineers.
I was curious what a stress engineer did, so naturally I asked one of them about it later. Turns out the job involves analyzing the various materials used on the aircraft and then testing how much strain they can handle.
As you’d imagine, figuring this out is pretty important when building an aircraft. If you’ve ever watched out the window of a plane going through turbulence, you know how much a wing can (and should) bend when exposed to stress.
It’s super important that these materials are flexible. If they weren’t, they would have to be so heavy that it would make flight almost impossible. So, understanding and managing stress actually enables flight in the first place.
Think about that for a second. Managing stress enables flight. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible.
It’s interesting how we accept this reality when building things like aircraft, vehicles, and strutures — but when it comes to our own careers and lives, we view stress only as a problem.
A lot of us view deadlines as roadblocks instead of checkpoints that keep us moving forward.
We get nervous when speaking in front of a large audience instead of thinking about how that fear could be reframed as excitement.
We work towards early retirement, expecting the the excessive stress we take on for the next decade will pay off in some kind of stress-free existence later.
No doubt, just like on an airplane, excessive stress is a problem. If a major medical situations hits, you lose your job, or a crisis happens in your life, those are serious problems that any of us would struggle with.
And, the opposite is also a problem. No stress, no deadlines, no obligations — sure, it’s nice on vacation for a week or two, but over time, even if you could create that reality, it wouldn’t be healthy. All of us know people who’ve tried to eliminate stress from their life (like through traditional retirement) and declined in health and happiness.
Be like a stress engineer. Don’t waste time trying to eliminate stress. Instead, anticipate where it’s likely to come from, notice when you handle it well and when you don’t, and build your commitments to align well with the optimal stress level for you.
When you align stress with intention, you’ll be flying high for a long time.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
The Irony of Selfishness
Thursday, October 10, 2019 • Duration 04:20
A decade ago, I responded to an inquiry from a new client who had reached out to talk about being more effective.
During our first meeting, it became increasingly apparent that he was working a lot. At some point in the conversation, we got into detail on his schedule.
He was woking 12-14 hours, most days.
“Most days” meant virtually everyday. Monday through Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday.
On Sundays, he would come in to work for a few hours in the morning, leave to spend time with him family mid-day, and come back to work in the late afternoon.
He wasn’t an executive or even a senior manager. He was a very experienced, individual contributor with a lot of talent. He was also exhausted and close to a breaking point.
As we talked more, I learned that the excessive hours had emerged gradually over a few years. While he had started at the company with a more typical schedule, things kept getting busier.
We discovered that he struggled with putting boundaries on requests. Because of this, others kept asking more. He eventually allowed so much on his plate that he found working 80+ hour weeks almost essential.
What prevented him from pushing back or asking for more resources? He didn’t want to appear selfish by not helping his colleagues.
While not normally this extreme, I see this patten a lot. Many of us justify taking on tons more because we don’t want to be selfish. After all, it’s our job to step in and help, to be a team player, and “support our family” as some organizations say.
This is problematic when it comes from a place of avoiding asking for resources because it seems selfish. Ironically, in attempting to avoid selfishness, we end creating more of it.
Merriam-Webster says that being selfish is:
Lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.
Making a choice to do a ton more for our organization and not asking for the right resources is selfish — because we get the pleasure of avoiding tough conversations and mostly other people pay the price for it in the long-run.
Our family and friends pay a price when we take on tons more work and don’t get a promotion, a salary bump, or more vacation time. Suddenly they get less of us, and nothing else. In the long-run, they lose.
Our organizations pays a price when we eventually feel resentful about all we’re doing for a role without anything in return. This eventually results in our disengagement or departure. In the long-run, they lose.
When we eventually move on from our position, as most of us do, taking on tons more and not getting the right resources means we’ve misrepresented what a typical candidate for our role can reasonably accomplish. When we’re holding a role together through shear personality and willpower rather than the right systems and resources, things fall apart quickly when we’re gone.
Contrary to popular belief, that is not a win. Things falling apart shortly after we leave doesn’t mean we were brilliant. It means we failed to put the right resources in place for the work to be sustainable.
What motivates us to do this then? The selfish the pleasure of being the hero.
There are many, appropriate times in work and life that we all jump in to help. When this comes from a place of transition, margin, growth, or joy, what a wonderful gift to give to others and our organizations.
Let’s just beware telling ourselves that we’re doing the world a favor by not asking for what we need. When there’s full transparency on what resources are necessary to do the job well, we’ll find more happiness over time and the people around us win too.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Get Your Emails Read
Thursday, October 3, 2019 • Duration 03:52
When I first started the Coaching for Leaders podcast back in 2011, it didn’t even occur to me to reach out to well known experts to appear on the show.
At some point after the first year, I got a little braver. (Not smarter, but braver.) I started sending out some invitations, asking experts to appear as guests.
Based on the lack of responses, most of these emails probably went ignored. I still remember well the response from an assistant of a well-known expert who wrote back and thanked me so kindly for reaching out, but said that sadly she couldn’t make the interview work with this person’s schedule.
While I knew that was probably code for “your show isn’t big enough” I was oddly thrilled that someone actually read an email and considered the request at all.
About a year later, I saw that this same expert had a new book coming out. I thought it might be a good time to reach out again, so I pulled up the prior conversation in my inbox. I noticed that the subject line of the email I sent a year earlier was this:
Invitation to appear on Coaching for Leaders
It suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.
Nobody, especially back then, knew or cared about appearing on my show. They were instead wondering the same thing that all of us wonder — especially when we get a request for time from someone we don’t know:
What’s in it for me?
I drafted a new email with this subject line:
Invitation to promote your new book
This time, I drafted a message with only the relevant information about the show that would matter in the context of this expert getting traction for their work.
I hit send.
Three hours later, the interview was booked.
For a long time, I’d made the mistake of sending too many emails that were written from the point of view of my interests. After booking this interview, I realized how critical it was for me to be making requests that spoke to the interests of the recipient.
I had spent a year writing invitations that completely ignored one of the principles I’d been teaching at Dale Carnegie:
Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
I’ve discovered this is critical for subject lines. If the subject line doesn’t provide immediate, apparent value to the recipient, it’s far less likely to get attention, if it’s opened at all.
You don’t need to be a creative genius to get results with this. Consider the value the recipient gets from message. Here’s an example of an average subject line:
Agenda for today
Instead, make the value of the same message more apparent with a subject line like this:
3 key points for your 1pm meeting
The value of that subject line is more more specific and apparent.
Draft at least one email today will a subject line that demonstrates value to the recipient. If you do, your emails are much more likely to be noticed, read, and acted on.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Giving the Gift of Feedback
Thursday, September 26, 2019 • Duration 04:55
When I was about six years old, my dad bought a Tandy 1000 computer from Radio Shack as a Christmas gift for our family.
I remember learning how to use the floppy disks, how to connect the dot matrix printer, and the intricate details of swapping memory boards to upgrade from 128K of memory to 256K.
We spent countless hours playing games, learning MS-DOS, and occasionally pulling our hair out in frustration as we navigated this new world of personal computing.
It spurred my interest in using technology to make our lives better. Without it, I’m not sure I would have ever gotten as excited about technology or ever used to reach others as much as I do today.
My dad’s intention behind this gift was great: introducing us to technology that was likely to be a part of our future. The context was right too: I was just old enough and it was Christmastime.
My dad was also great about encouraging me to explore learning the hardware and software on my own. Even though I had no idea what it was when it first came out of the box, it ended up being one of the best gifts I ever received.
That’s the kind of gift every person wants to be able to give. A meaningful gift that, decades later, the other person will still remember and appreciate.
Sadly, it almost never works that way. For every gift like that Tandy 1000, there are countless gifts I’ve received in my life that I can’t even remember — and some that I returned as fast as I could.
In retrospect, it really had nothing to do with the person giving the gift. Mostly, it was about my readiness to receive the gift. I suspect the same is true for you.
A friend asked me recently if I had any advice for teaching others how to give feedback to help people improve — and I couldn’t help but think about how feedback is very much like giving a gift.
First, the intention must be genuine. Feedback should be given to help someone get better, not to make us feel better about ourselves. Most of us have made the mistake of buying someone a gift that we’d like instead of considering what the other person really wanted.
The best feedback considers first the recipient. What I can offer them that’s meaningful? How do I say it in a way that shows I care? That means instead of saying, “You’re wrong,” we say, “I see it differently than you do.”
Second, the timing should be right. Handing someone a gift when there isn’t any context for it is awkward. Feedback, in the same way, should come with some kind of context. If that’s not obvious to the other party, it’s your job to frame the context.
And then third, and perhaps most importantly, allow them to accept the gift — or not. My dad got that right with our Tandy 1000. A few of our family members really dove in. Others didn’t. That was OK.
Once a gift is given, you don’t get to decide what someone does with it. They may tell people about it for decades, they may not remember it, or them may be processing the return right after you leave.
That’s just like feedback. Once given, you can’t control what the other person decides to do with it. Sometimes they’ll take it to heart, sometimes they’ll do nothing, and sometimes, they’ll fight you.
If that person is someone you manage, there are of course implications for those different responses, but you can’t possibly control whether they decide to accept your gift of feedback.
Instead, aim to be the kind of person who gives meaningful feedback in the right context — and then allows the other person to decide what they’ll do with it.
If you do that, you’ll create relationships where people don’t feel controlled by you and you’ll become more genuine in your feedback, that’s not expecting anything in return.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Green Lights Always Change
Thursday, August 29, 2019 • Duration 03:40
Many years ago, I was standing in the lobby of a customer’s building, waiting between meetings. An employee I had worked with years earlier noticed me and stopped to say hello.
She explained that she was now working directly for one of the top people in the company — and invited me to come up and see her office the next time I was in the building.
So, I accepted her invitation.
I’ve long since forgotten most of that second conversation, but something she said made it abundantly clear that I had a green light to ask this question:
Do you think there’s a chance your boss would be open to a quick chat to explore if we could help more people in your organization?
Most of the details of what happened next aren’t significant for this entry. This part is:
A few weeks later, I was briefing the entire executive leadership team of a $10 billion business.
I wish I could tell you that I was some kind of genius, but in retrospect, the green light in the situation was obvious. It wasn’t so much that I noticed it, but that I acted on it.
The hard part here is that the lights in most organizations are rarely green or red, but actually some shade of yellow. That’s why most of us spend time planning, taking measured steps, and testing progress. And most of the time, that’s absolutely the right decision.
The missed opportunity for a lot of us is that we’re so conditioned to move regularly and methodically, that sometimes we keep doing that same thing when the green light is apparent. We hesitate when the customer says:
These are the best results we’ve ever had. What else do you recommend we do?
Or we don’t follow up when the boss says:
Let me know what resources you’re going to need next year.
Or we don’t say where we need help when a colleague wonders:
What can I say to others that will make this go easier for your team?
Or we’re not willing to say something when an influencer in our industry asks:
How can I be helpful to you?
I’ve sat through more than my fair share of these green lights. I was passed over for promotions earlier in my career because I didn’t move on things quickly enough.
I’m not suggesting that you try to create green lights where they don’t exist. You’re probably better off, both on the road and in your career, erroring on sitting through a green light than in making the mistake of running a red one.
Reading the tea leaves of what shade of yellow the light is today in your organization or industry is super hard. I don’t have a good answer for how to do that. 90% of the time, you’ll never know for sure.
But I’m pretty sure these days about two things:
Every once in awhile, it’s abundantly clear that the light is green.
Once it’s green, it’s going to change back to yellow or red again, very soon.
Be cautious when you’re not sure the color of the light. But when it’s really clear that the light is green, don’t wait around for it to change. That’s the moment to go like hell.
Dave's Journal is available by audio on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.
