“How can I prepare myself to be a leader?” That question, in one form or another, is posed to me often by parents, teens and young adults who view leadership as a worthy or even a noble goal. Jasmine, a 17-year-old high school senior who had distinguished herself in and out of the classroom, recently asked that same question. She was the reminder I needed to finally offer some recommendations. I felt that Jasmine deserved a thoughtful answer so I decided to send her the le

The second in a monthly series of 11 posts presenting my thinking and experience on the topic of coaching. This is going to be personal, because I can’t tell you how to best prepare yourself to deliver value as a coach. You’ll likely figure that out for yourself. So I’m going to talk about myself, and my preparation as a coach, based on this idea: If I disclose my own thinking about me, maybe that will stimulate your clarity about you. Specifically I want to share four di

People can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow When I was teenager, my mother used a clever analogy to promote her prejudice against less flashy individuals: “An introvert,” she said, “is like food without salt. It’s still nutritious, it’s still food, but it’s flat and tasteless.” From this example emerged a bias in our family against

My clients report that they sometimes make bad hiring decisions for key leadership positions. They tell me their selection processes don’t help them make accurate predictions about who is most likely to work out and who is most likely to fall short. This also frequently happens with potential merger partners. Hiring for a particular competence is easy; finding a leader or partner with maturity and poise who fits your culture presents a higher-magnitude challenge. There’s