I was honored to be interviewed by Lisa Nicole Bell on her Behind the Brilliance podcast, a long-form interview for the intellectually curious and relentlessly ambitious. She drew out several aspects of my career journey that I had never shared before, including: — the challenge of letting go of previous identities when pivoting your career —…
Month: January 2026
Our conscious brain is limited to processing 20-30 bits a second.
Our conscious brain is limited to processing 20-30 bits a second. I learned this startling fact 30 years ago when I was reading The User Illusion, by Tor Norretranders. And yet we perceive about 12 million bits/second from our senses (10 million from our vision alone). How could we possibly be conscious of what’s going on…
When things aren’t going the way we want, we can stay silent and resentful and hope things will magically change. Or we can speak up and share what we want to be different.
When things aren’t going the way we want, we can stay silent and resentful and hope things will magically change. Or we can speak up and share what we want to be different. Early in my career, I took the former approach. It was the manager or the VP or the CEO’s job to make…
You can’t learn great leadership from reading a book. You learn it by training your body.
You can’t learn great leadership from reading a book. You learn it by training your body. That might seem counterintuitive, because there are thousands of books on leadership. But if great leadership was something you could learn from a book, then how come great leaders are so rare? I often compare leadership to a physical…
Giving more requirements and context can actually increase autonomy.
Giving more requirements and context can actually increase autonomy. Many managers think that autonomy means complete freedom to do whatever you want. They delegate a task to somebody on their team, give them full autonomy, and think they’re being a great manager because everybody wants autonomy. But then the task comes back and it’s not…
What is the most valuable thing you can do today? What will you let go undone to make that happen?
What is the most valuable thing you can do today? What will you let go undone to make that happen? I used to believe that job success came from working harder and getting more things done. But that didn’t scale. Once I was working 100 hours a week, it wasn’t physically possible for me to…
Do you feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks that you’re asked to do each day? Or that the reward for a job well done is more work?
Do you feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks that you’re asked to do each day? Or that the reward for a job well done is more work? That’s how it felt when I started working at Google. Despite the external validation, I was exhausted and drained every day. My life was an endless stream…
It feels unfair when relationships aren’t reciprocal. Why should I spend extra effort helping others when they aren’t doing the same for me?
It feels unfair when relationships aren’t reciprocal. Why should I spend extra effort helping others when they aren’t doing the same for me? And that’s why it’s powerful. Everybody gets this in theory. We know that other people are more likely to help us if we help them first. The Golden Rule and all that….
Do you feel frustrated that you can’t reach the next level of leadership?
Do you feel frustrated that you can’t reach the next level of leadership? Or feel overloaded by growing scope and additional responsibilities? If you want things to be different in 2026, start this year by taking my Maven course, Scale Your Leadership with the Executive Mindset. It’s been designed specifically for rising leaders to help you…