“It is not the critic who counts; not the [person] who points out how the strong [person] stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the [person] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spend [themselves] in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if [they] fail, at least fails while daring greatly, so that [their] place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

One of my Board members was giving me a pep talk once and told me: “No one ever built a statue to a critic.”  How true!

Many of you reading this – regardless of your level of responsibility in your organization – are “The Person in the Arena.”  Have courage!  Have faith in your mission and vision!  There are many of us cheering you on as you “dare greatly!”

In these moments, it is tempting to focus on external obstacles like organizational bureaucracy or employee attitudes. However, recent research reported in Harvard Business Review by Muriel Wilkins suggests that the most significant limiting factors often lie within: our own “hidden blockers”.  Additional detail is provided in her book, Leadership Unblocked.

Hidden blockers are unproductive beliefs so ingrained and habitual that we are often unaware they even exist. Despite their invisibility, they quietly shape every aspect of how we think, feel, and act, ultimately dictating our performance and professional outcomes.

Based on an analysis of many leaders, the research identified seven beliefs that frequently stall careers:

• “I need to be involved”: The drive to touch every detail, which leads to micromanagement and team stagnation. You slow down the decision-making process and become a bottleneck.
• “I need it done now”: A demand for immediate results that creates false urgency and triggers burnout. People rush their execution and become numb to your requests.
• “I know I’m right”: A belief that shuts down collaboration and stifles innovation. You miss good input from others and make sub-optimal decisions.
• “I can’t make a mistake”: A fear of failure that encourages perfectionism and risk avoidance. Your belief that you need to be flawless is unhealthy for you and others.
• “If I can do it, so can you”: Setting unrealistic expectations by assuming others must work exactly like you do. Everyone has different talents.
• “I can’t say no”: The inability to set boundaries, resulting in blurred priorities and overwork. This further exacerbates the “I need it done now” problem.
• “I don’t belong here”: Impostor syndrome that leads to self-sabotage and reduced influence. It also reduces your visibility and ability to communicate.

To overcome these barriers, leaders can apply a three-step framework designed to get them “unstuck”.

1.  Uncover the blocker by recognizing the problem and naming the specific belief creating it.

2.  Unpack the belief by reflecting on where it came from and how it is currently limiting your growth.

3.  Unblock yourself by reframing that belief into something productive and embedding that new perspective into tangible action.

Real organizational transformation cannot occur until there is a fundamental change in the consciousness of leadership. By identifying and reframing your own blockers, you spark a cycle of personal growth that leads to positive collective change and extraordinary achievement for your entire team.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Wilkins, M.  “The Hidden Beliefs That Hold Leaders Back,”Harvard Business Review, November – December 2025.

The annual performance review was focused on “what do you need to work on?”

These days the “weakness-fixing” era is fading and more people realize that real success is when you can develop your strengths; when you can move from being very good at something to being SuperFantastic.

Unfortunately, some people believe that this means you can ignore your weaknesses.  Not so fast, my friend.  Ignoring your weaknesses can be a huge career derailer.

So what do you do?  Develop your strengths or fix weaknesses?

According to research in the Harvard Business Review, the answer isn’t to pick one approach over the other, but to diagnose what your specific situation requires. Before deciding where to invest your energy, you must work through four diagnostic questions:

1.  What does success require in my role? Identify the baseline capabilities needed to perform effectively, which vary significantly by level and function.

2.  What are my current capabilities? Rigorously map your strengths and weaknesses against those role requirements.

3.  What can be compensated for? Determine which weaknesses can be addressed through team design, delegation, or support systems rather than personal development.

4.  Where is my untapped potential? Look for capabilities you haven’t yet discovered because you were busy leveraging existing strengths.

Once you have diagnosed your needs, focus your development efforts on three critical categories:

• Superpowers: These are exceptional strengths that set you apart. Small investments here often produce significant improvements, so you should double down on them.
• Dangerous Derailers: These are unmanaged weaknesses that damage trust, psychological safety, and relationships. Addressing these must take priority over everything else.
• Untapped Potential: These are new capabilities you may need as your business shifts or you move into a role requiring different skills.

Your focus will also be shaped by your career stage. In early to midcareer, you can often succeed mainly by enhancing strengths. However, as you rise to more senior levels, you must address weaknesses that were previously tolerable. For example, a vice president moving to the C-suite must master enterprise strategy even if execution has always been their primary suit.

Ultimately, the debate between building strengths and fixing flaws is solved by judging what you need most in your current context. By mastering this diagnostic framework, you can move past instinctual development and begin to truly move the needle on your professional growth.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Anderson-Finch, S., Lenniger, K. & Watkins, M.  “Should You Develop Your Leadership Strengths – or Fix Your Weaknesses,” Harvard Business Review online, April 15, 2026.

Lots of our bosses could really benefit from having an executive coach!

We have all probably had bosses like this.  They have a lot of talent and many good qualities – but there are some blind spots!  If they could only get past these then life would be much better for you and the organization.

What do you do?  How do you approach your boss about coaching?  Here are some suggestions from a recent article in Harvard Business Review.

1.  Maybe You Should Not Deliver the Message.  If you feel your position as a direct report makes the conversation too risky, consider if a different messenger—like an HR business partner or a trusted cross-functional peer—might be more effective. You can also lower the stakes by suggesting a time-bound experiment, such as an eight-week trial focused on a specific initiative or transformation.

2.  Identify the Real Barrier.  If they have resisted coaching, diagnose the likely source of their resistance. It usually falls into three categories: ego, where they view needing help as a sign of weakness; misconceptions, where they see coaching as purely remedial for underperformers; or time, where they view it as just another meeting they can’t afford. Tailoring your approach to their specific barrier is crucial for success.

3. Solve a Pain Point, Don’t Fix a Gap.  The quickest way to trigger defensiveness is to point out their personal flaws. Instead, anchor the suggestion in the frustrations they have already voiced—such as executive team misalignment, exhausting workloads, or intense board pressure. Position the coach as a strategic tool to help them navigate these complex business challenges rather than a way to “fix” their personality.

4. Normalize Elite Performance.  Frame coaching as a hallmark of high-performing leaders rather than a remedial fix. Remind them that top athletes and high-profile CEOs from companies like Google and Salesforce have used coaches to manage complexity. Emphasize that a coach provides a confidential, politically neutral space for strategic thinking and pressure-testing decisions.

Ultimately, the decision to engage a coach must belong to the leader. If you notice increasing irritation or find yourself excluded from key meetings after raising the topic, it is time to stop pushing to protect your own professional credibility. The real objective is to create the conditions where they can opt-in to growth on their own terms.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Lyons, M.  “How to Convince Your Boss They Need a Coach,” Harvard Business Review online, April 10, 2026.

And yet, so many leaders do this very poorly.

Some of the implications for lack of accountability include:

• Below average performance of the team and organization
• Resentment builds among team members
• Lack of accountability becomes a part of the culture and spreads
• Lose high performers who leave the company

Here is what you need to do to become better at holding others accountable:

1.  Make sure that you set the standard by following through with every commitment.  You set the tone.  Learn more here.

2.  Establish specific outcomes for every job.  Hold people accountable for the results they need to produce, not progress on their to do list.

3.  Make sure you are clear on the specific expectations of every team member.

4.  Communicate commitments made by each team member in writing after every team meeting.

5.  When people miss deadlines, contact them and ask for an update.  Discipline yourself to do this every time.  Don’t play favorites.  And, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.  Just ask.

6.  Encourage your team to hold one another accountable.

This is a good start.  If you do these things consistently, then you will build a culture of accountability.  In time, this culture will reinforce itself.  High performers will be drawn to your team.

High-performing leaders often fall into a “fixing” cycle.

When something goes wrong, they always come to you.  And sure enough, you are able to fix it – whatever “it” is.  Over time, this creates a toxic dependency. The more you fix, the less others have to. Your reliability effectively masks systemic issues, allowing broken processes and underperformance to persist because you are there to catch the falling glass.

The personal cost of this dynamic is significant. While you are busy firefighting and compensating for the gaps of others, you lose the bandwidth for the high-level strategic work your role actually requires.

By acting as the “fixer,” you are essentially teaching your colleagues that they don’t need to be fully accountable because you will always provide the rescue.  Your greatest strength has become a liability.

To reclaim your impact, your reliability must become strategic rather than reactive. Here are some ideas from a recent article in Harvard Business Review to help you make a fundamental shift in how you see your role:

• Surface the Gaps: Instead of quietly fixing a broken workflow, highlight the friction. Let the system feel the pressure of its own inefficiencies so that long-term solutions can be implemented.
• Clarify Decision Rights: Be explicit about who owns what. If a task isn’t yours, resist the urge to take it on simply because you can do it faster or better than the person responsible.
• Distribute Accountability: Leading effectively means ensuring that accountability lands where it belongs. Your goal isn’t to carry the load alone, but to ensure the team is structured to carry it collectively.

Stepping back from the role of “fixer” isn’t about withdrawing; it’s about leading with better judgment. By letting go of the need to be the constant hero, you create space for your team to grow and for your organization to become more resilient. True leadership isn’t about being the most reliable person in the room – it’s about building a system where reliability is shared.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Velasquez, L.  “When Being the Most Reliable Leader Becomes a Liability,” Harvard Business Review online, February 27, 2026.

This is the standard that I set for myself – and I remind myself of this every day.

This does not mean that I do a perfect job in every class – far from it.  I always have ideas on how I can do better.  But I go for it and give 100% effort every day.

What would it take for you to bring you’re “A Game” to work every day?

Here are some of the things I do:

• Prepare.  Every day brings a new challenge.  Make sure you have put the time into being ready for each of your key goals for the day.
• Focus.  It is easy to get distracted during the day.  Work to keep your focus on your key goals for the day.
• Prioritize.  Bringing your “A Game” does not mean that do everything perfectly.  You need to pick the top goals for the day to focus on.
• Rest.  We cannot be our best without getting proper rest – whatever that means for you.
• Health.  Taking care of our health is great for the long term, but also for today.  Make sure you have the energy you need to bring your “A Game.”
• Continuous Improvement. All of us can get better each day.  Continually evaluate improvements for the future.
• Make Your Own List. These are the things that I need to bring my “A Game” – what about you?

Are you bringing your “A Game” every day or are you sleepwalking through life; same ‘ol, same ‘ol?  Are you phoning it in?

We can never get a day back.  I suggest making the effort to bring your “A Game” every day.  Not only will you be more successful – the whole experience will be much more fulfilling.

I was not interested!  I didn’t need to “win” friends.  I was already good at “making” friends.  And the “winning friends” part made me suspicious that the “influencing people” part was about “how to manipulate” people.  Not interested.

Finally, enough people kept recommending it that I broke down and read it.  And I became a fan!  That was many years ago.  I have recommended the book and/or given it to many people over the years.  This little blog is my recommendation for you to read it as well!

The most important part of the book is Carnegie’s recommendation: “Become genuinely interested in other people.”

As you know, some people are “genuinely” interested in others – and some are not.  Some are way more interested in themselves.  I am guessing that since you are reading this, you are someone who IS genuinely interested in others – you care about them.  And if that is true, then this book will help you understand how to show people that you really care.

Here are just some of the nuggets from the book that may help you decide to read it:

• Remember names: A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
• Be a good listener: Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Show respect for opinions: Never say, “You’re wrong.”
• If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Give honest and sincere appreciation
• Smile: It is a messenger of your goodwill.
• As a leader, praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
• By controlling your ego and prioritizing the dignity of others, you naturally gain influence.

If you care about people, then using these behaviors will help people see it and feel it.

IMPORTANT: These are not tricks!  If you don’t care about people and use these behaviors, people will realize that you are full of it!

In a world that often rewards selfishness and in which many people don’t feel cared about, these are important behaviors to consider – if you really do care about others.  And, of course, if you don’t care, people will figure you out.  You cannot fake sincerity.

The research on trust is very clear.

Leaders who are trusted are much more effective.

Teams that trust one another are more effective.

And organizations in which high levels of trust exist among employees are more effective.

This all starts with you as a leader.

Can people count on you to be honest with them and to tell the truth – the whole truth, without any “spinning?”

Do you have the best interest of your team in mind at all times?

When you are faced with a dilemma, can people count on you to work it out as best you can?

Do you speak up when you know it is the right thing to do?  And how about – when you know it may not be in your best interest to do so?

These are not easy things in a world that often rewards selfishness.  But if you can answer “yes” to these questions, then you are on the path to becoming a genuine leader of integrity.

What kind of leader do you want to be?

Unfortunately, research shows that most change efforts fail.

While having a “sense of urgency” is widely regarded as important to a successful change effort, ironically – many efforts fail when a change is launched too soon.  It takes a wise leader to balance the tension between “urgency” and “being ready.”

Following is some guidance to help you with balancing that tension, with ideas taken from a recent Harvard Business Review article.

Many change efforts fail due to preventable patterns that drain an initiative’s energy at the point of launch. These include:

• A “Moral Authority Gap”: A lack of trusted, values-based leadership that fails to convert simple compliance into true conviction.
• Underestimating the Status Quo: Grossly miscalculating the resilience of existing routines and structural inertia.
• Perverse Incentives: Failing to align middle management’s incentives with the new priorities, leaving them tied to old habits.
• The Over-Hasty Launch: Rushing into execution without a detailed plan, often mistaking recklessness for healthy urgency.

Here are some strategies to increase your chances of success:

1. Perform the “Awful Triage”: Change capacity is a finite resource. You must be prepared to say “no” to secondary projects to ensure your mission-critical initiatives have the focus they need to succeed.
2. Conduct a “Do-Nothing” Analysis: Bring stakeholders together and ask: “What happens if we do nothing?”. Surfacing the real costs of inaction builds the urgency and alignment needed for a successful launch.
3. Build a Guiding Coalition Early: Assemble a diverse group of influential stakeholders—from senior experts to respected frontline managers—who can scale influence and help refine the roadmap.
4. Plan for Early Wins: Create concrete, visible milestones that can be achieved within the first 30 to 90 days. These “proof points” help bridge the “span of uncertainty” where employees are watching for evidence that the change actually works.

Nothing will derail your leadership momentum more than a “false start” when it comes to leading change.  It is nearly impossible to recover from it.  Use these ideas to lead your team to sustained Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Clark, T. R.  “How to Avoid a False Start When You Are Leading a Big Change,” Harvard Business Review online, February 10, 2026.