There is a conversation that happens in almost every company, and it goes something like this. Someone is very good at their job. They ship clean work, they are dependable, other people like working with them. A management position opens up. The obvious move is to give it to them, because they have earned it […]
The best analyst on a team I advised was promoted to lead it, and within six months she was drowning. Not because she had gotten worse at the work. She had gotten better. She was still the fastest, most accurate, most reliable person in the room. That was the problem. She kept doing the work […]
A senior director sits across from her boss in a development conversation. She has been told, again, that she needs to “work on her executive presence” if she wants to be considered for the next role. She nods, takes notes, and walks out with no clearer sense of what to do tomorrow than she had […]
A few weeks ago I sat in on a strategy session where a senior leader pulled up a polished AI-generated analysis of his competitive landscape. It was thorough. The frameworks were sound. The data points were current. Around the table, heads nodded. The conversation moved quickly toward implementation. Nobody asked whether the analysis had framed […]
The business landscape has become a psychological minefield. Economic volatility sends tremors through every organization, the job market lurches unpredictably between extremes, and the future feels less like a strategic planning exercise and more like navigating fog. For business leaders, this environment demands more than operational excellence or financial acumen. It requires something fundamentally human: […]
The most successful transformation I’ve witnessed didn’t start with a comprehensive change management framework or detailed project timeline. It began when the CEO stood before 2,000 employees and said, “I don’t know exactly how we’ll get there, but I know we need to evolve—and I need your help figuring out how.” That moment of vulnerability […]
We live in a culture of yes. In the business world, we are taught to engage, be assertive and never turn down an opportunity. All of this behavior results in a whole lot of yeses (and time commitments). After all, saying yes is fun; it often feels a lot better than saying no. To further […]
Connecting with coworkers, clients and customers has never been easier. Gone are the days when we had to drive across town to chat with someone in a different office. When we run into a challenge or have a question regarding our work, we have a plethora of communication tools at our fingertips: email, text, instant […]
Jesse Jacoby
