John Doerr highlights common pitfalls when creating OKRs that he learned from Intel CEO Andy Grove under what he calls "Dr Grove's OKR hygiene".| Leading Sapiens
Learning to learn is a critical meta-skill. But too often highly educated professionals do the exact opposite often unknowingly.| Leading Sapiens
Why copying is good, quantity is better than quality, & excellence is mundane| thelsweekly.substack.com
The structural frame is one of Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of leadership and organizations. In this piece I delve deeper into the structural frame of leadership — what it entails, its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the structural aspect. These insights| Leading Sapiens
Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of organizations and leadership is a versatile tool for managers. This article delves into the human resource frame of their 4-frame model — its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and what makes leaders effective in the human resource aspect. These insights come from| Leading Sapiens
In leadership and life, ambitions often outpace our ability to consistently execute on them. A hidden hurdle that trips up many is their level of “frustration tolerance.” This is particularly true in large organizations that are literally designed to frustrate ambitions and agendas. In this piece, I unpack the critical| Leading Sapiens
Training in biases is standard fare these days. However, I see managers regularly fall for one particular bias: the fundamental attribution error. Unlike other biases, FAE directly affects several aspects of leadership. In this piece, I dive into what fundamental attribution error is, how it trips up leaders, and ways| Leading Sapiens
The term “psychological safety” is often misleading. When managers hear safety, many dismiss it as a soft style that implies complacency. Meanwhile, psychology implies too much mumbo jumbo. High-profile figures like Elon Musk advocating for a “hardcore” style perpetuate this misconception. But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship| Leading Sapiens
Project Aristotle was a multi-year research initiative by Google to understand what made teams effective. Some of its findings, psychological safety in particular, were counterintuitive. It changed how companies viewed teams and performance. Yet, a decade later, implementation remains challenging. I examine common challenges leaders face in applying psychological safety| Leading Sapiens
Transitioning into leadership roles can be especially challenging for experts/specialists. The domains of competence framework explains why.| Leading Sapiens
Changing/quitting careers in midlife is hard. A collection of 35 of the most useful frameworks when changing or quitting careers in midlife.| Leading Sapiens
In his classic The Adult Learner, Malcolm Knowles makes the distinction between creative leaders and controlling ones. By understanding teams and organizations as systems, and their energy as a parameter, one approach tries to control energy while the other works on releasing energy in the system. Leadership as controlling vs| Leading Sapiens
Self-doubt is not an impediment to be eliminated as is commonly thought of. It's a condition of the game and can even be a positive indicator.| Leading Sapiens
For leaders and managers, the art and practice of doing regular reflection is essential to functioning at peak levels. The challenge is that the environment surrounding them enables anything but reflection. It's designed to do the exact opposite. Are there basic guidelines that can help to reflect more often and| Leading Sapiens
Excellence is more mundane than we think. Understanding its nuances increases our likelihood of success. Not doing so sets us up for failure.| Leading Sapiens
Jeff Bezos is one of the clearest thinkers in modern business. This article captures all his mental models and thinking frameworks in one place.| Leading Sapiens
Leaders are often cautioned to watch their actions and behavior because it sets an example and gets replicated through the organization. Which begs the question: why do people copy leaders? The common explanations tend to be psychological. But it goes beyond simple carrot and stick notions from behaviorism. There's a| Leading Sapiens
Understanding systems thinking is a must for modern leaders. In Reading the Room, David Kantor outlines a list of leadership capacities based on systems thinking and structural dynamics. They are particularly useful as a reference for developing your own leadership philosophy, practice, and model. Some of the terms Kantor uses| Leading Sapiens
Understanding the different types of goals can dramatically increase how effective we are at goal setting. It's more than the generic SMART goals framework.| Leading Sapiens
Most managers suck at giving effective, constructive feedback. Equally, most of us are bad at receiving and processing constructive feedback. This is a lost opportunity for everyone. Edgar Schein, professor emeritus at MIT, was one of the foremost experts in organizational behavior and interpersonal interactions. He articulated a set of| Leading Sapiens
A deep dive into Amazon's leadership principles, complete with videos and reading recommendations.| Leading Sapiens
Just as the Toyota Production System revolutionized manufacturing, Amazon revolutionized the world of e-commerce. But unlike Toyota's system, Amazon's system has not been as widely studied. However, there are plenty of clues that can be found between Bezos' shareholder letters, and their leadership principles. Ram Charan and Julia Yang's The| Leading Sapiens
