Knowing what they like I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. —Dale Carnegie All too often, we are| Leading Sapiens
General Stanley McChrystal commanded forces in one of the most results-driven environments imaginable — yet his deepest insight about leadership has nothing to do with outcomes. If someone whose career depended on winning wars discovered that results aren't what leadership is about, what does that say about how the rest of| Leading Sapiens
Leadership advice often focuses on communication style: how to be clearer, more persuasive, etc. While valuable, these tactics eventually hit a ceiling. You learn techniques but revert to old patterns under pressure, or the improved "delivery" somehow doesn't create the changes you hoped for. That's because language operates at a| Leading Sapiens
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
I recently wrote a piece on leadership myths. While writing, I realized these weren’t just organizational myths. They’re also personal myths about careers. The same cognitive leaps that make us believe in heroic CEOs also lead us to fall for formulaic career paths. The attribution errors| Leading Sapiens
The executive stared out the window, shell-shocked and feeling blindsided. Her boss had just asked for her resignation. How did it come to this? This scene plays out in organizations more often than we think.Leadership derailment — when a once-promising leader stumbles and falls— isn't limited| Leading Sapiens
If you're a leader, you've likely faced a problem that refused to be solved by your usual methods. A problem that made you question everything you knew about leadership. Consider this scenario: You're a senior manager, respected for solving complex business| Leading Sapiens
We think effective leaders are great problem-solvers. That’s only partially true. What they’re really good at is multi-frame thinking. They help solve problems by changing how they are framed, operating one level upstream where the real leverage lies. Multi-frame thinking means deliberately shifting interpretive lenses until| Leading Sapiens
Why do organizations repeat the same leadership mistakes despite research showing they don't work? A key reason is pervasive leadership myths. When Boeing's board asked CEO Dave Calhoun to step down, it followed a familiar script. New leader, fresh start, problems solved. It was supposed to| Leading Sapiens
When it comes to change that sticks, willpower is overrated. So are tactics and techniques. In fact, most of our efforts fail, not due to lack of determination, but something more simpler, but also more insidious. Marshall Goldsmith, one of the world's most respected executive coaches, spent decades| Leading Sapiens
"I don't want to step on anyone's toes." This is a common and reasonable stance in organizational life. But this mostly logical approach often does more damage than good. If “that’s not my job” tops the| Leading Sapiens
Modern organizations worship at the altar of efficiency, focus, and relentless execution. We follow suit at the personal level as well by trying to optimize everything to the hilt. While mostly helpful, this often misses the point. The same organizations that tout “innovation” also create environments that stifle it. Productivity| Leading Sapiens
Can balancing advocacy with inquiry be implemented at an organizational level? Turns out, you can. Roger Martin is one of the world's foremost experts on strategy and a former dean of the Rotman School of Management. He shares an example at P&G where giving equal importance to inquiry in| Leading Sapiens
Do you consider yourself an effective leader? What about parenting? When you think of getting better at something, what's your first instinct? Our default approach is to look outside for help. But an equally fruitful and often better approach is to look inside — the natural process of learning from our| Leading Sapiens
If you're the ambitious type, you've probably had your fair share of leadership books and management training. More than likely you've come across two stalwarts of the leadership literature and their models : emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. A key thrust of these models, including many others, is that there are| Leading Sapiens
Leaders often look "proven" formulas. That's the promise of technology. But there are downsides and often not applicable to the human domain.| Leading Sapiens
Learning to learn is a critical meta-skill. But too often highly educated professionals do the exact opposite often unknowingly.| Leading Sapiens
How do effective leaders maintain their composure when everything seems out of control? They’re adept at discerning what they can control vs what they can’t, and what they can influence. The circle of control, influence, and concerns (acceptance) framework or CIA — is a “leadership triage” tool that helps| Leading Sapiens
For 16+ years, we master the rules of school. Study hard, get good grades, follow the formula and ultimately merit wins. Then we enter the workforce and discover none of it works quite like we thought. This becomes painfully obvious as you rise higher in the org. But even seasoned| Leading Sapiens
It's easy to assume that leaders derail due to obvious flaws—poor judgment, unchecked ego, toxic behavior. But most leaders don't derail because of recklessness. They derail because they lean too hard on the very strengths that got them there. Like a rope fraying one thread at a time, this| Leading Sapiens
"Radical transparency" is often touted as a leadership virtue. So why do leaders still struggle with openness? Using the Johari Window's Quadrant 1 (Open/Arena), this article examines the complexities of leadership transparency and presents a nuanced approach to mastering openness in leadership. Through the lens of Quadrant 1 (Open/| Leading Sapiens
"I'm just not strategic enough for that role," Joe told me, shaking his head. With fifteen years of stellar technical leadership and a track record of flawless execution, he seemed like an obvious candidate for the open VP position. But he wouldn't even consider applying. He disqualified himself before anyone| Leading Sapiens
“You’ve lost your edge,” the new VP declared. Just eight months ago, the same contrarian thinking had earned my client the company’s innovation award. Same brain, same approach, different verdict. What changed? I’ve been on both ends of the performance/perception spectrum myself. One year I was| Leading Sapiens
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
Organizational life can be a confusing muddle, especially if you are trying to get better at playing the game. Take the leadership genre for example. You might come across books that cover any of the following: power, building better teams, culture, emotional intelligence, war and strategy, psychology, authentic leadership, biographies| Leading Sapiens
Understanding and leveraging language is critical to leadership effectiveness. There are aspects of language that are hidden in plain sight.| 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
Confidence is overrated. A more effective, scientifically-grounded approach to improve performance is self-efficacy. We often hear about the importance of confidence. "Believe in yourself," the advice goes. Although intuitive, it's not as helpful. What exactly is confidence? Is it innate? Or can you work at it? Self-efficacy is a more| Leading Sapiens
Why do some people thrive in complexity while others buckle under pressure? A key factor is the level of cognitive flexibility. In this piece, I examine what cognitive flexibility means, why it’s critical to leadership, and strategies for building it. A World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report ranked| Leading Sapiens
Is leadership about substance or perception? The truth is, it's both. You must not only be effective; you must also appear effective. Impression management — first introduced by Erving Goffman — has been widely studied and researched. And it's especially relevant to leadership. In this piece, I dig into Goffman’s framework| Leading Sapiens
Henry Mintzberg was one of the first to identify a comprehensive set of managerial roles that captured the reality of managerial work. Later, he updated this original list into an overall management model. In this piece, I examine the importance of Mintzberg’s managerial roles and management model, and how| Leading Sapiens
This is part II of a series on loosely coupled systems. Building on Karl Weick's notion of loose coupling introduced previously, I examine how leadership in these organizations differs from traditional command and control structures. Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier pioneered a radical organizational model called RenDanHeYi, which loosely translates to| 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
I am an executive/leadership coach. Before LS, I worked for 20 years in corporate America in various technical & leadership roles. Have feedback? You can reach me at sheril@leadingsapiens.com.| Leading Sapiens
We are being constantly told to be better communicators. As part of this push, courses and programs tell us to become "active" listeners. But this active approach towards listening can actually be counter productive and make our communication worse, not better. Consider some of the common recommedations of active listening:| 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
Traditional management emphasizes strict control, clear hierarchies, and uniform processes. This approach, rooted in industrial-era thinking, promises efficiency and predictability. However, loose-coupling is a compelling alternative to traditional tightly-coupled approaches. In this piece, I revisit Karl Weick’s notion of loose-coupling in organizations and its impact on control and flexibility.| Leading Sapiens
In conventional leadership, competence is about maintaining composure, projecting strength, and exuding confidence. However, truly effective leaders do something more surprising: self-disclosure. They share their fallibility as well as strengths. Self-disclosure is a misunderstood skill of effective leadership. How much is too much? And how can you ensure that opening| Leading Sapiens
Effective leadership hinges on the ability to view organizational challenges from multiple perspectives. Gareth Morgan's eight metaphors of organization gives leaders a versatile set of lenses to examine challenges. In this piece, I introduce each of the organizational metaphors, their significance, and how to use them for strategic reflection. Why| Leading Sapiens
Humility and inquiry aren’t usually associated with effective leadership. The traditional view is “loud”: vision, setting goals, and driving the team towards success. However, this overlooks a crucial but “quieter” aspect: asking questions and listening. Humble Inquiry, developed by Edgar Schein, challenges the traditional view by emphasizing how humility| 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
Traditional authority—titles, commands, and rewards—has lost its edge in the modern workplace. What compels people is trust, respect, and admiration. This is the essence of referent power—a subtle but effective form of power that inspires loyalty and performance without coercion. It is effective but rare. In this| Leading Sapiens
Understanding different types of power is crucial for effective leadership. Coercive power is a controversial yet sometimes necessary and effective tool. I delve into the nuances of coercive power, its applications, why leaders shouldn’t avoid it, and Elon Musk as an example of coercive leadership. What is Coercive Power| Leading Sapiens
Understanding and using power is key to effective leadership. The French-Raven model of power bases is a good primer on the different types of power. This post introduces this foundational framework of power and the 6 types: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, referent, and information power. In 1959, social psychologists John| Leading Sapiens
Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal’s four frames model of organizations and leadership is a versatile tool for managers. In this article, I delve deeper into the political frame of their 4-frame model — its assumptions, dimensions, examples, tensions, and finally what makes leaders effective in the political aspect. These insights| Leading Sapiens
How can I be more trustworthy? How can I show up more authentically? Leaders at all levels grapple with this fundamental challenge of leadership. The answer lies in Aristotle's 2,000+ year old framework of ethos, logos, and pathos or what Harvard prof Frances Frei and Anne Morris call the| Leading Sapiens
What makes some folks and certain teams more powerful than others in organizations? What is the source of their power? In contrast, why do others despite having competence and positional authority are ineffective? This is one of a series on power in organizations. I focus on Gareth Morgan’s classic| Leading Sapiens
Control was the dominant management paradigm in early twentieth century industrial factories. A century later, in many modern workplaces it continues to be dominant and mostly goes unquestioned. Often we don’t even realize that this is the case. But in knowledge work, context is a far more effective and| Leading Sapiens
There are scores of tomes written on “authentic” leadership, but all too often in practice they come across as farce. People simply don’t trust managers — perhaps the reason why authentic leadership is a cottage industry of its own. A primary reason for this mistrust is the disconnect between the| Leading Sapiens
The framework of ethos, pathos, and logos was developed in the 4th century BC by Aristotle. It’s a simple but also robust model for effective persuasion and communication that has withstood the test of time. And yet most leaders are either unaware or it, or don’t really know| 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
Contradictions are rampant in organizations. Understanding the different types can give leaders leverage and prevent frustrations.| Leading Sapiens
Leaders have to master the basics of the human OS. We examine these core attributes that underlie all frameworks of human peak performance.| Leading Sapiens
Our habitual ways of looking at time in linear, spatial terms can limit us. Human time is different from mechanical clock time. Do we know the differences?| Leading Sapiens
It's easy for leaders to delve in content and control. But what is more effective is CONTEXT. Why do they keep ignoring context? Why is control easier?| Leading Sapiens
Learning as central to strategy is still not common. But it's a powerful anti-dote to uncertainty that can help leaders and organizations.| Leading Sapiens
Authentic leadership and time management - we don’t often see them in the context of each other. What's the link between authenticity and time?| Leading Sapiens
Leaders have to be masters at developing themselves aka self-development. Why is self-development so critical to effective leadership?| Leading Sapiens
Leadership like any skill is something we can learn. Paradoxically though, it cannot necessarily be taught. Coaching can help navigate this conundrum.| Leading Sapiens
The ladder of inference is a powerful tool to make better decisions by uncovering hidden mental models and understanding how we reach conclusions.| Leading Sapiens
Mid career can be a dangerous time. What made us successful can also become traps that eventually sink our careers. Active inertia is one culprit.| Leading Sapiens
We don’t usually think of courage in the context of careers and organizations. But this is a mistake. Courage is more fundamental than we think, and equally relevant. The key is to understand the specific type of courage required, and how it applies to an ordinary work life. Ordinary| Leading Sapiens
Managing effectively using data is all the rage today. But most of it is shallow "hard data". The real challenge is to get so called “soft data”. How do you get the real pulse of your teams, or your customer’s true opinion? There’s a simple method that can| Leading Sapiens
Most leaders and organizations ignore the basics of the human OS. Their assumptions are from the domain of machines and material, not the human domain.| Leading Sapiens
Deliberate practice is a proven research-backed framework to improve performance. Here's how you can use it to increase leadership effectiveness.| Leading Sapiens
Small wins and small bets can be an effective strategy instead of going for the big win. But there are several nuances that are misunderstood.| Leading Sapiens
Context is a powerful tool in leadership but goes underutilized and misunderstood - a deep dive into why mastering context is essential to effective leadership.| Leading Sapiens
Framing is a key skill to create psychological safety and improve performance. But most leaders are unaware or don't know how to get better at it.| Leading Sapiens
What makes someone "leadership material"? This often depends on who's making the call and what their Implicit Leadership Theory is - we all have one.| 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
Leadership development is usually about positive abilities. Negative Capability is often forgotten but equally critical. What is it and what prevents it?| Leading Sapiens
Ever wonder why that particular initiative of yours never got traction? Organizational politics kills more initiatives than people realize, and happens both at leadership and individual contributor levels. Understanding some of the dynamics can help to better navigate the terrain. Three organizational layers and their experiences * The individual contributor: You| Leading Sapiens
The systems thinking iceberg is a useful thinking model for leaders when dealing with intractable problems that never seem to go away. Part of the challenge is what the model calls “events” — surface level issues that are constantly on our radar — which are essentially fire-fighting, but that never really address| Leading Sapiens
Most advice on leadership communication focuses on getting better at advocacy – crafting the message, effective delivery, and so on. What leaders forget is to balance their advocacy with equal amounts of inquiry. How are the two different and why does it matter? I take a closer look at the critical| Leading Sapiens
Leadership reflection is a critical mechanism to accelerate self-development of effective leaders.But it gets ignored due to stereotypes.| Leading Sapiens
Why do we need props like vision, mission statement, and goals? Our orientation towards the past and future radically influences present actions.| 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
We think action comes from the right mindset. This can be counter-productive. Often mindset follows action. It's easier to control physical action.| Leading Sapiens
Most leaders tend to have a default go-to style with possibly another that they use in extreme situations. Each style has its own set of characteristics.| Leading Sapiens
Setting high standards is well understood. But a critical step often gets left out. Bezos captured this key idea in his 2017 shareholder letter.| Leading Sapiens
Two essential questions anyone considering a midlife career change should ask. Not being clear on them can lead to later regrets and mistakes.| Leading Sapiens
Identity is often thought as something static from which our actions come. It's more helpful to see it as an effect that follows from our actions.| Leading Sapiens
How do you view your role of leader or manager? Is it as a chess master or a gardener? The lure of control Often unknowingly, leaders and managers suffer from the myopia of control. The underlying ethos is of knowing everything, solving problems directly and having everything under control. It's| Leading Sapiens
How important is emotional intelligence to your career and where does EQ stand relative to IQ? Overestimating the importance of EQ Ever since Daniel Goleman's 1995 bestseller Emotional Intelligence popularized the concept, EI(emotional intelligence) and EQ(emotional quotient) have become part of the common vernacular in companies. Thanks to| Leading Sapiens
Paradoxes are built into the nature of management and leadership. Understanding them beforehand can be extremely useful in avoiding frustrations.| Leading Sapiens
The "if...then" way of thinking about cause and effect is common in business. Circular causality is often missed in the decision making process.| Leading Sapiens
The ongoing turbulence at Twitter under the mercurial and coercive leadership of Elon Musk is perhaps one of the biggest and costliest social science experiments ever attempted at scale. Musk has broken almost every rule of well-understood and well-researched aspects of organizational performance. Peter Drucker is widely considered as the| Leading Sapiens
Why speed as the default criteria is not helpful when it comes to human change and development. We want both ourselves and others to change quickly.| Leading Sapiens
Choice is typically not thought of in the context of goals. This is a mistake as it's fundamental to setting effective goals and peak performance.| Leading Sapiens
Our actions, and by extension performance, stem from thinking that is based on a set of hidden mental models. How do you uncover these mental models and change them? One way is to understand and practice the concepts of single-loop and double-loop learning. Professional sports teams use postgame films and| Leading Sapiens
Balancing the long term with the short term is an ongoing challenge for leaders. Peter Drucker addressed how to go about it in his writings.| 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
Most common discourse on mental models takes an additive approach. But this tends to be half-baked, often useless in practice. There is equal value, even more so, in a subtractive approach to mental models. The key is in understanding the difference between hard and soft mental models. How is the| 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
When we communicate, there are several layers of invisible filters that can muddle the message. Knowing the most common communication filters we use can help avoid the traps of miscommunication and make sure our message gets across. Why we use filters One key aspect of leadership is that your words| Leading Sapiens
Implementing a framework of conversations can improve leadership communication and effectiveness. Closure conversations are one such type.| Leading Sapiens