I was on vacation when I found out my new marketing director had ignored my instructions. She’d been there less than a week. Before leaving, I explained exactly what I wanted her to do: research our niche, read the background material, and meet

I used to debate my employees and clients about changing our business model. I’d make my case in the shower, refine it in the car, and rehearse it again at two in the morning.  Every time I came up with a better answer,

We’re always selling ideas. Where to go on vacation, how to celebrate a birthday, whether to get a dog. You say “Let’s go to Italy” and see sunlit piazzas and leisurely lunches. They hear “Let’s go to Italy” and see a ten-hour flight

I don’t ask for much. That was my first thought when the models and projections I’d asked for still weren’t done. I was working 70-hr weeks with my reputation and all my money on the line. The least they could do was get

When a key employee started a competing firm and took one of our clients with them, I was furious. They’d signed a non-compete and an NDA, so as far as I was concerned, they were clearly in the wrong. I knew I had

I heard the same criticism in employee surveys, exit interviews, and even from people on my senior leadership team. I was too critical.Hard to please.Rarely satisfied. And each time I heard it, some version of this thought went through my mind: But am

Would people still respect me if I said I didn’t know?  I didn’t think so.So I rarely said it.  I believed my business was growing and profitable because I knew things other people didn’t know. My expertise helped me win clients and earn

They’re great.They’re impossible.And you can’t afford to lose them. At least that’s what you keep telling yourself. You have lots of evidence for the “great” part: They’re reliable. Everyone likes them. They know where everything is and they’ve been with you for years.  Then there’s the other part. The part about

There is always more to do. That’s what makes the voice in my head so convincing. It’s technically right. And the voice isn’t new. When I was ten, as soon as I finished my Frosted Flakes, it would start urging me to make the bed, read