Experience has taught me that it is essential to have a scorecard that provides objective evidence of how things are actually going. More so, it’s essential that your people know, understand and are recognized for the scorecard. The risk otherwise is that people in the organization declare they’re “batting 0.100” with no understanding of what means and whether it’s any good.

Five years ago today, C3 Advisors, LLC became a registered business with the office of the Secretary of State in Arkansas. It was “official”… In 2017, there was a lot of unknown and anticipation. There was also a lot of good and important work to be done. That’s also true on this day in 2022.

Tailwinds do come to our organizations as well.  My work allows me to span enough industries that typically, I have at least a client or two riding a tailwind even if everyone else is struggling.  Some clients see that difference across its own divisions.  Still, the question is how we handle the wind… even a tailwind.

Riding in a headwind is mostly about the grind – head down, get in the right gear and do what you can.  Crosswinds however require even more attention to your own bike control, but also to what’s happening around you – both with your teammates and your competitors.  Crosswinds induce complexity and variability into a ride.

Whether at the organizational, unit, or individual leader level, we all face wind.  Everything can be set up just as we’d like it and yet a strong, persistent headwind can make things extraordinarily difficult – spending extra energy and losing efficiency when we think things shouldn’t have to be this hard.

As I spend time talking with executives on strategic talent initiatives, conversations range from “what’s essential for someone in this role?” to “how do we develop this person’s ability to…?”

The question that arose for me out of these two interactions is whether things like creating psychological safety and being emotionally agile are skills to be gained and applied…. OR, is the focus on helping managers establish their skill as coaches, mentors, consultants, and _____, where attributes like psychological safety and emotional agility are practiced because managers are leading well?

At times, we forget that as much “school of hard knocks” learnin’ we may have done, often it was someone coming alongside us to show us what we need to know or opening some doors for us that were otherwise closed.  If you’re in a position of leadership, it’s time to pay it forward – and make sure your people know they don’t owe you an apology!

…as bizarre as this story seems to many of us, it’s a good reminder of the importance of clarity; clarity of expectations, clarity of our communication - of what we express and what we hear, clarity of what we provide and the clarity at times we must seek.

It’s hard for us to imagine what communication was like in the mid-‘50s given the ubiquity of smartphones and the emergence of the metaverse. This was the age of the switchboard and wingspan mattered!

“Fruit does not give a tree life; rather, it is evidence that the tree is alive.”

The hard truth (pun intended) is that when we sign up to lead, challenge is just part of the territory.

Can we agree that all of us as leaders want people to take initiative? To make great decisions? Exercise sound judgment? And make reasonable assumptions? Well guess what, that has a lot to do with the organizational clarity we provide!

I was on a Zoom today and someone referred to our times as “the global pandemic of 2021 - 2025”. He wasn’t trying to forecast or be glib, but rather it was an attempt to create a perspective on what we don’t know and how to think about it.

My son and I were in the car this week and happened upon this service truck with the sign asking motorists to call if you ever see this truck being driven in an unsafe manner. The only problem was that part of the phone number and truck number was scratched out! Incredible!

As leaders, the challenge would extend to being sensitive to needs and setting norms and standards – either through example and tone or in policy – that are mutually beneficial, generous, and considerate of others.

Every circumstance, whether extraordinarily good or extraordinarily hard, is real and is legitimate in its impact on us and those around us. But, I’ve been wondering about the legitimacy of the 1-10 rating, at least for me. Here’s why…

Mentoring relationships—and the advice that comes with them—are as varied as the people and personalities involved. Context always matters, particularly for the mentee. For the mentor, it’s typically less of a factor. We draw from our own experiences, successes, and failures.

We all have any number of limiters into what are capable of on our own.  We are, after all, finite creatures.  Yet, we also have choices in how we approach these questions and it’s in these that will have the greatest impact on our trajectory and that of the organizations we lead. 

Have you ever been in a situation where you were the leader, all eyes were on you, the team’s prospects of posting results rested on the direction you gave, and yet you stood there completely intimidated by the task while hope slipped slowly away?