The Best Managers Don’t Fix, They Coach — Four Tools to Add to Your Toolkit
In this article, we’ll unpack why managers fall into the fixing trap and dig into the fundamentals of coaching, sharing four actionable tools you can start using immediately. We’ll distill the highlights of what we’ve learned in years of coaching training — all adapted to everyday management scenarios so you can see how to practically put them to use.
10 Tactics to Keep Your Meeting on Track
Too many meeting leaders think their job ends when the meeting starts or that they merely serve as note-taker and “agenda police.” But, as with almost any work project, a meeting’s success relies on the success of leadership communication. This article covers 10 communication tactics that can help leaders and executives attending meetings make sure that critical points are raised and discussed as effectively as they are efficiently, so that meetings ultimately accomplish their mission.
^ADJ: side note, technology can only do so much, real thinking needs to be done first about what is trying to be achieved with the meeting (or series of meetings) and what needs to happen before the meeting in order to make them a success.
The DuPont Company's Chart Room
My last article reviewed the development of return on investment (ROI) by Donaldson Brown and its rapid adoption by DuPont as its primary financial measure. As a young treasurer, Brown was challenged with not only improving understanding of the new concept by the company’s Executive Committee but also with creating reporting methods that would incorporate it into their meetings. In today’s business world, that would be accomplished with PowerPoint presentations, projectors and electronic displays. But how did he solve the problem a century ago?
Selling Out
As I’m now in my fourth decade of memo writing, I’m sometimes tempted to conclude I should quit, because I’ve covered all the relevant topics. Then a new idea for a memo pops up, delivering a pleasant surprise. My January 2021 memo Something of Value, which chronicled the time I spent in 2020 living and discussing investing with my son Andrew, recounted a semi-real conversation in which we briefly discussed whether and when to sell appreciated assets. It occurred to me that even though selling is an inescapable part of the investment process, I’ve never devoted an entire memo to it.
Be Plainspoken
It takes practice to communicate well. Being a great writer or communicator is a kind of superpower that makes nearly every aspect of your life easier. But with great power comes great responsibility; the clarifying power of language can also be used to confound.
^ADJ: enough said.
Thought this was a great blog
My first Instacart board meeting was in November 2015. I had joined a month earlier as CFO. Our financials were ugly. We had $2M of revenue but were chewing through $11M of cash every four weeks, and lost $15 on every delivery.
^ADJ: Why this is important - some of the most important words in the English language ‘how can I help’
How to write a product problem outline
As the product world has evolved over the last few years, outcome focus and idea discovery have taken over the way product managers lead their work. Heavily written product requirement documents have become a thing of the past, and a new way of outlining problem statements has emerged.