Writing Surrender to Lead was the most uncomfortable “practice what you preach” experience of my career. First of all, writing doesn’t come naturally to me. Second of all, being vulnerable doesn’t either. At one point we were going to use a ghostwriter, because...
I’ve said my New Year’s resolution is to answer a bigger call, and I meant it. The problem is that Q1 doesn’t politely make space for transformation. It shows up with pressure, deadlines, and an endless list of reasons to default to old habits. So if I’m serious...
Yesterday we hosted our first ever Surrender to Lead Summit, and what struck me most was how quickly the conversation moved past aspiration and into responsibility. My highlight take away was about judgment, specifically the kind required when pressure is high,...
Six days. That’s how far away we are from the Surrender to Lead Summit, and I keep coming back to the same thought. This started as a book, but it quickly became a movement. A few years ago, Joe Terry and I decided to write Surrender to Lead. We were not trying to...
Last year, my New Year’s resolution was simple. I wanted to raise the stakes. I wanted to stretch myself, take bigger risks, and stop playing at the edges of my own potential. I wanted to feel like I was making the most of the time I have and the work I am doing. And...
As organizations look toward 2026, many leaders are asking what it will take to play offense in an increasingly uneven environment. The answer shows up less in new strategies or harder pushes and more in the belief systems shaping daily behavior. Teams that sustain...
Two weeks ago I released the first half of my predictions for 2026 and today I have part two for you. Leaders wrote in with concerns, questions, and stories about the early signs they are already seeing inside their organizations. That feedback set the stage for last...
Last week Business Insider ran a hit piece on SHRM, and they got it all wrong. The reaction to SHRM says more about the state of HR than anything SHRM actually did. People are outraged, stunned, and disappointed, and that response exposes tension that has been...
It’s that time of year again. Time to look into our crystal ball and figure out what is to come. Through conversations with CEOs, research and client work, we’re beginning to see trends emerge that are shaping the future of work. Before we jump into predictions for...
Last week we explored the quiet ways uncertainty shapes leadership behavior and culture. There is another pattern that appears in the same conditions. Instead of moving faster or tightening pace, some leaders respond by holding more firmly to structure and control. It...
I have been on vacation this week, reading Miracles of Love by Ram Dass on the beach. The ocean behind the pages made one theme stand out more clearly. He was describing moments in history when people sensed that the structures they relied on were shifting, and how...
Last week we talked about what happens when everything goes dark. When AWS, CrowdStrike, or another global system collapses, companies rush to explain that it was out of their control. What we found then was a pattern. The more connected we become, the more blame gets...
Last time it was CrowdStrike. This time it is Amazon Web Services. Every time it happens, the story feels the same. A major outage occurs, millions are affected, and the immediate response is to find someone to blame. When AWS went down, it was not just a technical...
HR needs saving. The CHRO is struggling today the same way the CIO once did. For years, CIOs were seen as back-office support, focused on systems and infrastructure, quietly reporting to the CFO. They were necessary but not strategic. Then Y2K happened, and...
This week I am giving a keynote at a hospital association conference where hundreds of healthcare leaders are gathering to talk about their biggest challenges. When I asked what those were on a pre-call with the event leaders, the answers came without hesitation:...
People sometimes ask me how my Master of Divinity connects with my work in corporate culture. On the surface theology and organizational strategy look like they belong in entirely different worlds. But lately I have noticed the conversations overlap. And the overlap...
Over 800,000 people have been laid off this year, but you didn’t see many boycotts or hashtags about those folks. Then Jimmy Kimmel, an incredibly wealthy entertainer gets taken off the air and people who don’t even watch his show are galvanized to cancel their...
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fiverr-going-back-startup-mode-micha-kaufman-jfe6f/?trackingId=vL67CL59Wv5CEcQ28l0Ikg%3D%3D Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, just announced he is laying off 250 people and going back to startup mode. His post was long, transparent, and...
For years, I believed the story we were all told. That if I just leaned in harder, spoke louder, pushed further, and powered through, I could have it all. I thought success was a formula: show up, work harder, say yes, keep climbing. And when that formula did not...
Years ago, when psychological safety became the buzzword du jour for business leaders, I was 100% on board. It was the answer to the power structures that kept employees silent, and finally we had a label for a common dynamic—and thanks to Amy Edmonson, some...
I used to work for a leader who always took the ultimate accountability for results. On weekly calls he would frequently say, “The reality is we didn’t hit our goal and that’s on me.” He said it with pride, believing this approach built trust and loyalty with his...
We have all had moments when something we said or did landed in a completely different way than we intended. Maybe it was a joke that fell flat. Maybe it was feedback that was meant to motivate but ended up discouraging. In your mind, you were clear and constructive....
One of the most common mistakes we see with our clients is the tendency to want to change others before changing yourself. Leaders will launch new values, reorganize teams, and roll out engagement initiatives, but if their own beliefs and behaviors do not match what...
Conscious Capitalism gave the business world something it desperately needed: a new definition of success. It challenged the idea that shareholder value had to come at the expense of employee wellbeing or societal impact. It showed that purpose and profit could work...
We’re used to talking about the gig economy in terms of Uber drivers and freelance designers. But in 2025, it’s the CEO role that’s starting to look more like a contract gig. And the implications for culture are bigger than most people realize. So far this year, a...
By now, you have probably seen the Coldplay video. The CEO of Astronomer, Andy Byron, attending a concert with his CHRO. The video spread quickly. Then came the memes. Then the resignation. What might have stayed an internal HR issue is now one of the most...
Fear and faith might feel like opposites. One holds you back. The other moves you forward. But underneath, they are the same thing. Both are a belief in something that hasn’t happened yet. In the workplace, we encounter the unknown all the time. A new leader steps in....
There is something I have come to believe about relationships of all kinds—whether it is at work, at home, or with friends. Every relationship eventually encounters friction. You hit a disagreement. Misalignment. A tough moment where two people need to figure out how...
When something goes wrong inside an organization, leaders often look for signs of disruption. Complaints. Conflict. Declining performance. But some of the most serious culture issues do not make noise. They go quiet. Silence is not a neutral signal. It is often the...
This week on CEO Daily Brief, I spoke with my friend John Frehse. John is a labor strategy expert, and one of the few people I know who can talk about cost-cutting with both depth and humanity. We’ve known each other for years, but somehow this conversation uncovered...
Let’s talk about the A-word. Accountability gets tossed around in every leadership meeting, strategy deck, and performance conversation, but rarely with clarity. What we call accountability is often just thinly veiled evaluation: performance reviews, stack rankings,...
Everyone left the offsite feeling “jazzed”. The decks were slick, the breakout sessions were productive, and the whiteboard had a lot of arrows that made everyone nod. The best part was the keynoter who inspired everyone. That lasted about three days. But two weeks...
AI is transforming business. That much is clear. The real question is whether leaders are equipped to guide their people through the change. Some are. Others are trying to have it both ways, insisting they are “people first” while replacing…people. And a few are...
Let’s talk about change initiatives. You’re likely in the middle of one right now—a technology rollout, a reorg, a “new way of working.” We label it, build a timeline, hold a few town halls, maybe even bring in a consultant with a colorful 5-step model. We grit our...
I stole that line from a client I was working with in Orlando last week. This particular client is a global pharmaceutical and manufacturing company in the animal health space. We were about to kick off a leadership session with their top 100 leaders, all focused on...
In the 1990s, a group of high-earning professionals formed Workaholics Anonymous. A founder of the group said, “No matter how much work I did, it was never enough.” Sound familiar? This addiction is one we collectively share. It goes beyond an addiction to work—it...
A friend of mine once described working at Amazon as “building a rocket ship while being pushed off a cliff.” Back then, the company’s obsession with innovation made that intensity feel exciting. But today, Amazon’s attempt to reignite that startup energy feels less...
We’ve been sold a lie about leadership. We’ve been told that great leaders take control. That they set the vision, enforce accountability, drive engagement, and build culture through sheer willpower. But here’s the thing: Culture can’t be controlled. It can’t be...
I just got off the phone with the CEO of a global corporation with a $75B market cap who was expressing a common challenge: her team needs to learn how to collaborate now more than ever. The old rules of leadership, where silos were merely inefficient, no longer...
AI has gone from public enemy number one to the golden child of innovation in record time. Just look at this week’s AI summit in Paris. JD Vance made his first major policy speech there, declaring that the U.S. is going all in on AI and urging other countries to...
Everyone gets selective about their outrage. We see it in politics, in business, in culture—everywhere. But what separates outrage that leads to meaningful change from outrage that’s just noise? Accountability. Take the federal government. The Trump administration,...
Not long ago, the middle manager was the linchpin of the corporate world. They juggled project management, performance tracking, and resource allocation while ensuring their teams stayed on track. Today, those responsibilities are increasingly being handed over to...
For the past year, I’ve been wrestling with a nagging feeling that the stakes in my life aren’t high enough. It’s not that things are bad. They’re not. In many ways, life and work are going well. But there’s a part of me that feels like I’m not risking enough or...
Raise your hand if you’ve worked for a company that insisted on referring to employees as “partners” or “team members.” I’m looking at you, Starbucks. When I’m doing keynotes, about 15% of the time, I’m instructed not to say “employees.” This is a management choice to...
Change is inevitable, but resilience is a choice. Patagonia, once celebrated for seamlessly blending work, play, and purpose, now faces an identity crisis as it navigates operational and cultural upheaval. Recent decisions to streamline operations, cut jobs, and ramp...
As 2025 approaches, the workplace is set to experience seismic shifts. From navigating political changes to embracing cutting-edge technology, organizations face both challenges and opportunities. Here are the top predictions for workplace trends in 2025 and how...
As we head into the final weeks of the year, this newsletter kicks off a special series: 2025 Workplace Trends. These are the ideas shaping how we’ll work next year and beyond—starting with something that’s equal parts fascinating and terrifying: AI-powered empathy. ...
Guess what—skills and knowledge aren’t enough anymore. In a world where everyone has access to the same information and where technical expertise is a given, what’s going to set you apart? The answer is mindset. Specifically, an accountability mindset. Whether you’re...
Imagine this: It’s May 1, 2028, and across the country, industries grind to a halt. Not just one union, not just one company, but hundreds of thousands of workers across sectors and industries standing together in one of the largest coordinated labor movements the...
As Amazon and Starbucks begin enforcing return-to-office policies, CEOs everywhere are asking if bringing employees back will save their company culture. I recently sat down with NBC’s Christine Romans for a segment on Nightly News with Lester Holt, tackling this very...