Someone Took Credit for Your Team’s Work. Here Is How to Handle It
When another executive takes credit for your team’s work, do not confront them in a group setting. Verify first whether they stole the credit or simply omitted your team, then request a private face to face conversation in their office, open with a non-accusatory question, and hold the silence while they answer. Close that conversation […]
How to Handle Conflict Between Two High Performers
Handling conflict between two high performers starts with a mindset shift: it is not your job to fix their relationship, only to make sure they can work together when the job demands it. Listen to each of them alone, bring them into the same room and mediate until the air is clear, and if one […]
How to Retain Top Executives: The 5 Things That Actually Keep Them
Retaining top executives comes down to five factors: identity, opportunity, purpose, inclusion, and reward. The strongest senior leaders figure out which one matters most to each person on their team, and they keep checking, because those priorities shift as people move through different seasons of life and career. There’s a turning of the guard happening […]
Your First 90 Days in a New Executive Role (And Why the Urge to Fix Everything Will Sink You)
In your first 90 days in a new executive role, the highest-leverage move is not to fix things. It’s to slow down and listen. Meet one-on-one with every person on your team, get out of the corporate office to talk with business unit leaders and visit the locations you now support, then prioritize what you […]
When to Hire an Executive Coach (Do You Actually Need One?)
Wondering when to hire an executive coach? Discover the 3 clear seasons you might need one, how to choose the right coach, and when you should just coast.
How to Develop Executive Presence
Executive presence is not a personality trait you either have or do not have. It is a set of learnable skills built deliberately over time, including how you communicate across levels, how you hold your composure under pressure, how much you speak versus how much you listen, and whether the room gets calmer or more […]
How to Disagree With Your Boss Without Killing Your Career
You were in the room. You made your case. You brought the data, the logic, the experience, and a clear-eyed argument for the path forward. And they still chose the other direction. Now you have to walk out of that room, gather up your team, and go execute on something you genuinely believe is wrong. […]
Executive Communication Skills: The 5 Shifts That Separate VPs From the C-Suite
Here’s something nobody tells you directly… the communication habits that got you to the vice president level are the same habits quietly killing your shot at the C-suite. I’ve watched this play out more times than I can count across almost 50 acquisitions and two IPOs. The pattern never changes. Communication expectations shift at every […]
How to Keep an Audience Engaged When Presenting on Stage
Most presenters lose the room in the first sixty seconds, and it comes down to a handful of small, fixable habits. Here’s how to keep an audience engaged when presenting: cut the filler words, open with a story instead of a pitch, use the whole stage, and stop reading your slides.
Personal Branding for Executives: How Getting on Stages Gets You Promoted
Personal branding for executives is not vanity; it is the mechanism that turns strong work into the promotion you have been waiting on. A couple of weeks ago I was in Nashville, riding a scooter around the city before delivering a personal branding keynote to a room full of cybersecurity executives, and it struck me […]
