Your Team Is Running a Model of You A director on my team stopped on her way out of a one-on-one, came back, and sat down. "When you write 'sure' on something, do you know what we do with it?" I didn't. "We rewrite it. 'Great' means you're in. 'Sounds good' means you'll live with it. 'Sure' means it's getting through and you don't believe in it. So we go back and fix whatever made you write 'sure.'"

The First Ten Minutes: What your team catches from you before the day really starts

Most leaders know the feeling. Something is off. A standard is slipping, a behavior keeps showing up, someone is coasting below what you know they can do. You've noticed it. You've been noticing it for a while. And you haven't said anything yet. Maybe you told yourself it was a one-off. Maybe you figured they'd course-correct on their own. Maybe you didn't want to make it a whole thing. Sometimes that's the right call. But a lot of the time it's just avoidance, and avoidance