Progress is easier to see when we stop long enough to notice it. By late October, it's easy to start looking ahead. Year-end targets. Budgets. Planning. Projects that still need to be finished. Goals for next year. The list of what's left can quickly overshadow everything that's already been accomplished. So before the year-end sprint really begins, I think there's value in asking your team one question: What are we doing better today than we were in January? Maybe communicat

Sometimes the anticipation is half the fun. At our house, Halloween doesn't begin on October 31. It starts weeks earlier. There are costumes to choose—and sometimes reconsider. Decorations appear. Plans are made. The girls start talking about where they'll go, who they'll be with and, of course, how much candy they hope to bring home. By the time Halloween actually arrives, we've already spent weeks enjoying it. It reminds me that looking forward to something is part of the e

Your value as a leader isn’t measured by how much you know. Many of the technical leaders I work with built their careers by becoming very good at what they do. They know the equipment. The process. The numbers. The operation. When something goes wrong, people come to them because they have the answer. Then they become leaders. And suddenly, the habit that helped them succeed can start getting in their way. Leadership requires a different kind of expertise. You don’t have to