By March, many organizations have moved from planning (setting goals, defining strategy, and establishing priorities) to execution. This testing and implementation phase can be exciting, and also expose where additional alignment is needed to achieve those goals, especially through shifting workloads, evolving expectations, and refining cultural norms. It’s common to interpret this process as an operations challenge. However, it’s usually something more fundamental: the strat

As organizations refine priorities, restructure teams, build capacity, or prepare for growth, hiring often follows. But before drafting a job description, there’s a more strategic question to answer: What is this role truly meant to accomplish?   Too often, we see organizations begin with a template. Meaning, a familiar title is selected, responsibilities are listed, qualifications are added, and the position goes live. However, if the role isn’t fully defined (its priority,

One of the simplest leadership metaphors I’ve come back to recently is this: Having the right people on the boat only matters if everyone is rowing in the same direction. Which raises an important question: Are we clear on where we’re going and how we expect people to get there together? Too often, organizations focus exclusively on who  is on the team (the individual, title, or role being filled) without enough clarity about what they’re collectively optimizing for . Getting

The first few weeks of a new hire often determine everything that follows. Yet for many organizations, onboarding still follows an unspoken rule: If you’re smart enough, you’ll figure it out .   Too often, new hires are expected to navigate complexity, build trust, dive into the work, and deliver results without enough clarity, context, or structured support. This “rites of passage” approach is sometimes mistaken for resilience-building. In reality, it can slow a person’s abi