By Michael Holland - Bobby Jones was a very honest man. Extremely honest. Tons and tons of integrity. He didn’t have to tell people he was honest or that he had integrity. Because he behaved in ways that revealed his integrity. Long story short, Bobby Jones was playing in a critical golf tournament. [...]
by Michael Holland - In 1994 I made a classic management mistake. It involved a very stressful job, a struggling team, and two bags of marshmallows. The short version of the story is that a consistently tardy team member to critical team meetings received a barrage of marshmallows when he arrived late, yet [...]
By Michael Holland - When a leader delegates they can picture very clearly what it is they want done. So they believe that they are communicating clearly to their employee. But there’s a villain of natural psychology that limits our capability to communicate clearly and that villain is the curse of knowledge*. The [...]
By Michael Holland - I was tired. It was late in the afternoon. The sound and feel of my car running over the rumble strips on the side of the road jerked me completely awake and focused. I immediately guided my car back into the lane. My reaction could've been a casual drift back [...]
By Michael Holland - Every day, there they are, these 3-minute slices of time. Some days there might be four of them, the next there could be seven. These tiny slices of time come about when walking down a hallway, waiting for a video meeting to start, during a break in a long [...]
By Michael Holland - During a summer evening on the Magothy River, one of the large rivers feeding the famous Chesapeake Bay, I witnessed a beautiful sailing race: 40 or 50 sailboats tacked back and forth along the river, each one maneuvering to catch the wind perfectly and take advantage of a competitor. [...]
By Michael Holland - Listen to this blog post: A few years ago, I got caught up in trying to get in better shape to lose weight. I focused my energy on the goal of losing weight which, unfortunately, was the wrong problem to solve. To be successful, I needed to look [...]
by Michael Holland - Solving difficult problems and making wise organizational decisions can tax even the most self-actualized, mature, enlightened, and cohesive leadership team. A key to success is the capability to assume positive intent from the others on your team. This means that when the tight-fisted CFO shoots down your proposal because the costs [...]
2023 proved to be another year of rapid evolution in the world of work. Economic and global instability, the omnipresence of organizational change, and advancements in AI kept everyone on their toes as leaders and organizations considered how to navigate, and lead, in an unsteady environment. Future of Work in 2024 Wiley Workplace Intelligence [...]
By Michael Holland - Newer leaders make the classic mistake of overcompensating when attempting to adjust their leadership style. They see the style difference as a problem to solve while they should see the difference as a tension to manage. Leaders naturally go to their strength with their approaches to leading. It's what they know [...]
