Thanks for sharing, Jeff! So much of this still holds.
On impact: the line between activity and impact is one every leader has to keep revisiting and redrawing. It's easy to feel productive — especially with all the corporate noise swirling above you. You're spending hours each day playing internal politics and process whack-a-mole, staying very busy but circling the wrong problem. Having that conversation with ourselves regularly — in some cases daily, depending on the organization — is critical to ensure we dedicate our time to the problems and opportunities that actually matter versus the noisy overhead.
On communication, I'll be honest. I can think of plenty of moments I'd handle differently if I had them back. What's changed is that time is no longer the real barrier. With a good human-AI collaboration, the upfront investment gets easier. I can draft, then edit, expand, and push back on my own thinking, and still come out communicating more frequently, more thoroughly, and more concisely than I used to. The bar for "communicate, communicate, communicate" just got reachable in a new way.
And "push with warmth" is the one that speaks to me most of all. We're the accountable party, yes, but we're also part of a team. Pushing with warmth means knowing your teammates well enough to know what context, information, and communication actually spark them. It says — I see you. I understand how this work will uniquely challenge and excite you. And we're in this together. That's what makes a faster pace feel normal instead of frantic.
Thank you for this, Jeff, and for the reading list. I've added several I hadn't seen to my own to-do list. Posts like this keep us focused on what matters.
Glad this was helpful Maura and thanks for adding your thinking here too. I really like what you said on impact. The need to revisit and have a clear ‘conversation with yourself’ — or a team. This is especially helpful in very noisy environments.
Have definitely been there where there are so many words and so much effort expended that is not focused on the main thing. It can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of what you are trying to accomplish. Your revisit mechanism helps make sure you and a team don’t just float.
Thanks for sharing, Jeff! So much of this still holds.
On impact: the line between activity and impact is one every leader has to keep revisiting and redrawing. It's easy to feel productive — especially with all the corporate noise swirling above you. You're spending hours each day playing internal politics and process whack-a-mole, staying very busy but circling the wrong problem. Having that conversation with ourselves regularly — in some cases daily, depending on the organization — is critical to ensure we dedicate our time to the problems and opportunities that actually matter versus the noisy overhead.
On communication, I'll be honest. I can think of plenty of moments I'd handle differently if I had them back. What's changed is that time is no longer the real barrier. With a good human-AI collaboration, the upfront investment gets easier. I can draft, then edit, expand, and push back on my own thinking, and still come out communicating more frequently, more thoroughly, and more concisely than I used to. The bar for "communicate, communicate, communicate" just got reachable in a new way.
And "push with warmth" is the one that speaks to me most of all. We're the accountable party, yes, but we're also part of a team. Pushing with warmth means knowing your teammates well enough to know what context, information, and communication actually spark them. It says — I see you. I understand how this work will uniquely challenge and excite you. And we're in this together. That's what makes a faster pace feel normal instead of frantic.
Thank you for this, Jeff, and for the reading list. I've added several I hadn't seen to my own to-do list. Posts like this keep us focused on what matters.
Glad this was helpful Maura and thanks for adding your thinking here too. I really like what you said on impact. The need to revisit and have a clear ‘conversation with yourself’ — or a team. This is especially helpful in very noisy environments.
Have definitely been there where there are so many words and so much effort expended that is not focused on the main thing. It can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of what you are trying to accomplish. Your revisit mechanism helps make sure you and a team don’t just float.