New here? Start with these.
In the order they were made to be heard.
- 0001 Falling Behind Is a Position, Not a Verdict He drove four hours to get to work. He hadn't been to a training in seven years. And that same year, the company he worked for was named…
- 0002 Staying Isn't Choosing Turnover is down. Nobody's quitting. Every leadership team in the country is reading that as good news. This is a sidebar — the Thursday…
- 0003 The Theory Is Usually Wrong When a team falls behind, the leader almost always has a theory about why. I asked Brandon Raines how often that theory turns out to be…
Episodes
New episodes every week. Interviews on Tuesdays, Sidebars on Thursdays.
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Behind What?
There is a difference between a learner who is behind and a learner who is being measured against a benchmark nobody checked. Satyavrat Nirala learned that difference as a kid in…
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The Courage to Care
Discomfort is what the truth costs the person hearing it. Harm is what it costs them when you don't say it, or when you say it with pressure. When a team is behind and tired, the…
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Fear Is Data
Most leaders reach for fear when a team falls behind, and then call it urgency. Bart Bailey has led people where a mistake doesn't just cost a deadline. It costs somebody's…
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Admitting It Isn't Agreeing With It
Acknowledging and agreeing get used as if they mean the same thing. Acknowledging is about a situation: that could be true, let's check. Agreeing is about who you are: we're the…
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What Are You Carrying Into It?
A team gets called behind long before anybody proves it, and once that word lands, people start working like it's true. Nicole Morris has spent more than twenty years in corporate…
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Nothing Changed But the Reward
Commitment and compliance get used as if they mean the same thing. Commitment persists when nobody is paying for it. Compliance persists exactly as long as the reward does. This…
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It Never Sticks
A transformation can look done and be gone six months later. The deck was fine. The team drifted back to the old way of working, and the signs showed up there months before anyone…
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In the Loop Is Not in the Room
Informed and included get used as if they mean the same thing. Informed means a decision reaches you. Included means you were there while it could still go a different way. This…
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New Boss, Same Team
A new boss walks in and nothing changes on paper. Same title, same duties, same team. But the agreements the team was operating under quietly evaporate, and nobody says a word…
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Fine Is Not a Status
Every team says fine. On a survey, in a one-on-one, in a stand-up, it looks the same whether the team is thriving or gave up months ago. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's…
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Nobody Asked the Team
Katrina L. Coker has walked into team after team where the job had already changed: a new tool nobody chose, a lift-and-shift that turned into a full rebuild, a timeline handed…
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Nobody Checked Who Set The Date
Slow and behind get used as if they mean the same thing. Slow is a fact about a team: how long it takes to turn an idea into something somebody uses. Behind is a comparison, the…
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The Harder You Work, The Behinder You Get
"Behind" is not a measurement. It is a judgment somebody made against a standard somebody set, and the first useful question is who set it. Chris Sims has spent a career watching…
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Somebody Takes the First Hit
Resilience isn't a trait; it's a resource, something a person spends and something that can run out. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Apriel Biggs…
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Left Behind Isn't Evenly Distributed
When a team falls behind, everybody doesn't fall the same distance. Somebody catches the first hit, and whether the rest of the team feels a stumble or a collapse depends on who…
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They Delivered. Nobody Saw It.
A leader says the team hasn't shipped anything in months. The team has been quietly preventing disasters nobody asked them to name. Both are telling the truth. This is a sidebar —…
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The Theory Is Usually Wrong
When a team falls behind, the leader almost always has a theory about why. I asked Brandon Raines how often that theory turns out to be wrong. He didn't hesitate: "It's wrong most…
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Staying Isn't Choosing
Turnover is down. Nobody's quitting. Every leadership team in the country is reading that as good news. This is a sidebar — the Thursday format, dropping early for launch week…
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Falling Behind Is a Position, Not a Verdict
He drove four hours to get to work. He hadn't been to a training in seven years. And that same year, the company he worked for was named one of the best places in America to work…