Blog

The Risk of Leading by Example

There are two versions of “you” running your organization: But the latter is based entirely on your team’s observations of your actions, not what you think or believe. This “observed” version of you sets their expectations and is the one they model. This is the mechanism by which organizational standards form. You’re always leading by […]

Think Your Team Is Struggling? Look in the Mirror First.

When someone on your team falls short, misses the mark, or underdelivers there’s a likelihood you — yes, you — are part of the equation. Yet I’ve known and coached many leaders whose first instinct was to conclude the behavior or performance problem was 100% attributable to any team member who missed a deadline, short-changed […]

How to Hold Someone Accountable When They’re More Experienced or More Tenured Than You

Ask any accomplished manager or leader whether holding people accountable is part of their role, and they’ll answer “yes” without hesitation. In concept and in theory, it’s simple to understand. But it becomes complicated in practice when you look across the table and realize the person who needs to be more accountable — the person […]

Think You’re Leading? Your Calendar Suggests Otherwise.

If I observed how you spent your time at work over the next thirty days — every meeting, every decision, every hour of focused effort — how closely would my observations match what your role requires of you? It’s a deceptively simple question, and when I pose it, most leaders assume the answer is “pretty […]

There’s No Free Lunch: 4 Burdens Every Leader Must Bear

You’ve worked hard and it’s paid off. There’s a rush of excitement, satisfaction, and maybe even a little disbelief. Your new leadership position carries more influence, greater earning potential, and a real opportunity to shape something beyond yourself. Indeed, it’s a fantastic-feeling moment worth celebrating. But there’s a catch: Having the title isn’t the same […]

How Many of Your Leaders Are Along for the Ride?

A dozen executives were seated around the conference table. After the typical opening niceties, the CEO cleared her throat and asked, “What are the options to improve our gross margins by at least 20 percent?” A few leaders in the room spoke up, but pointed to the causes: market pressure, talent gaps, lagging execution, a […]

Use This Framework to Make Faster and Better Decisions

The CEO of a B2B services firm thought she had a reasonable approach to decision-making by meticulously gathering all available data before every major decision. So when her team needed her to approve a pricing change—a decision that would affect client relationships and revenue projections—naturally, she took her time. Six weeks, to be exact. “I […]

How to Escape The Growth Trap

As December winds down and executive teams finalize their plans for the coming year, many fail to identify their most existential risk: They’re stuck in what I call The Growth Trap. It’s not because their goals are too aggressive or because they’re incapable or because their strategy is wrong. They’re stuck because–ironically–the firm’s growth and […]

Your Loyalty to the Past is Bankrupting Your Future

Every leadership team I coach has at least one: a product line, a long-time team member, and/or a legacy client everyone knows isn’t working… but no one wants to touch. The specifics vary, but the pattern doesn’t: Something or someone once valuable in the past is now slowing the firm’s progress, yet no one is […]

Annual Planning Doesn’t Work. Do This Instead.

There’s a great reason I refuse to facilitate standalone annual planning sessions: they don’t work. To be clear, planning sessions CAN BE effective to create a sound plan with clear priorities and crisp accountability. But here’s the problem: the true objective isn’t just to create a plan, but to also successfully execute the plan, advancing […]

What You Know How to Do Won’t Help You Scale —These 5 Systems Will

There’s a massive difference between your technical expertise—what you know how to do—and the expertise required to build and scale a profitable, enduring organization. Consider: Here’s what you and countless other entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders often miss: Technical expertise is important. But it’s what you wrap around the technical expertise at your firm’s core that […]

Stop Overcommitting Your Team and Do This Instead

Please welcome our new sponsor The Speaker Lab. They teach aspiring speakers how to consistently get booked and paid to speak. Setting ambitious objectives seems relatively simple. Goal setting is free, it makes you feel productive, and it can often be accomplished in a single afternoon. Achieving those goals? Well, that’s an entirely different matter. […]

Your “A” Team is Someone Else's “C” Team

There’s an uncomfortable moment in every leader’s journey that, for the growth-minded, shifts their perspective and improves their potential. It happens when they realize their definition of excellence falls far short of what’s possible and expected beyond the confines of their firm. The brutal truth is that many leaders I’ve known—including CEOs—wouldn’t even be considered […]

The Cost of Feedback Avoidance and What to Do About It

The Cost of Feedback Avoidance and What to Do About It

Russian immigrant Rose Blumkin arrived in Omaha, Nebraska in 1917 as a 24-year old with $66 in her pocket and spoke virtually no English. In 1933, she opened a furniture business in the basement of her home. At first, the business helped her family make ends meet, but over time, she built Nebraska Furniture Mart […]

How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” — Coach John Wooden There’s a universal law that many leaders overlook: small things are reliable indicators of larger patterns. Consider: How we behave regarding “small” things directly reflects how we behave in other contexts and situations. In other words: How you […]

Knowing Isn’t Doing: Five Strategies to Overcome Procrastination and Inaction

Knowing Isn’t Doing: Five Strategies to Overcome Procrastination and Inaction

“The greatest gap in the world is the gap between knowing and doing.” – John Maxwell The gap between what you know you should do and what you actually do is a barrier to your personal growth and to your company’s growth. I’ve been coaching Phil (not his real name)–a senior leader in a $200+ […]

The Unreasonable Cost of Inconsistency

The Unreasonable Cost of Inconsistency

The difference between extraordinary success and “what could have been” isn’t talent—it’s the discipline to be consistent when others aren’t. A Tale of Two Professional Tennis Stars Nick Kyrgios burst onto the professional tennis scene with undeniable talent and flashy play that suggested he could become a multi-Grand Slam champion. With one of the most […]

Slow Down to Speed Up: The Paradox That Helps Entrepreneurial Leaders Accelerate Success

“Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast” – United States Navy SEALs My client Evan was a perpetual motion machine. As the founder and CEO of a growing services firm, he generated a constant stream of new ideas and initiatives, quickly changed direction based on new opportunities that crossed his desk, and made rapid-fire decisions, often […]

4 Mental Models for Leading Through Uncertainty

Uncertainty abounds in our world, where rapidly unfolding events, mass marketed misinformation, market risks, political instability, climate change, and a host of other conditions compound to challenge even the most disciplined leaders. Worse, all of this is perpetually amplified as velocity of change continues to accelerate over time. Meanwhile, researchers have found that under pressure […]

When More is Less

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” – Stephen Covey Several years ago, I began working with a new client—a $100M+ services business. During our two-day kickoff workshop, the executive team aligned beautifully on their long-term direction and identified two clear, organizational priorities for the year ahead. As we went […]

How to Accomplish More with Fewer Priorities

How to Accomplish More with Fewer Priorities

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey A CEO recently confided in me, “Mark, I feel like my team is constantly putting out fires. We’re busy all the time, but I can’t shake the feeling we’re not making real progress.” His words echoed a […]

How to Hire The Right Coach -- The First Time

As a leader, you make decisions every day based on some degree of incomplete information – you do the best with what you have and move forward. You’re able to function this way because you possess deep knowledge and context regarding the operation of your business. But hiring a coach isn’t a day-to-day kind of […]

Video Calls are Bad for Business; Bring Back the Telephone!

Video Calls are Bad for Business; Bring Back the Telephone!

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” — General George S. Patton Video conferencing has been part of corporate life since the 1990s. As we’re all painfully aware, it rapidly became a ubiquitous mainstay during the COVID pandemic that remains in widespread use. But rich media cuts both ways, offering tremendous benefits in […]

Mind What You Tolerate: 4 Ways to Avoid Workaround Behaviors

Mind What You Tolerate: 4 Ways to Avoid Workaround Behaviors

“When I came off the boat I was very proud of the thick calluses which had developed on my feet. But now, I am struggling to get into my favourite high heels which is a shame…” – Pamela Stephenson In humans, a callus is formed when repeated irritation causes our bodies to create a hardened […]

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? If You Don’t Know, You Should.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? If You Don’t Know, You Should.

Whether you realize it or not, there are always obstacles in some shape or form standing between you and what you want to achieve. If obstacles didn’t exist, it would be a breeze to accomplish just about anything. Hiring (and retaining) great people, improving profitability, increasing sales, retaining customers, building the culture you want, raising […]

What to Do When Your Business Outgrows YOU

What to Do When Your Business Outgrows YOU

After more than two decades of coaching leaders across industries and around the globe, I’ve come to the following inescapable conclusion: It’s exceedingly rare to not have a business outgrow its Founder. Scaling successfully requires recognizing this reality in order to adjust your perspective, mindset, and behaviors to do what’s best to support the business. […]

The Road to Success Is Paved with Hard Choices

The Road to Success Is Paved with Hard Choices

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.” – Jerzy Gregorek In every domain, the more data points you collect, the more insight you gain. This is because more information makes pattern identification easier. As a coach, I’ve built a unique perspective across years, economies, industries, clients, and scenarios that enables me to discern patterns […]

Your People Don’t Know What You Know—And It’s Costing You

Your People Don’t Know What You Know—And It’s Costing You

“Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication” – Coach Mike Krzyzewski During World War II, militaries began relying on two-way radio technology to communicate more effectively across land, sea, and air. But the radios were often unreliable and difficult to hear, so shorthand language was devised to increase reliability and understanding. This is how the […]

10 Questions to Raise the Bar on your Leadership Next Year

10 Questions to Raise the Bar on your Leadership Next Year

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” – Margaret J. Wheatley As the year comes to a close, it’s natural to look forward to a bit of a break and the promise of a fresh start in January. But too often we proceed without […]

How to Transform the Value of Annual Planning in 4 Easy Steps

How to Transform the Value of Annual Planning in 4 Easy Steps

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” Albert Einstein It’s annual planning time! This is the season when the vast majority of teams gather to take stock, look ahead, discuss, debate, and choose their goals and priorities for the […]

Adversity is a Given—Your Resilience is a Choice

Adversity is a Given—Your Resilience is a Choice

======================================================= Please welcome my new sponsor HabitStack, a platform that helps teams focus on important goals even though they’re busy. ======================================================= I have marveled often at the thin line that divides success from failure and the sudden turn that leads from apparently certain disaster to comparative safety.” – Ernest Shackleton Even on a great day, leadership […]

4 Ways to Escape the Delegation Roller Coaster

4 Ways to Escape the Delegation Roller Coaster

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good [people] to do what [they want] done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” – Theodore Roosevelt Delegation is one of the most valuable management tools at our disposal. Properly deployed, it empowers employees to feel ownership […]

3 Keys to Simplify Your Business

3 Keys to Simplify Your Business

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci “Keep it simple.” Although it’s a phrase even children understand, the irony is that it’s not always easy to achieve. Have you ever wondered why the creep of complication is a constant in our personal and professional lives? It’s because we tend to value complexity! For […]

Beware How You Compare

Beware How You Compare

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”— Tim Hiller When was the last time you thought about how you compare to others? The context may have been as an entrepreneur, a business leader, a homeowner, a spouse, or a parent. For most, it’s within the past 24 hours—but more likely, it was within the […]

The Pitfalls of Scarcity-Based Thinking in Leadership

The Pitfalls of Scarcity-Based Thinking in Leadership

“The best defense is a good offense, and I intend to start offending right now.” — Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek For millennia, leaders have known that the best defense is a good offense. Among others, these sentiments have been attributed to George Washington, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Mao Zedong, each of whom certainly […]

The Power of “No”: How Great Leaders Embrace Their Inner Toddler

The Power of “No”: How Great Leaders Embrace Their Inner Toddler

“You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.” — Nassim Taleb Anyone who’s raised or been around young children is all too familiar with the word “no.” “Noes” begin when toddlers take agency over their lives and make choices based on their preferences. “No, I don’t want […]

Boundaries Make Us Better

Boundaries Make Us Better

“Whatever you are willing to put up with is exactly what you will have.” – Anonymous Introduction In 1987, the New Jersey State Police received a report that a hunter had died on a small patch of land jutting into the Delaware River called Finns Point, however they refused to retrieve the body. Their reasoning? It […]

4 Ways to Create an Accurate View of Reality

4 Ways to Create an Accurate View of Reality

“Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.” – Nikos Kazantzakis In the 1999 film The Matrix, Keanu Reeves’s character Neo is given a choice to take a blue or red pill. The blue pill will allow him to continue his life on its current course, while the red one will […]

3 Proven Tools to Accelerate Behavior Change

3 Proven Tools to Accelerate Behavior Change

“Change does not occur by merely willing it any more than behavior changes simply through insight.” — Leo Buscaglia Now that we’re a month into 2023, you’ve probably identified at least a few goals and priorities you aim to accomplish this year. But how will you achieve them? Goals aren’t achieved because you will them into […]

4 Areas Where Entrepreneurs Need More Expertise

4 Areas Where Entrepreneurs Need More Expertise

Three weeks ago, 20 million people witnessed a horrific sports medicine emergency on live television. Buffalo Bills NFL football player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and required nine minutes of CPR to keep him alive. The on-site medical staff had done everything in their power to be prepared for such an event. They had […]

7 Leadership Lessons from the Trenches of 2022

7 Leadership Lessons from the Trenches of 2022

“Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.” — Ralph Blum The end of the year is a natural time to reflect and then to plan ahead. Accordingly, I facilitate reflective conversations with my clients during our annual planning sessions to help them look back on […]

The Case for Dogmatic Leadership

The Case for Dogmatic Leadership

What are your non-negotiable leadership lines in the sand? American country music superstar Kenny Rogers had a long and storied career, but he will forever be known for “The Gambler,” his song that asserts you’ve got to “know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.” While it’s good advice for the poker […]

Heroes Don’t Scale

Heroes Don’t Scale

“Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy” – F. Scott Fitzgerald Our culture is dominated by images of heroes. We see them everywhere—the athlete who makes a game-winning play, the movie character who saves the city with seconds to spare, and our fire, rescue, police, and military just about every day. One […]

"Quiet Quitting" is a Leadership Problem

“Employees join companies but leave managers.” – Brigette Hyacinth Although I don’t spend much time on TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter, it’s been impossible to avoid one of social media’s more recent trends: “quiet quitting.” Employees who “quiet quit,” frustrated with a growing plate of responsibilities and demands, perform the bare minimum in their jobs. The […]

3 Leadership Tools to Improve Communication & Performance

3 Leadership Tools to Improve Communication & Performance

“For me the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity.” – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing The leaders I coach have all the right stuff. They’re smart, driven, and can articulate a clear vision of how their company should operate. But those same success factors are a breeding ground for overconfidence, blindspots, and cognitive biases that […]

Is a “Need to be Liked” Undermining Your Ability to Lead?

Is a “Need to be Liked” Undermining Your Ability to Lead?

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.” – Lao Tzu We all want to be liked by others. Some psychologists believe the desire to be liked begins at birth when we are dependent on caregivers to survive. Others take an evolutionary perspective and point out how being part of […]

3 Steps to a More Accountable Team

3 Steps to a More Accountable Team

In a perfect world, your staff would complete their work on time, more proactively communicate problems and potential obstacles, and produce more predictable results. They would be more accountable. But right here, right now in the real world, projects are late and over budget, customer promises remain unfulfilled, and careless mistakes cost time and money. […]

10x Your Results with These Mental Models

“Everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.” – Patrick Rothfuss My wife Keri and I are huge bourbon fans. This past spring, after unsuccessful previous attempts, we were finally able to secure reservations to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail […]

4 Strategies to Minimize Disruptive Turnover

4 Strategies to Minimize Disruptive Turnover

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” — Louis Pasteur Paul “Bear” Bryant was arguably the best American football coach of all time. During his 25-year career at the University of Alabama, he won six national championships and 14 Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles. When asked about the key to his success, Bryant spoke just three words: “Expect the […]

The 3 Invisible Challenges of Choice

The 3 Invisible Challenges of Choice

“Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make a different choice.” — Unknown Life is all about choice. Think deeply about any aspect of your life—your job, your wellness, your relationships—and you’ll find you’ve chosen to be where you are. Each day, you’re […]

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info@mark-green.com