The Unkindness of Being Nice
The nice action is actually an unkind action. One step further, the nice action isn’t altruistic. It’s not really being done for the other person; it’s being done because you don’t want to be uncomfortable.
Women in Leadership
The reliability trap
Reliability is a genuine organisational asset and it earns real credibility in the earlier stages of a career. But at a certain point, it stops compounding. The shift from reliable executor to credible strategic voice is about what becomes visible.
When to disagree out loud
Disagreement handled well is a credibility accelerant. Disagreement handled poorly is a credibility tax. The issue is not whether to disagree, it's how to frame it as analysis rather than noise.
The Permission I Gave Everyone But Myself
For years I've told leaders to embrace failure as the cost of building anything new. Then a few people asked if I'd really give up a steady income to go out on my own, and I caught myself holding my own risk to a harder standard than theirs.
The Attribution Gap
Attribution is not automatic. It is built from a record, and records require entries made before the final moment, not reconstructed from it.
Change Doesn't Need Better Management. It Needs Better Leadership
People don't resist change, they resist ambiguity: not knowing if they'll still belong, still matter. Change management handles the mechanics. Leadership creates clarity from uncertainty, and gives people real agency in how they move through it.
The double bind
No amount of calibration will close a gap that exists in the evaluation system itself. The answer isn't a more refined adjustment. It's a different theory of how credibility forms.
Credibility Under Pressure
Credibility isn't only built in conditions that reward it. It's defined in conditions that test it.
The Standard You'd Never Apply to Anyone Else
We expect leaders to look composed on their worst days. That standard is a norm worth rewriting. Leadership isn't measured by avoiding stumbles, but by recovering from them, giving yourself the grace you offer everyone else, and standing back up.
The Halo Problem
The credibility account opens at the first interaction. After that, interest compounds in whichever direction the first deposit set.
