Insights
Thinking out loud.
Notes, essays and arguments in progress — mostly about what leaders do under pressure and why it so rarely matches what they believe about themselves.
Where to read
Two places I write.
From the
newsletter.
betterHUMAN goes out most weeks — one idea, worked properly. Everything below lives on Substack. Subscribing is how you get it first.
Two Truths
Adam asked me the honest question almost no one asks.
Read on Substack-
10 Aug 2026
Nick Doesn't Love Me
The wife walked into my office and said seven words that ended the marriage.
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3 Aug 2026
The Gas Tank
Mike bought thirteen acres in Oregon so he could ride a tractor.
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26 Jul 2026
Sell Past the Close
Nick finished his presentation. His director sat back, said okay, that works, we’re good. He should have stopped. He didn’t stop. He kept going. Just wanted to add one more thing about the…
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21 Jul 2026
The Cups Were Wrong Again
The cups were wrong again. Not tragically wrong. Just wrong. Dixie cups the first time, when I’d asked for something that could actually hold a mixed drink. She went back. Came home with a…
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11 Jul 2026
The Personality Type That Looks Like Leadership
I’ve been working with Berne’s ego state framework for thirty years.
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3 Jul 2026
You're Not Burned Out. You're Boring.
Every client I work with can tell me about their Adult.
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26 Jun 2026
The Most Dangerous Person in the Room
She was the best communicator on the leadership team.
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19 Jun 2026
The Disappearance of the Middle
My buddy posts his breakfast every morning.
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12 Jun 2026
The Voice That Thinks It's Helping
His team called him “The Weather.” Not to his face.
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4 Jun 2026
The Apology That Isn't One
A client told me about a conversation she’d had with her business partner the week before.
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28 May 2026
The Six People Inside You
A client sat across from me last year and said something I hear more often than you’d think.
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21 May 2026
What Smart People Get Wrong About Not Knowing
The professor called Marcus’s name. Marcus froze. He has ADHD and the class had been moving fast for forty minutes. His attention had drifted somewhere in the back third of the room. The…
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19 May 2026
The Performance of Vulnerability
I was sitting in on a leadership offsite when the VP of product stood up, took a breath, and said, “I just want to be vulnerable here for a second.
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14 May 2026
Hold The Ladder
He caught his wife off guard when he asked her to hold the ladder.
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11 May 2026
What Blame Actually Is
Someone cuts you off in traffic and your hands tighten on the wheel.
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6 May 2026
There's No Way You Hit the House
The friend said he hit the house. The house was 350 yards across the driving range. Past every other golfer, past the marker, past the actual range of any amateur in the world. Tiger Woods…
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2 May 2026
The Next Crisis Is Already Practising
I was on a call with a CEO three weeks into a restructure he hadn’t seen coming.
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28 Apr 2026
Every Signal You Send Is an Instruction
There’s a pattern in conflict that’s almost impossible to see while you’re inside it.
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23 Apr 2026
Hope Is a Terrible Project Management Strategy
He called in December to say we needed another hundred thousand dollars.