I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, and in college I took classes in jewelry and metals. I was taught by a Professor named David Peterson who is an extremely talented (albeit tough) teacher. After studying with David for two
The Challenge of Being Three Different People
One of the challenges of being a product leader is that different stakeholders are looking to you for different things. The three most prominent groups of stakeholders include: Internal teams like sales, marketing and engineering who are looking to you
Being the Coach and the Lead Blocker
As those who’ve read this blog for any period of time can attest, I often find myself reflecting on what it means to be a leader. It seems that each new project and each new responsibility helps give me new
Being Accountable
We’ve all seen the chart. It looks like this. RASCI. It’s a model for how to run projects in complex organizations. Different people take different roles along the RASCI spectrum. Responsible means you’re on the hook for doing most of
Are You a Manager or a Leader?
I recently picked up On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis and found it pretty interesting. Originally published in 1989, the book still has many lessons that are relevant today – some perhaps more relevant than when first published. Much
Valuing Strength Over Lack of Weakness
Finding and hiring an executive is one of the hard things addressed in Ben Horowitz’s book – The Hard Thing about Hard Things. As an intro to the topic, Horowitz calls out many of the complexities and challenges associated with
Creating and Sustaining Momentum
I recently mentored a team of students from Skidmore College competing in the fourth annual Kenneth A Freirich Business Plan Competition. The students, Alexander Nassief ’16 and Zach Rohde ’14 of Rum Dogs Inc, were exceptional to work with and
How to Create Order from Chaos
This past week I met with a colleague to talk about my method for launching a new initiative at work. He explained that next month he will be moving to help open a new office in an emerging market and
Leading Like a Community Organizer
In my post last week, I concluded that the key to being a good coach is: 1) Having a clearly articulated plan 2) Getting full “buy in” from your team In response, Keith Petri asked: “I would love to hear