Holding somebody accountable for a standard I never made clear isn’t accountability. It’s me blaming them for something I assumed they knew. That’s an easy trap, because the longer you’ve been on the job, the more things start to feel obvious. I can look at a report and know what’s missing. I can hear about…
Small-town accountability gets personal pretty fast. There’s a good chance I know the person I’m dealing with. I may know his parents, his kids, where he works, or what he ordered the last time I saw him at lunch. Sometimes I know everybody involved. That’s part of living and working in a small town, and…
Every leader says they don’t care about being liked, and most of them are lying, myself included. But when being liked and being trusted pull in different directions, trust is what I’m protecting. I want the people I work with to like me, and I want them to be comfortable walking into my office and…