Author: Rachel Hanson

Competence matters way more than confidence. Confidence comes and goes. Get a less than desirable result and your confidence may wane. Failure, however, does not negate the reps you've taken, aka your level of competence. Competence breeds confidence. When you're in the proverbial arena, you can remind yourself that you've done the work to be … Continue reading Competence vs confidence

Most 360s are a way to offload the pain of dealing with a problem you're avoiding. If you're the one wanting feedback on yourself, and you choose to get a 360...that's the chicken's way out. Weak sauce. Go slow down, build better relationships, ask others to give you truth and then learn to dig deeper … Continue reading Weak sauce

Train to be a quarter horse, not a thoroughbred. Thoroughbreds are fast. Bred and trained for speed and endurance. Outside of that, they're neurotic messes - flighty, injury prone, easily spooked by a plastic bag floating by. Quarter horses, on the other hand are un-phased by just about everything. They're still very fast for short … Continue reading Quarter Horses

People don't rise to the occasion, they fall to their level of training. You hear this Navy Seal maxim frequently in BTL. It's true. Here's an and - people often DO rise to expectations over time.  I've got a client whose boss just recently walked into their office and declared that they they were now … Continue reading Rising to expectations, not occasions

If multiple people are responsible for something, none are. If someone is reporting to multiple people, they're reporting to no one. High degrees of excellence require high degrees of autonomy AND accountability. The muddier things get, the less autonomy and accountability is present. Get clarity on your reporting structure. Get clarity on your standards. Make … Continue reading Autonomy and accountability

If someone is gifted the best resources and the best people, it's possible they could stumble their way to some measure of success. The ability to not screw something up is not universal, but it is simpler than building something from scratch. And maintaining that success is a whole different animal. When you're on the … Continue reading Resources

FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) is situation normal for most teams and organizations. Mergers? FUD. New boss? FUD. Changing structures? FUD. New fiscal year? FUD. GREAT organizations and teams demand and fight for clarity and they tackle FUD head on. You may not have control over what you company, your boss does. And even where there's … Continue reading FUD

Is your team super clear on the why and the aim behind any project or strategic decision? Probably less so than you think. A client of mine launched into speaking about a project today and quickly lost me in the details. They were clear on where they were headed, but there weren't any passengers on … Continue reading All aboard