Author: Rachel Hanson

If you want to know true capacity, measuring is best done in absolute rather than relative terms. In other words, if you want to know what you or your system is capable of, measure your growth against your own standard, and set it aggressively high. If you're measuring your improvement or standings relative to a … Continue reading Absolute vs relative

Reaching new levels of success or excellence is usually pretty simple. Very difficult, but simple nonetheless. A client of mine identified the one thing that was the biggest driver of his success, and he's been a maniac in focusing on that one thing. All of the relevant output metrics have just about doubled in a … Continue reading The one thing

Belief is a spectrum, not binary. It's not a question of do I believe in this teammate or not? The better question is do I have enough belief in them? And if not, what's the truth I need to tell them about why that is? In a practice recently we unpacked someone whose direct report … Continue reading Belief is a spectrum

Research shows that quality of work improves when people are given the opportunity to fail. They are willing to DO more and learn more from the doing. When they believe failure will be punished, they play it safe and don’t actually iterate or evolve. Failure without learning breeds more failure. Success without learning breeds stagnation … Continue reading Fail more

Leadership IS about power. But not the way many practice it. It’s not about hoarding power, grabbing it, retaining it or wielding it. It’s about EMpowering others. How much can you give away? How much can you disperse? How much power can you let go of and allow to reside with your people? Do they … Continue reading Power

All the very best things in life have an undercurrent of bittersweet. Poison and wine, as Chet would say. When you really care about something this duality is ever present. Being a parent I feel this more than ever before. I love my son, I love watching him grow, and I'm all too aware that … Continue reading Bittersweet

The vast majority of leaders give lip service to excellence. Few live it and create cultures that live and breathe it. There's a large disparity in that gap between saying and doing. The doing is exceptionally hard. As with most things, the pursuit of excellence starts with clarity. Are you crystal clear on a definition … Continue reading Living excellence

I listened to an interesting podcast recently (thanks, OB) where a BUDs (Navy Seal training pipeline) instructor talked about BUDs as a laboratory for failure. Instantly had my attention. Every single BUDs candidate believes strongly on day 1 that they'll make it to the end and that nothing could deter them from this singular life … Continue reading Enduring