There is a story I often return to when working with senior executives, a story about a brilliant COO whose teams were consistently exhausted but rarely effective. He wasn’t harsh, unreasonable, or incompetent. Quite the opposite. He was visionary, fast-minded, and deeply committed to excellence. Yet his greatest strength had become his team’s greatest frustration. One afternoon, after a tense review session, a young manager finally found the courage to say what others had whispered for months: “We aren’t tired because the work is hard. We are
There is a story I often return to when working with senior executives, a story about a brilliant COO whose teams were consistently exhausted but rarely effective. He wasn’t harsh, unreasonable, or incompetent. Quite the opposite. He was visionary, fast-minded, and deeply committed to excellence. Yet his greatest strength had become his team’s greatest frustration. One afternoon, after a tense review session, a young manager finally found the courage to say what others had whispered for months: “We aren’t tired because the work is hard. We are
