The Values-Based Business

Leading your boss

March 2, 2026 in Success in business | Tags: Goals, Initiative, Leadership, Management | Leave a comment

Your boss leads YOU and the rest of the team, right? So what does it mean for a subordinate to lead their boss?

I’ve had a surprising amount of experience at doing this successfully over the course of my career, so I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned.

There’s a popular phrase “managing upward” but sometimes that has overtones of I need to limit the amount of damage that my boss does to me. I have to admit that there can be times for this, but it’s not the kind of collaborative relationship you’d like to build.

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Indispensable

February 23, 2026 in Success in business | Tags: Building the bench, Goals, Redundancy, Vulnerability | Leave a comment

It’s really nice to be needed, to be valued based on your knowledge and skills.

The real question is: Do you want your organization to outlive your personal contribution? It’s actually a tricky question to answer, because it means that you need to be able to put aside your ego.

And it’s hard to prepare others to take over your role. I get that.

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Cycles of rest

February 16, 2026 in Success in business | Tags: Balance, Effectiveness, Productivity, Rest | Leave a comment

On the seventh day, God rested. So we’ve known for an awful long time how important it is to have cycles of time where we step away from the work.

But with the way Americans (in particular) are addicted to always “being on”, you’d think we’ve found a magic solution to such a waste of time.

We haven’t.

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Resistance

February 9, 2026 in Success in business | Tags: Coaching, Reflection, Resistance, Understanding | Leave a comment

Expect resistance. Resistance is not a sign you’re going wrong. It’s a sign you’re growing. Trees grow strongest where wind blows hardest. The parts of you that resist are the parts most in need of transformation. Love them anyway. Grow anyway.
— Steve Martin, Instructions for Becoming

Steve here is talking about the kind of interior resistance you experience when you’re trying to grow as a person.

It’s really hard to tackle these, because it’s easy to avoid growth by saying, “that’s just who I am.” Yes, you may find it difficult to grow a third arm. But that’s not what we’re talking about.

This is about growing into the kind of person that you want to be. That you know would bring fulfillment.

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Limits

February 2, 2026 in Success in business | Tags: Balance, Limits, Stress, Workload | Leave a comment

We never have enough time to get everything done.

So things get dropped, done incompletely, or come in late. The alternative is to burn yourself out with overwork, but the result of that is that work increases until you’re well beyond capacity.

Your health, family, and life pay the price.

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