Nothing says “I don’t trust you” more than draconian HR policies that are spread like peanut butter over the employee population in an attempt to snare a few bad apples who are likely disengaged and working against the best interests of the company and the rest of the team. The solution? Improve the skill level of managers across the organization through intentional learning and development programs and make it clear through incentives that excellence is rewarded and poor performance/disengagement are not. The bad apples will opt out and head for more fertile pastures to apply their mediocre skills and display their poor work ethic for all to see.

Today we’re going to continue our exploration of the growth trap. I define the growth trap as seeking business growth for the sake of business growth with little regard for operational or cultural implications.

However, like the budgeting process, c-suite magical thinking poses the biggest threat to value addition in M&A and can quickly turn what on the surface looks like a great idea and a big value-add into a transaction that ends up destroying corporate value.

The question today is this. Is bigger always better? In zucchini, the answer is a resounding no. In business, the answer is a bit more nuanced, but bigger is certainly not always better.

As leaders, we routinely fall into what I like to call the growth trap. The growth trap shows up in various forms, but it can be a huge morale killer and represent significant risk to the business.

My advice is instead of looking down your nose and denigrating members of the generations that follow you, lend a hand. Use your gifts to mentor, lift up, and inspire those who are less experienced than you are.

Working with Intention: Self-reflection and the use of the five whys requires an open mind and a strong ego in order to challenge potential unconscious bias and consider answers that may not be popular or fit neatly into existing narratives. Hence, it's seldom the case that meaningful results come solely from self-reflection exercises. To make more progress, we will need the help of our coaches and mentors.

I do my best to keep The Saturday Morning Muse out of the political spectrum, but this week I will make an exception. As we march toward election day on November 5, 2024, it’s important that our voices are heard and that we exercise our rights to free speech. This episode is on the longer side of things and should be watched in its entirety. To do otherwise would mean that what I have to say has a high probability of being taken out of context and twisted for political gain.