All posts by Peter Barron Stark

Every leader I work with has a decision they’re sitting on. They know what it is. They know what needs to happen. And they’re not doing it. Sometimes it’s a personnel decision that’s been overdue…

Making a tough decision is hard. Communicating it is harder. Most leaders I work with can eventually make a decision. Where they stumble is in what comes next. They soften the message. They over-explain. They…

We have sat in more board meetings than we can count where the conversation turns to risk, and someone at the table asks the CEO a version of the same question: “If something unexpected happened…

Most leaders I work with didn’t fully understand what they were signing up for when they took the job. That’s not a criticism. It’s just the truth. Leadership looks one way from the outside and…

When we get called in to work with a struggling leader, one of the first things we do is interview the people on that leader’s team. It tells us a great deal about what’s really…

We recently worked with a manager who was genuinely puzzled by what was happening on their team. By their own account, they had built a positive environment. Their door was always open. They accommodated personal…

We were working with a client on their employee engagement survey when they made an unusual request. They asked if we could change the word “manager” to “coach” throughout the survey. At first glance, it…

An executive we were coaching not long ago told us he was completely overwhelmed. “I can’t take on one more thing,” he said. “I already have more than I can handle.” When we asked whether…

We were conducting an organizational assessment for a department that had been struggling with low morale for months. When we sat down with the employees, the picture came together quickly. They were unclear about their…