Focus. #deliver Lead With Less
How do I lead and communicate with less noise?
Make your peer leadership team your first allegiance, give people the context and the goal instead of managing their steps, and leave room for others to respond: ask, then stay quiet. The friction downstream disappears when leaders stop adding noise.
Subscribe To Focus. #deliver On LinkedIn →
Prefer email? Get one Scrum tactic and a free cartoon every Saturday: join the Implementing Scrum list.
The tips, one per Thursday
24 editions of Focus. #deliver on this theme. Each links to the full article on LinkedIn.
-
September 24, 2026
Make your first allegiance your peer leadership group, not your department, and the downstream friction disappears.
-
July 24, 2026
After you ask or present, stay quiet and give people time to respond — talking less makes you a better communicator.
-
June 25, 2026
Provide the context, define the goal, and get out of the way: trust the people you hired to find the path.
-
June 4, 2026
Make your primary allegiance your peer leadership team (your First Team), not just your direct reports.
-
April 16, 2026
Delegate the outcome, not the task: tell your team what needs to be accomplished and why, then let them figure out how.
-
March 19, 2026
Stop stepping in to "save" the project: trust your people and the process you've put in place.
-
September 18, 2025
If you're unsure what your role on the team is, have a conversation with your team about it, and ask why it matters.
-
September 11, 2025
Ask who YOUR team is today, define it, and get clear on it. It's something you can control, so start there.
-
September 4, 2025
As a senior leader, don't spend leadership-team time on your direct reports' day-to-day work (your Second Team); act as a true leadership team.
-
August 28, 2025
Get familiar with the "First Team" idea and think about what it means for you personally; if you're a senior leader, share it with your leadership team.
-
March 6, 2025
In your next conversation, pause and count to five before you respond.
-
February 27, 2025
Whether it's good, bad or stuck, own it instead of deflecting.
-
October 31, 2024
Get clear on what you want or need and say it clearly; it's also how you set and hold boundaries.
-
September 5, 2024
Before you answer "What do you do?", think about the stance you're taking for the person asking.
-
February 8, 2024
Start from "I can only really change ME": organizational change takes people who want it and the support of the executive team.
-
December 14, 2023
Leaders: if there's a toxic person on your team, fixing it is your job, not your team's. Don't let it run for months or years.
-
October 5, 2023
Even if your organization's goal is to keep growing, stay small. It doesn't mean thinking small.
-
August 17, 2023
Trust in the gap: acknowledge as a team that everyone has a different point of view, and extend trust.
-
July 13, 2023
Before you introduce your next change, consider the person on the receiving end (timing and context matter), then go ahead or put it on hold.
-
March 16, 2023
Delegate the Urgent-but-Not-Important stuff: define the outcome you want, trust that it'll get done, and still own the result.
-
October 20, 2022
Be genuine, keep it simple and get to the point: be concise.
-
October 13, 2022
Context matters: check in constantly when you communicate to adjust for the other person's context, and have empathy for it.
-
August 4, 2022
Speak up when something is off. It takes courage; don't make a career-limiting move, and if needed walk away and think it through first.
-
July 28, 2022
After you ask a question, be intentionally silent and listen.
More Focus. #deliver themes
- How do I protect my focus when everything is urgent?
- How do I recover when I'm exhausted, overwhelmed or stuck?
- How do I finish work instead of juggling half-done tasks?
- How do I avoid building things nobody needs?
- How do I stop wasting time on routines that add no value?
- How do I connect and collaborate with other people?