When a people situation at work becomes a challenge, the reflex is to react quickly and resolve the problem. The more effective skill is to read the situation, including what it is stirring in you, and choose deliberately.

Every leader experiences this regularly: someone on the team becomes a probl...

The most interesting person in the room is rarely the one trying hardest to be interesting. More often it's the person paying unusually close attention.

Curious people notice things. They ask the question after the obvious question, catch the contradiction, follow the unexpected answer rather than ...

For a lot of capable people — introverts, founders, senior leaders — small talk feels shallow and faintly exhausting. It makes more sense once you understand what it's actually for: not a performance to get through, but a reading process. The same one that helps you read a room, a negotiation, or ...

Every interaction gives you two sources of information: the person in front of you and your own reaction to them. Understanding people requires learning to read both.

Most advice about working with difficult colleagues offers a list of tactics: set boundaries, listen actively, address the behavior,...

The recurring bind of managing above and below — and the two-way read that keeps stress from landing on the wrong people.

Most leaders in the middle know the feeling before they can name it. In front of the client, you're composed — measured, even accommodating. Then you turn to your own team and s...