Business writing doesn’t need more words. It needs more courage to delete them. Here’s why every sentence should earn its place.
Category: Ramblings
When Questions Become Performative
There is one type of Facebook post that has always fascinated me—not the requests for recommendations (“Who’s the best plumber?”), and not questions that genuinely benefit from local knowledge or personal experience. I’m talking about posts asking for objective facts. “Where can I get steak tips” “Is Target open today?” “What time is the Patriots […]
Motivated Ignorance: The Things We Don’t Want to Know
Motivated ignorance thrives in organizations that place a high value on harmony, positivity, or certainty. Difficult questions are often treated as negativity. Skepticism becomes a sign of disloyalty. Employees learn which type of concerns are welcome.
Good Beats Nice
Most people believe being nice is a virtue. But niceness often avoids conflict, accountability, and truth. Here’s why being a good person matters more than being a nice one.
The Quiet Damage of Salary Clickbait
Local salary “shock” stories promise transparency but often lack context. Here’s how clickbait coverage quietly erodes trust in public institutions.
Why Toxic People Stick Around
Why toxic leadership persists: how promotion, culture, and “dynamic” workplaces normalize harm—and what that reveals about leadership accountability.
Read What Sticks in ’26
Here’s what I’m readin’. Follow me on Goodreads. August Orbital July It Was All a Lie Regime Change June James May April Their Eyes Were Watching God March 7 Rules of Power In the Lives of Puppets February Disorderly Men January I Make Envy on Your Disco Flesh
The Useful Idiots of the Disinformation Age
They’re not the puppet masters. These useful idiots are the puppets who think they’re pulling the strings. And in 2025, they’re everywhere.
When Leadership Becomes Performance
Across public higher education, there are institutions where the machinery of governance still hums but the spirit that once powered it has stalled. Leadership meetings occur on schedule, strategic plans are cited in slide decks, and community updates are filled with the right vocabulary of innovation and inclusion. Yet within the walls of these colleges—and, […]
Holding Steady in Change
In complex times, steady leadership is not optional. It’s what holds teams together, builds trust, and drives meaningful progress when clarity is hardest to find.
As a Leader, Are You Actually Listening?
Before your next conversation, pause and ask yourself: Am I really hearing them — or am I only hearing myself?
The Discipline of Letting Expertise Lead
The higher we rise, the more comfortable we must become with the truth that we are no longer the smartest person in every room—and that is exactly as it should be.
The Arena of Cruelty: Sports Culture Conditions Us for Dehumanization
If we want to remain a society that values more than domination, we must learn to cheer differently. The spectacle is not inherently wrong. But what we demand of it—and how we reflect it—can be reimagined.
Taking Stock: High Vibration in a Low-Frequency World
Somewhere along the way, I stopped expecting applause. I stopped expecting that doing the right thing would be rewarded, that advocating for others would earn loyalty, or that holding people accountable would inspire change. I learned that showing up with clarity, consistency, and compassion can make you a target just as quickly as it makes […]
Stop Chasing Black and White — Win in the Gray
And if you’re waiting for perfect clarity, or the perfect answer, or the perfect timing — you’re waiting for something that doesn’t exist.
The Five Weeks of April
We live in ‘thirty-day months.’ We do not always control the landscape we inherit. But great leaders learn to work not just within those frames — but between them.
Why Do the Troublemakers Get a Free Pass at Work? (While the Rest of Us Get Exhausted.)
First, a truth bomb: people who stir the pot are exhausting to manage. That’s not an excuse—it’s a reality.
Authenticity Fatigue, or, I’m Just Tired
For those experiencing the fatigue of being publicly “real” in professionally strategic ways, it may be time to embrace a quieter, less curated form of presence.
Grindr, the Crutch, and the Chase
By a CMO Who Knows Both the Algorithm and the Allure