Dear Madeleine, I have been part of a large team of great people for a few years. About a year ago we got a new boss. He is a few years older than me and very smart and creative. We had an immediate connection because we went to the same school for undergraduate and are…
Dear Madeleine, I am worried about my boss. He has always been super bright, ahead of everyone else, with a mind like a steel trap. He has been an amazing boss and a real mentor for me; I have a lot of respect and affection for him. Lately he has been forgetting critical things, like…
Dear Madeleine, I am a fairly experienced manager, but I have reached my limit with one of my people—let’s call her Sam. She is extremely competent and up until about a year ago she was very reliable. Since then, it seems as if it has been one crisis after another. First, one of her kids…
Dear Madeleine, I am a senior director for a large multinational organization. I am good at what I do, my employees love working for me, and I’ve always received good feedback from my boss. At my last review, though, I didn’t get the promotion to VP that I expected. My boss told me she didn’t think…
Dear Madeleine, As you’ve probably noticed, the political situation in the US has gotten completely out of hand, with presidential candidates running amok. I don’t know what your political opinions are, but I am hoping you can help me with my untenable situation. Both my boss and one of my direct reports are super, emphatically,…
Dear Madeleine, I work for a very high profile not for profit. It is my first job and although I have been promoted twice in two years, I am still very young. I mention this because although I have a couple of direct reports now, and have a lot of responsibility, my boss still doesn’t…
Ego can be our greatest asset or it can be our biggest liability. It’s all about keeping it in balance. An out of balance ego doesn’t feel dramatically different from one that is in balance, explain authors David Marcum and Steven Smith in their book, Egonomics—and that’s why it trips up so many leaders. That’s…
