culture Archives - Chris Kolenda

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How to Address Negativity Bias

September 17, 2026/in Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

How does negativity bias affect what shows up when you show up?

Did you ever notice that your phone’s auto-suggestions seem set to negative? Every time I type “terr,” the phone’s system suggests the word terrible. I rarely use that word, but I often use terrific.

It happened again today, prompting this thought: how much are we surrounded by negativity bias? Google’s algorithm suggesting “terrible” means that people are much more likely to text “terrible” than “terrific.” The language you use affects what shows up when you show up.

Human beings have a hardwired negativity bias. The amygdala part of our brain is highly sensitive to danger and threats; a capacity that keeps us alive. Social media algorithms picked up on what demagogues figured out centuries ago: the easiest way to mobilize emotion is to incite fear, anger, or resentment.

That approach tends to work in the media and politics, but can be highly damaging to your business. One of the reasons for DEI’s implosion in the workplace, for example, is its common practice of pitting people against each other. You wind up with a negative mirror effect: suspicion invites suspicion. People see what they believe, so suspicion leads to resentment, retaliation, and conflict.

Managers soon realized that people suspicious of one another have a hard time working together.

What to do instead?

You cannot control someone’s mirror; you can only control your own, but what you do with your mirror influences others.

I learned the truth of this in Afghanistan. The more we looked for and accentuated opportunities to work together positively, the more local elders and officials responded positively. Going positive and going first prompted an upward spiral of cooperation and trust. Yes, some threw the efforts back in our faces. They were few and far between, however, and their response placed them in a different category. The vast majority responded positively, leading to a big insurgent group agreeing to stop fighting and, eventually, switch sides.

Apply this mirror effect to the workplace. You create fear when you show up angry or suspicious. How do your employees react? Some tend to fight back, saying your characterizations are not justified. Others may flee. You may also see “fawn” reactions. The rest will freeze. None of these reactions boost productivity or performance.

What if you turned your mirror positive? After all, what you believe is what you see. When you start looking for and acknowledging positive performance, you find more of it as people are drawn to the reinforcement. Yes, you will still see the problems when they surface, because your amygdala is still firing. You just won’t allow negativity to become the default.

I can already hear the teeth-grinders complaining that this approach lowers standards and coddles people. It’s just the opposite. Going positive and going first allows you to set higher standards, have confidence in attaining them, and soar to new heights.

Visual models play a vital role in getting everyone to understand the approach and their role in it, which is why they have such a powerful effect. My 3-Discipline Leadership System® uses visual models to show you and your employees how to use three powerful levers (Strategic Foresight, Empowering Oversight, and Courageous Insight) to turn mirrors positive and create the upward spiral that leads to enduring prosperity.

If getting your employees on the same leadership playbook appeals to you, let’s set up a diagnostic call.

Nick Saban Didn’t Change Alabama’s Culture. He Deepened It.

September 3, 2026/in Culture, Leadership/by Chris Kolenda

How Culture Change Works

JCPenney was in decline and desperate to modernize. In 2011, the board hired Ron Johnson, the Apple executive who had helped create one of the most successful retail experiences in the world.

It seemed like an inspired choice.

Johnson moved quickly. He eliminated coupons and constant markdowns, redesigned stores, and tried to transform JCPenney’s relationship with its customers.

There was only one problem: the customers did not want the relationship he was offering.

For generations, JCPenney shoppers had enjoyed hunting for bargains. Coupons and sales were not merely pricing tactics; they were part of the experience. Johnson tried to replace that experience without understanding what it meant to the people who valued it.

Sales collapsed. Johnson was fired after 17 months, and JCPenney brought back his predecessor to repair the damage. But some damage cannot be reversed simply by restoring the coupons.

The Pattern Behind Success and Failure

We’ve seen versions of this story in businesses, sports teams, nonprofits, and government agencies. A new leader arrives with fresh ideas and a mandate to shake things up, only to crash into a cultural wall.

Sometimes people simply resist. Other times, the culture appears to change, but something never feels quite right. The new behaviors seem forced. The values sound imported. The organization loses a piece of itself.

What’s going on, and how can you create culture change that works?

Culture graph in Nick Saban Didn't Change Alabama's Culture. He Deepened It. blog.

Culture is the set of norms that govern behavior. Those norms develop from all three layers: Context, Concept, and Content. Culture-change efforts falter when leaders overlook any one of them.

Context is what makes your company or team unique: it’s the intersection of history, identity, geography, mission, shared experiences, and deeply held beliefs.

At JCPenney, bargain hunting was woven into the company’s identity and its relationship with customers. Removing it did more than change prices. It disrupted a ritual. For loyal customers, the change felt less like modernization and more like betrayal.

Concept identifies the principles that embody your unique context and advance your mission. It answers: Given who we are and what we are here to accomplish, what values and standards should guide us?

Content translates those principles into behavior. What does this value look like when we are making decisions, serving customers, resolving conflict, or responding to mistakes? What behaviors do we want, and what behaviors are unacceptable?

Where the Layers Meet

The intersection of Context and Concept is Authenticity.

Values feel authentic when they grow from the organization’s identity and aspirations. Culture-change efforts often fail here because leaders try to graft someone else’s values, language, or practices onto their organization. The words may sound impressive, but people know they do not sound like us.

When you honor the context, change feels like growth. Ignore it, and change feels like treason.

The intersection of Concept and Content is Accountability.

Institutionalizing culture often fails here. Leaders announce new values but never define the behaviors that express them. People ignore what is written on the walls and watch what happens in the halls and on the calls.

What gets praised? What gets tolerated? Who gets promoted? What happens when a high performer violates the values?

Without clear examples of what right looks like and what is not acceptable, people interpret the values however they please. Conveniently, those interpretations tend to justify whatever they’re already doing.

Successful culture change, therefore, comes from alignment.

Context: Is this true to who we are?

Concept: Does it embody who we want to become?

Content: Does it express how people should behave?

When all three align, culture change does not require people to abandon their identity. It invites them to become a better version of it.

Saban’s Magic

Nick Saban’s transformation of Alabama football is a powerful example. He honored the program’s championship tradition, built the culture around discipline, relentless improvement, and doing ordinary things extraordinarily well, and translated those standards into “The Process.” He got players to focus on executing the next play correctly rather than obsessing over the scoreboard.

Accountable daily behavior turned aspirations into championships.

The 3 Layers process works magic when you want to strengthen your existing culture rather than change it. The authentic clarity boosts buy-in and makes accountability easier and more supportive.

Ready to strengthen your culture? Let’s talk.

The Most Dangerous Employee at Johnsonville Was the CEO

August 27, 2026/in Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

Johnsonville CEO Ralph Stayer realized he had a problem employee. This employee was a senior leader who was indispensable in all the wrong ways. He micromanaged. He made all of the decisions. He did the important things himself because he didn’t trust anyone else to do them.

The result, Stayer recognized, was a loss of initiative and responsibility among his employees. Instead of growing, this leader’s employees seemed less capable than when they were first hired. The quality of Johnsonville’s sausages declined.

Something had to change.

Stayer knew this leader could learn and grow because the leader was Stayer himself.

This story resonates with me because I love Johnsonville sausages, and I’ve found myself in a similar position. I am a recovering bottleneck (the picture below is me admitting that during my Break the Bottleneck keynote).

Chris Kolenda speaking in his Break the Bottleneck keynote.

Nearly every leader I’ve met who is a bottleneck got that way because they care deeply. You don’t want anything to go wrong; you want your employees to succeed; you want your clients delighted; you want the buck to stop with you; and you want to model accountability.

You hire capable people, but they gradually become less capable because they have so little at stake. When you make the important decisions, solve the difficult problems, and rescue them from every struggle, you deprive them of the experiences that build judgment and confidence.

Capability doesn’t remain stationary. What isn’t exercised deteriorates.

It’s like strength training. If you lift the weight for someone, you may prevent them from struggling, but you also prevent them from getting stronger. Of course, you don’t ask someone who can lift 25 pounds to lift 250. Empowerment without preparation isn’t leadership; it’s abandonment.

Stayer learned that he couldn’t simply announce that people were now empowered and walk away. He had spent years teaching them to depend on him. Reversing that dependency required a journey of progressively greater challenges, clearer responsibility, coaching, and room to struggle.

His role changed from solving people’s problems to creating the conditions in which they could solve increasingly difficult problems themselves.

I created the 3-Discipline Leadership System® to give you a safe, effective, and teachable way to create Team-Powered Momentum so you can move from being the bottleneck to becoming the architect of momentum. You’ll spend less time fighting today’s fires and more time building tomorrow’s prosperity.

I invite you to complete this sentence, “With greater team-powered momentum, I could _____.” Identify a dozen results, benefits, and outcomes you could achieve.

What did you come up with?

P.S. Stayer wrote that transferring quality ownership to frontline teams eventually helped reduce rejects from 5% to under 0.5%.

Two Leaders. One Deadline. Very Different Outcomes.

August 6, 2026/in Current Events, Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

When the Deadline Becomes the Mission

Two federal leaders reportedly received extraordinary, short-notice requests in advance of America’s 250th anniversary: turn the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool “American flag blue” and help create a new $250 bill featuring President Trump.

One deadline produced a fiasco. The other produced an act of courage.

Reflecting on the Pool

The Reflecting Pool project bypassed normal competitive bidding and was rushed toward completion before July 4. For a brief time, it appeared to work. Then the lining began peeling, and the problems surfaced.

Officials blamed vandalism. Former Olympian David Hearn, who said he merely touched a loose piece of lining, was arrested and charged with felony property destruction.

Then the story changed.

Documents provided to prosecutors after Hearn’s indictment reportedly revealed “a rushed and flawed installation process,” repeated failures during installation, and extensive peeling before Hearn ever approached the pool. Prosecutors moved to dismiss the case, saying the damage resulted from a botched installation rather than vandalism as the Department of the Interior had initially represented.

The deadline had become the mission. Normal safeguards became obstacles. Speed displaced judgment. When the result failed, the search for a culprit overwhelmed the search for the truth.

The Courage to Speak Up

Patty Collins, then director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, reportedly faced a similarly unrealistic request. Patty and I served together in the Pentagon and Afghanistan and have remained friends ever since.

According to various news reports, senior Treasury officials wanted the bureau to help develop a $250 bill featuring President Trump. There were a few complications. The United States does not have a $250 denomination. Federal law prohibits placing a living person on currency. Congress had not authorized the bill. And creating a secure new banknote normally takes six to eight years.

You cannot simply adjust a few dials and start cranking out money. Apparently, even the federal government has limits.

Patty reportedly explained that she had no objection to the concept, but there was no lawful or responsible way for her agency to produce the bill on the requested timeline. She also noted that her bureau was not the approving authority.

She was subsequently removed from her position.

These two episodes center on Keen Judgment, one of the nine accelerators in the 3-Discipline Leadership System® (see video here).

Keen Judgment is the ability to assess reality, weigh competing risks and perspectives, and determine what the moment requires. It enables leaders to make sound decisions when information is incomplete, pressures are intense, and no option is risk-free.

In both cases, the desired outcome collided with reality.

One agency pushed ahead, weakened safeguards, and eventually blamed someone who appears not to have caused the damage.

One leader surfaced the problem and accepted the personal consequences of telling senior officials what they did not want to hear.

How Do You Develop Keen Judgment in Your Organization?

Begin by making your values and standards explicit. Then discuss what should happen when they collide:

What happens when speed conflicts with quality?
What happens when one value conflicts with another?
What happens when accomplishing the mission requires violating a standard?
Who has the authority to pause the work?
How should someone challenge an unrealistic directive?

These conversations are especially important when delegating consequential work. Shared standards help people understand where they have freedom to improvise and where they must stop, question, or elevate the decision.

Why It Matters Even More Today

Keen judgment is increasingly vital. AI will produce more ideas and make action possible at unprecedented speed. But speed does not make an idea wise, lawful, or executable. It merely gets us to the consequences faster.

The leaders you cannot afford to lose are often the ones willing to place a dose of reality on an exciting idea before it becomes an expensive fiasco.

If loyalty is your organization’s only implied value, you will not create disciplined initiative. You will create blind obedience and flattering agreement.

And eventually, the epoxy begins to peel.

How to Empower Without Losing Control

June 25, 2026/in Culture, Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

Today’s complexity and volatility prompt leaders to assert control. Here’s the problem.

I don’t believe the hype that leaders are facing more complexity and volatility than ever. Few today have had to deal with the business or military implications of existential threats such as sudden workforce exposure to incurable diseases, the need to find and ration drinkable water, famine, and unpredictable weather events. The logistics of sustaining a 100,000-person army marching through unmapped, hostile territory entail staggering complexity. Could today’s leaders build Luxor under the conditions 6,500 years ago?

Today’s complexity is challenging in different ways. AI is upending businesses and careers, creating new markets and destroying existing ones. Who wants to be a computer programmer anymore? Political, social, and economic volatility accelerates change and disruption as alliances fray, political parties radicalize, pandemics spread, wars disrupt economies, tariffs drive up costs, supply chains become shaky, and new and old bigotries tear people apart, to name a few.

Uncertainty creates fear, and safety is your first instinct. Asserting control is a common way to increase the feeling of security. Herein lies the risk.

Many leaders seek control by centralizing execution, decisions, problem-solving, and innovation. You feel safer that everything is in your capable hands. No chaos, no stray voltage, no freelancing. The instinct is understandable, but the response is damaging.

I know, because I’ve made the same mistake.

I was in charge of a challenging mission and wanted everything to go right. I thought I could reduce risk and increase control over outcomes by demanding more information, centralizing decision-making, and directing action.

It felt safe, and I felt like a good leader for taking on the excess burdens and risks. I was exhausted, but proud of myself for stepping up at a difficult time.

Mission accomplished, I surveyed people for their reactions.

Their responses floored me. People felt stifled, shut out of important information, micro-managed, frustrated at seeing missed opportunities, and that I didn’t trust them.

“You are the worst leader I’ve ever had.” Ouch!

Graph on How to Empower Without Losing Control.

What I learned from the experience was the difference between centralizing control of decisions and actions (what I call detailed control) versus asserting clarity over purpose, priorities, standards, and boundaries, while decentralizing decisions and actions to trusted, capable people (directive control).

This approach proved invaluable in Afghanistan, when our unit of 800 paratroopers was spread over seven remote outposts in a 6,000km square area with over 250,000 civilians in over 100 villages, and a deadly insurgency. Trying to exert detailed control would have undermined the mission and put people at greater risk.

Instead, we practiced directive control. An extraordinary network of aligned individual decisions and actions motivated a big insurgent group to stop fighting and become allies.

Business examples abound.

Netflix famously asserts control over standards, values, financial discipline, and strategic direction, while delegating hiring, vendor selection, and product decisions to the lowest capable level.

Toyota directs exacting safety, quality, and production standards, and empowers employees to stop production if they sense something amiss.

By contrast, Sears centralized decision-making and operational control in the wake of threats from Wal-Mart and Amazon. They became slower and less responsive to a dynamic market, ultimately going out of business.

Possibility

What if your entire organization could act with AI-like speed and disciplined judgment?

Imagine a business where people solve problems at the lowest level, make sound decisions that improve performance and reduce risk, and proactively create and seize opportunities to advance the mission. No chaos, no freelancing, no stray voltage.

Directive control unlocks your team’s energy to move your priorities forward without constant direction.

Instead of serving as the lone engine of progress, you become the architect of momentum, so that people throughout the organization take initiative aligned with your goals.

That’s the promise of the 3-Discipline Leadership System™: you can implement directive control safely and with confidence, creating team-driven momentum so you can spend less time managing execution and more time shaping the future.

American Airlines Shows That Customers Meet Your Culture on Your Worst Day

June 11, 2026/in Culture, Leadership/by Chris Kolenda

American Airlines had a bad day on Thursday. Here’s what that revealed.

I plopped down in my seat around midnight after a four-hour delay in Dallas. Exhausted and frustrated, I hoped to get a little sleep during the 1-hour-and-45-minute trip to El Paso. I vowed never to fly American Airlines again.

The day began so well. I’d given a workshop on Building an Inspiring Culture® that morning to senior military officials and defense business leaders. Thanks to working with my mentor, Nick Demos, my storytelling reached a whole new level of excellence, and it showed during the interactions and post-event surveys. I met a friend for lunch whom I haven’t seen since we served together in Afghanistan 19 years ago. I even sprung for business class on the return flight.

Everything was awesome until I landed in Dallas. I checked the app for my gate. Only a 6-minute walk! Arriving at the gate, I noticed the flight was delayed by two hours and would depart from a different terminal. I schlepped my bags onto the tram to Terminal B. I waited at the gate for a while, then received another gate change notification. I walked there, hoping this was it. We were to board in a few minutes.

Curiously, a flight to Las Vegas was still boarding at the same gate. There was no way they’d be finished before we were supposed to board a plane to El Paso. I stood near two gentlemen who were looking equally perplexed. We struck up a nice conversation. Saying hi to new people enriches my life.

The flight to Vegas was stuck at the gate, but the gate agent assured us we were in the right spot. The boarding time countdown reached 8 minutes. The Vegas plane was still there. The electronic sign turned off the boarding countdown and went back to “Flight Closed” on the Vegas flight. The gate agent was nowhere to be found.

Then, the 10- to 20-minute rolling delays hit, the air travel equivalent of Chinese water torture.

Every so often, the boarding countdown resumed, then reverted to “Flight Closed” for the Vegas flight (still stuck at the gate), followed by another delay notification. The countdown reached 7 minutes at one point, but we knew it was a fantasy because of the stuck Vegas plane. No gate agent, no explanation.

We’re now well past 11 pm and wondering if the flight will be canceled. One of the gentlemen, an American Airlines Platinum club member, received a food voucher valid only for that day. Of course, everything was closed.

The app pinged again, announcing a new departure gate in a different terminal. Everyone groaned. Over two hundred people hustled to the tram (which was running on a single track, infrequently, due to the late hour) and crammed aboard. We traveled the circumference of the airport through terminals C, D, and E, because the old gate was B17 and the new gate was A11.

Happily, the crew lined up at the gate, and a plane waited outside. After boarding, the well-meaning flight attendant announced, “I know you are frustrated by the delay, but we’re committed to your safety and had to fix the plane.” Using the term “but” dismissed everyone’s frustrations, adding insult to injury. We finally arrived around 1 am, and the car ride home took another hour.

I contrast that experience with a similarly long, late-night delay on United Airlines in Chicago. The gate agent provided us with routine updates, brought snacks to everyone, and answered everyone’s questions. He took personal ownership to make an awful experience as pleasant as possible. I felt totally abandoned by American Airlines.

I’ve written that the culture you create in peacetime is the one you take into combat. In business, the culture you create in stable times is the one you carry with you when things go wrong. American Airlines is sadly notorious for awful customer service and aircraft maintenance in normal times. It’s no wonder that challenging situations spiral out of control.

What do you want your customers to experience on your worst day?

The Three Levels of Dependency

June 4, 2026/in Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

Do you feel trapped in firefighting mode – constantly solving problems?

Do you feel like a bottleneck, having decisions pile up on your desk?

Or do you feel like a flashlight: people only move forward when you point the way?

The Firefighter, Bottleneck, and Flashlight represent three levels of dependency that put an artificial limit on your success.

Dependency occurs when your employees feel the need to seek permission. They depend on you for actions that creative, resourceful, and capable employees should be able to do on their own, such as problem-solving, decision-making, and innovation. In short, they are outsourcing these functions to you.

Doing so keeps you tied down in yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and prevents you from designing the future.

Problem-solving dependency occurs when your employees rely on you to fix what’s broken. Their mindset: “I don’t know what to do.” You become the company’s firefighter. The challenge is that you can never get ahead. You get stuck in the past. Problem-solving, after all, is dealing with what just broke. When you live in the past, you mortgage the present and future.

Early McDonald’s was a classic example, as employees escalated problems up the chain rather than resolving them at the lowest appropriate level. Standardization, Hamburger University, and leadership development were vital in moving McDonald’s from dependency to growth.

Decision-making dependency occurs when your employees outsource thinking to you. Their mindset is “I need your approval” or “What should I do now?” You become the bottleneck as requests for approval or resolution stack on your desk and inbox. The good news is that your employees are fixing what breaks. The challenge is that you are stuck in the present, without the bandwidth to innovate or create the future. Delays stack up.

Many founders find themselves here, wanting to maintain control, and end up owning a job rather than a business and having a life.

Innovation dependency means that people seek your permission to improve products, services, processes, and culture. Their mindset is, “It’s not my place” to suggest. You become the flashlight, the creator of new ideas. People will move forward where you shine the light, but otherwise sit in the dark waiting for you to decide what tomorrow’s improvements will be. Missed opportunities become the challenge as everyone waits for your decree about what’s next. In some ways, Apple suffered from this problem as everyone relied on Steve Jobs’ intuition. What’s Apple’s next big thing?

You get to the very top when employees feel a sense of ownership over the future. They have disciplined initiative, which means they solve problems, make decisions, and innovate in ways that advance your common good (mission, vision, standards) without creating chaos. You are the architect, designing the company where employees solve problems, make decisions, and create new ideas without waiting for permission.

Toyota is a superb example. The company is not dependent on a single genius. The leaders designed the culture to continuously generate problem-solving, decision-making, and innovation from thousands of people acting with disciplined initiative.

Where is your company? What would getting to the dark-green level do for you and your business?

Fortunately, the path upward is simple and straightforward with the 3-Discipline Leadership System™. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it is doable for us mortals.

When you’re ready to discuss where you are now and the action steps needed to move, accept your free consultation and book a call here.

What Do NASA and the NBA Say About Visual Models?

May 7, 2026/in Chris Kolenda, Culture, Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning your employees are rarely on the same page, and 10 meaning your employees act and adapt to change in harmony, how would you rate your organization?

A recent NASA study noted that shared mental models are the main factor differentiating exceptional teams from average ones. Author and podcaster, Shane Parrish, likewise describes the importance of mental models in getting everyone on the same page.

The challenge with mental models is the extent to which they are actually shared. What if two people name the same model but visualize it differently? What happens when the situation is dynamic rather than static?

These questions are precisely why NBA coaches use diagrams, or visual models, and why I invite you to do the same.

Blog on What Do NASA and the NBA Say About Visual Models - Basketball Example

This sketch was built by my Chatbot.

A good visual model allows your employees to:

See the big picture,
See themselves in relation to it,
See themselves in relation to their colleagues, and
Envision how everyone adapts in dynamic circumstances.

Imagine if you and your employees had shared visual models not only for process flow but also for more intangible matters like communication, expectations, proactivity, accountability, and initiative?

What would having everyone on the same page allow you to do that you don’t have the time or energy to do now?

Let’s face it, when you are trapped in day-to-day management, you neglect doing what everyone relies on you to do: focus on strategy, growth, and building enduring prosperity. You try to do them at the end of the day or on weekends, when you are not at your best, and you sacrifice time for family, friends, and other priorities.

I know. I’ve been there.

The dependency trap sabotages your future. I learned that the road from feeling trapped to liberated is to get everyone on the same page about leadership skills, as well as strategy and operations.

Shared visual models unlocked self-reliant, proactive, and accountable teams that thrived in combat and business.

Across research (McKinsey, Gallup, Harvard Business Review), you consistently see differences like this:

2X-3X higher revenue growth.
20%-30% higher profitability.
2X higher employee engagement.
25%-50% lower turnover.

These visual models are so powerful that I’ve developed scores of them in my 3-Discipline Leadership System™.

For the CEOs and senior leaders I’m working with now, this System has given them the confidence to let go of day-to-day management because their direct reports are on the same page and have the skills to implement the System. These CEOs and senior executives focus on the future, knowing the daily tasks are in good hands.

If you recognize yourself in this blog and want to confidently and competently liberate yourself from dependency, it might be time to use visual models that get everyone on the same page and keep them there in a dynamic marketplace.

Just leave a reply below, and I’ll send through the information.

Hegseth’s Military Purge Shows the Value of Viewpoint Diversity

April 9, 2026/in Chris Kolenda, Culture, Current Events, Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

When you surround yourself with people who tell you what you want to hear, you develop a taste for silliness.

Army Chief of Staff Randy George became the last casualty in Secretary Hegseth’s war against uniformed senior leaders (Randy George and I served at the same time in Afghanistan in 2009 and have some friends in common, but we do not know each other well). In just over a year, at least a dozen three- and four-star officers have been dismissed from the services. It is a purge. I spoke about the matter on TV here.

As I’ve mentioned before, I want Secretary Hegseth to be successful and for the Department to thrive. The alternative is too troubling to fathom. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military, and Secretary Hegseth has the authority to promote, retain, and dismiss the Department’s senior leaders. It’s not a question of CAN, but SHOULD.

The pretext for George’s firing is a promotion list to brigadier general. Hegseth wanted five officers struck from the list, including two women and two black men. George, rightly fearing for the integrity of the Army’s promotion system, wanted to discuss the matter in person with Hegseth. The meeting never occurred, but the request brought about the firing.

What’s troubling is the very clear signal Hegseth is sending: disagreement is intolerable.

Strong Leaders, Strong People

Did you ever notice that strong leaders surround themselves with strong people? They have the self-confidence to seek out the best people for their team. They welcome respectful disagreement because it is the source of innovation and better ideas.

I remember getting into a substantial disagreement with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta about Afghanistan. I did not know him well at the time, but figured that he deserved to know one of his assumptions was wrong.

An hour or so later, I received a message from his Chief of Staff. I opened it, fearing the worst. “There are 20,000 people in this building who will agree with anything the Secretary says,” his chief wrote. “He appreciates how you stood your ground and told him your point of view.”

Weak leaders, by contrast, surround themselves with weak people who don’t threaten the leader’s self-confidence. They seek out people who agree with them and do their bidding.

To curry favor, their subordinates tell the leader what they want to hear and how wise they are. The most savvy ones play to your impulses, dragging you into your own fever-swamp.

Soon, you are admiring your own clothes and aroma.

Avoiding the Hegseth Trap

The military culture is sound enough to withstand a short period of top-level viewpoint conformity, but I worry the Secretaries who follow will implement the same playbook as payback.

Ambitious senior uniformed officers will see the game for what it is, and curry favor, leading to a politicized military that no longer offers professional military advice. Such sycophancy undermines the profession and puts people’s lives at needless risk.

Here’s my question to you: Are you moving toward the Hegseth trap? How often do people disagree agreeably? How quickly do they flag problems and nip them in the bud? When did you last hear a fresh idea or example of someone trying new things?

You have to be intentional about creating a culture of respectful candor and vigilant in maintaining it. This is particularly true as your company grows and you become more senior. Left unchecked, you suddenly find that you are getting better looking every day, your jokes are funnier, and your decisions increasingly wise.

Small Ball; Big Wins

April 2, 2026/in Chris Kolenda, Culture, Leadership, mid-level leaders/by Chris Kolenda

It’s Opening Day for the 2026 baseball season, so I captured this interview with my friend, Kansas City Royals broadcaster Joel Goldberg.

Leaders tend to look for breakthrough strategies in moments of doubt. More often, it’s the fundamentals that decide the outcome.

Joel has spent more than 30 years watching this play out. As the voice of the Kansas City Royals, he’s seen championship teams and struggling ones operate under the same conditions with very different results. His lens is baseball, but what he really observes is how people perform together over time.

He captured these insights in his new book, Small Ball, Big Dreams.

Control What You Can Actually Control

Joel’s career didn’t begin with opportunity; it began with rejection … twenty-five times. He couldn’t control whether anyone hired him, but he could control whether they remembered him.

“I couldn’t decide whether they were going to hire me or not,” he told me. “But I could certainly decide whether they knew about me.”

So he picked up the phone, a landline back then, and started calling TV stations across the country, telling them he’d be “passing through town.” Once they agreed to meet, he made it true, driving across state lines to shake hands and deliver his demo tape.

That decision changed his trajectory. It also highlights something leaders often overlook: we spend too much time worrying about outcomes we don’t control and not enough time tightening the behaviors that actually drive them.

Joel put it plainly:

“When outcomes are uncertain, you have to control the controllables. You can control output. You can control effort. You can control the way you treat people.”

The problem with judging success by the outcome is that you often end up rewarding luck.

Joel Goldberg - Blog on Small Ball; Big Wins

Your “Perfect” Answer Can Be the Problem

Leaders often assume their job is to provide the best answer. In practice, that instinct can undermine the very performance you’re trying to improve. Your team’s decent solution is often better than your perfect one, because they own it. And because they own it, they will see it through successfully.

Joel’s story reflects the same principle from a different angle. He didn’t wait for someone to hand him an opportunity; he acted in a way that made people respond. That ownership mattered more than someone else’s perfectly scripted plan.

When people take ownership, you get commitment. Commitment leads to follow-through, which creates success.

Talent Helps. Fit Decides.

Joel has watched enough teams to recognize a consistent pattern. Talent draws attention, but fit determines whether that talent translates into performance.

“Having the most talented people is great,” he said, “but they better fit from a personality and culture standpoint.”

Joel has seen teams with strong talent gel and win championships. He’s also seen talent-packed teams come apart at the seams.

“I’d rather have less talent that fits than a little more talent that doesn’t.”

Misfit talent erodes trust, drains energy, and weakens standards until the effects become difficult to reverse. Fit isn’t static. It requires attention, curiosity, and a willingness to see what’s actually happening rather than what you hope is happening.

“Never stop asking. Never stop listening. Know your people.”

This Is a Relationship Business

Near the end of our conversation, Joel made a point that applies far beyond baseball:

“I’m in the relationship business, not the baseball business.”

Most leaders would agree with that statement. The challenge is living it consistently.

You spend a great deal of time on strategy and growth, but execution lives in how people treat one another, uphold standards, and do what’s right.

These are small things. They don’t always show up immediately on a dashboard, but they shape whether the larger strategy works. Your culture might not actually eat strategy for breakfast, but it can make your strategy unexecutable.

The Long Game Is Built Quietly

Signature successes are usually the result of small decisions executed well. You win by amassing the fundamentals: hitting, pitching, and fielding, rather than with the occasional home run.

The opposite is also true. Poorly executed fundamentals amass over time into bad habits that require enormous energy to correct.

One of the best ways to prevent crises and reduce over-reliance on you is to set and enforce clear standards on the fundamentals. As Joel tells us, small ball creates big wins.