Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Becoming
These are personal essays about growing up as a fostered, then adopted child — and about what that does to a person over the course of a life and career. The passivity you develop to survive. The shame that shows up uninvited in elevators and conference rooms decades later. The moment you finally recognize the bully pattern, in a boss, in a father, in yourself.
The most-read piece opens with a meat cleaver. My wife, coming down the hall. Me, curled under the covers at thirty years old, having just been fired and not yet told her. It’s not a comfortable essay. But by the end, it explains — more directly than anything else I’ve written — why I understand what happens to people when they’re made to feel small at work, and why that understanding is the foundation of everything I do professionally.
These essays aren’t separate from my advisory work. They are the source of it.
Advisory Notes
These are essays about the emotional realities of creative professional life — the anxiety of leadership, the psychology of negotiation, the particular ways creative people get in their own way, and the particular ways organizations let them down.
One of the most-read pieces, “Why Creative Firms Break Differently,” argues that creative firms don’t fail from bad strategy — they unravel from the inside, through fatigue, misalignment, and a gradual loss of trust no one can quite name. That piece captures what all of these essays are reaching toward.
I write from four decades of experience inside creative firms, but I write the way I talk: directly, without jargon, with stories. Each piece includes one of my own illustrations. If you work in a creative firm and ever feel like the game is rigged against you, this series is for you.
Struggling with asking for what you need? Jessica Knapp and I created this seminar to answer the burning need… Negotiations for Creatives – January 11-15, 10-noon, and only $200 per attendee – has been structured to help creatives understand how to turn our natural discomfort asking for the money into a strength. A discomfort increased during Covid.…
Negotiation in the age of Covid-19 I could see that he was already flipping through a document when the Zoom window opened. Then he took off his glasses as if in deep thought. Must be my proposal, I thought. Shit. I could feel the perspiration beginning to form. I’d planned to walk him through my…
If I lose the compulsion, the effort will go nowhere. Feeling anxious. Is it too much coffee? Or just the prewriting jitters? I can’t tell, although I did just finish my third cup. The doubts begin. Doubts seem to drive my writing. Doubts about the world, myself and why things are the way they are.…
Note: Yesterday (8/20/20) at the suggestion of Larry Coffman, editor of Marketing NW I sent the following to Seattle’s Mayor and each member of Seattle’s City Council. Goal: We must get the 12,000 or more homeless people off the streets and into housing. We must do this now. We must do this to make the…
Incomes for professional creatives have not increased in 30 years. As a result, it has become harder than ever to find economically sustainable creative work. Now with the virus, clients are putting projects on hold. Some creative employers are laying off whole groups who are not considered core to their enterprise. All this has left…
“You promised us we’d win Unilever.” “That’s a child’s response. Grow the fuck up.” That’s how Brie’s Thursday started at Overture. “I shouldn’t have been so cocky,” Brie thought. “I should have been more measured.” Rough patch Sitting in her office, hands wrapped around her second cup of the day, Brie remembered the feelings: First…
Hierarchical System We live in a hierarchical system, where we’ve been trained from birth to respect those who are in charge. To be deferential. To respect authority. To do as the authority tells us to do. To be afraid to not do as we’re told. Pleasurable work We love the work that we do. In…
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
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Also available on Substack.
You never cease to amaze me with your willingness to make your life an open book — especially the more hurtful parts. And I'm amazed by the lessons you draw from all of it.
— Larry Coffman, PublisherYour writing has revealed some very intimate, powerful lessons. You are a source of inspiration both professionally and, increasingly, on a personal level.
— Rick GoreWe can discuss the ugly, uncomfortable truths while always circling back to what matters: the people, the underdogs, the work we get to do, and the magical existence we get to share as creatives.
— Sarah EskandarpourI loved your article about how clients' emotions affect briefs. It's a huge part of the creative industry and it's always good to see somebody so knowledgeable write about it.
— Vuk Bojovic, JKR Account Director, Singapore