Michael Sage

Have you ever been in the middle of preparing next year's budget when an urgent cybersecurity incident interrupts your morning? Before you can fully process that, a department head calls with a staffing issue, your phone buzzes with questions about a strategic project, and somewhere in the back of your mind you're still trying to solve a problem from yesterday's board meeting. Welcome to leadership. Lately, we've been hearing more people say that multitasking is a myth and that what we're...

Imagine sitting in a meeting where everyone is nodding along. Acronyms are flying… assumptions are being made… and the conversation is moving quickly. You understand about 80 percent of what's being discussed… but that missing 20 percent is the difference between making a confident decision and simply hoping you've interpreted everything correctly. What happens next? Many people stay quiet. They tell themselves they'll figure it out later. They'll Google it. They'll ask a colleague after the...

Have you ever noticed how many projects are presented as a disaster waiting to happen? "If we don't replace this system, it could fail." "If we don't invest in cybersecurity, we could be breached." "If we don't improve this process, we're going to fall behind." The risks may be real. In fact, part of leadership is identifying and preparing for risks before they become problems. But when every project, initiative, and budget request is framed around what might go wrong, something unexpected...