November 2025- Why perfect training fails, fear that looks like anger, what promotions really mean, and the case for less
I’ve been reading about how we learn, how we lead, and how we structure work. The pieces in this issue don’t follow a single thread, but they all challenge some assumption. Some are about rethinking development and growth, others about what actually drives people, and a couple about why simplicity might be more strategic than complexity.
1. What is CLA, the revolutionary coaching method used by Victor Wembanyama and other top athletes - The Athletic
There’s no such thing as muscle memory... The problem is when you are doing the same technique, it’s making you less adaptable because the constraints are always different.
The Constraints-Led Approach turns traditional skill development on its head. Instead of perfecting a movement in isolation, you practice under constantly changing restrictions: different defenders, weighted balls, limited steps. Victor Wembanyama trains by being forced to score while trapped by two defenders twice his size in five seconds.
The insight: training perfectly yields imperfect results because game conditions are never identical. Your brain doesn’t really store movement scripts. It develops perception-action coupling that adapts to each unique moment. What looks like “muscle memory” is actually your nervous system reading the environment and adjusting in real time. The implications for how we think about developing any skill, not just athletic ones, are substantial.
2. Fight Versus Flight: When a Leader’s Fears Turn Into Anger - Jim Detert
When we experience angry behavior at work—often from people who rank above us in the hierarchy—it typically stems from fear.
Detert reframes angry leadership as a fear response. When leaders feel incompetent, out of control, or threatened, they fight back by blaming scapegoats, lashing out at questions, or shutting down disagreement. It’s the same fight-or-flight mechanism, just expressed through power rather than withdrawal.
The pattern creates a vicious cycle: fighting behavior damages trust, which increases the likelihood of more trigger events, which produces more fighting. People walk on eggshells. Ideas stop flowing. The very control the leader seeks through dominance keeps slipping further away. Detert offers practical approaches for both fearful fighters and those working with them, but the real insight is recognizing that anger at work is almost always fear wearing a different mask.
3. When You Can’t Offer Your Top Performer a Promotion, What to Offer Them Instead - Claire Lew
Promotions often signal public acknowledgment of value. Without them, we need to be intentional about creating other forms of recognition.
Lew tackles what happens when traditional advancement isn’t available. Her framework shifts the conversation from “when can I move up?” to understanding what the promotion was really for: mastery, autonomy, purpose, recognition, and challenge.
The tactical question that reframes everything: “What parts of your work make you lose track of time?” Skip the “where do you see yourself in five years” script. Find out what actually energizes someone, then create pathways to those deeper needs within their current role. Promotions are proxies for things people truly seek. When that pathway is blocked, find others.
4. So You Want to Be Promoted - Rands in Repose
Your job is to figure out how to do that work (with help) before you’re promoted to that level.
Rands flips the script: you’re not waiting for a promotion to do higher-level work, you’re doing higher-level work to earn the promotion. Two deliverables matter: a Pinnacle Achievement that demonstrates capability at the next level, and a Network of Trustworthy Feedback from people who can vouch for that work.
The uncomfortable truth: you’re expected to perform at the next level before you’re promoted to it. Your manager should help define what that looks like, but you’re 100% accountable for driving it. If you can’t get clear answers after three conversations with your manager about what promotion-worthy work looks like, you might be talking to the wrong person.
5. Sabbaticals keep our attrition at bay - DHH
The only way many tech workers in the US can get a long break is by quitting their job. So lots of them do that every few years.
37signals gives everyone a six-week sabbatical every three years. The economics are straightforward: it’s expensive to see trained people walk out the door, and many leave simply because they need a real reset that two weeks can’t provide.
Six weeks is long enough to get bored, to remember why you actually like the work, to come back with fresh perspective. It’s also long enough to remind burned-out founders that selling the company won’t deliver the bliss they imagine. The “mojito island” gets boring quickly. By week five, you’re already antsy to get back to the action. The sabbatical isn’t just retention, it’s also inoculation against decisions made from exhaustion rather than genuine desire.
6. Turning back can be getting ahead - Jason Fried
Depending on more can often mean being able to do less.
Fried’s observation is brief but cuts deep. When you encounter a simpler system, the reflex is to dismiss it as inadequate. But the better question: what about how we work prevents us from using something this simple?
How did we get so twisted that we can’t function without so much complexity? The path forward sometimes means stripping back rather than layering on. Downshift.
In Case You Missed It
This month I also put out three essays that speak to how we think about groups, integrity, and the tools reshaping our work:
The Room: When groups become collective intelligence - A reflection on what happens when facilitation shifts from running a group to letting it run, and why some people can’t find their footing when the room requires genuine self-reflection rather than performance.
The False Promise of Compartmentalization - On the cost of dividing yourself into professional and personal selves, and what happens when the body lives what the mind denies.
Tools Are Never Just Tools. That Includes AI. - Every tool carries assumptions about what matters and what needs fixing. AI doesn’t just offer answers—it frames the questions and trains us to match its definitions.
Whenever You’re Ready
Here are ways we can work together:
Facilitation - I create conditions for teams to think more deeply about their challenges and discover their own ways forward. Whether you’re working through strategy, alignment, or complex decisions, I work with the purpose you bring and the energy in the room to help you do your best thinking together.
Thought Partnership - Ongoing one-on-one conversations (typically every other week) that help you develop effectiveness and find greater fulfillment in your leadership role. Not problem-solving or advice-giving, but collaborative inquiry into the challenges you’re navigating.
Three-Day Leadership Development Program - Experiential learning for managers focused on three domains: managing yourself, managing laterally, and managing teams. Participants work on their actual challenges through structured activities and reflection, developing judgment and authentic voice rather than acquiring techniques.
If you’d like to discuss how any of these might fit your current situation, reply to this email. I’m always happy to chat.