Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In the last installment, I dusted off A Message to Garcia, Elbert Hubbard’s old essay about Lieutenant Andrew Rowan being handed a message for a Cuban revolutionary leader whose location was uncertain, then figuring out how to deliver it. Rowan is memorable because nobody could tell him exactly...
Category Archives: Leadership
The Leader’s Enduring Responsibility
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction On the surface, leadership has a clear criterion for judging performance. Did we accomplish the mission? That question matters, and the answer is grounded in the present. Organizations exist for a reason, and it is not accidental that those reasons are usually declared in a mission statement....
When Certainty Doesn’t Come
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In When Expertise Isn’t the Answer, I argued that technical expertise is remarkably well suited to recognizing established solutions. Leadership, however, increasingly asks us to solve problems for which no established solution exists—not by abandoning expertise, but by extending disciplined expertise beyond the limits of pattern recognition. That...
When Expertise Isn’t the Answer
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction Most professions reward expertise and this generally plays as exactly what you’d expect for the profession to be effective. Patients deserve physicians who recognize subtle diagnoses. Aircraft deserve engineers who understand failure modes. Organizations benefit when accountants know the subtleties of tax law, software developers understand minute...
The Second Apprenticeship
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction Organizations love promoting experts. It makes intuitive sense. The engineer who designed the breakthrough product becomes the engineering manager. The scientist who built the most successful laboratory becomes department chair. The professor with the strongest research portfolio becomes dean. The physician with the broadest clinical, educational, and...
Leadership By Design
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Author’s Note This article was originally written for Forge magazine. It became the catalyst for a broader series exploring how highly accomplished technical professionals transition into leadership. If you’re beginning here, you’re in the right place. Introduction It would be hard to find an organization that says it wants anything...
Imprecision in Thought Part 4 Comfort, Complexity, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In the last post, we walked through how thinking breaks—how overusing shortcuts, collapsing distinctions, and grabbing onto explanations that are a little too clean pulls us away from reality while giving us the comforting sense that we’ve finally made sense of it. None of that is particularly...
You’re Part of the System Now: Burnout and Responsibility
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Some Final Thoughts on Burnout There’s a point in many high-stakes professional systems where the questions quietly shift. Early on, they tend to be personal:Why does this feel so hard? What’s happening to me? How do I get through this without losing something I can’t get back? That’s...
When Burnout Stops Being a Private Problem
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction In the last installment, I argued that burnout matters to individuals in ways that are intuitively obvious, but that its broader significance is organizational. It changes what professionals contribute, and it changes how they influence, motivate, and inspire others. Left unnamed and unexamined, it erodes judgment, mentoring,...
Burnout’s Quiet Damage: Why It Matters Before Anyone Breaks
Christopher J. Colombo MD, CEC, CMC, CPP Introduction Burnout rarely announces itself with collapse. Most of the time, it arrives quietly—through gradually diminishing impact. Patience thins, and time isn’t spent on the investment in curiosity and connection. Imagination contracts, and robust interactions to spur innovation are no longer sought. Fewer questions get asked. Fewer risks...