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Rusty Gaillard

Executive Coach, Lifelong learner, Dad, Bass player, Outdoor Enthusiast, Former Apple Worldwide Director of Finance.

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Featured Post

[ROM] How feeding a teenager is like getting recognition at work

It's an essential exchange in the world of work to be seen and heard. —Lisa Bragg My son is 17. If you’ve ever had a teenager in your house, you know… It’s hard to keep the refrigerator full. Two full plates of food is normal at a meal. Then I can hardly believe he’s hungry again a few hours later. I’m finally starting to adjust to the reality. Three meals + multiple snacks every day are required just to get him enough calories. With meals and snacks on my mind, I was discussing self...

7 days ago • 1 min read

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. —Søren Kierkegaard Being a leadership coach is like being a Center of Excellence. I learn new tools weekly, and I get to share them with clients. Sometimes I even learn from my clients. That’s what happened this past week with Steve. He had a particularly challenging meeting with his boss. The kind where the boss interrupted him 60 seconds in. Steve’s boss told him he was way off track, that none of what he brought for...

14 days ago • 1 min read

When you argue with reality, you lose. —Byron Katie Grace told me her workplace is toxic. There seemed to be no respect for her or her time. Over and over again, she had to incorporate last-minute feedback. The night before leaving for an international trip, she was asked to update a document she had circulated for review weeks earlier. Others hadn’t responded for weeks, only providing their feedback at the 11th hour. And this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Every time she pushed to...

21 days ago • 1 min read

We are so busy doing the urgent that we don't have time to do the important. —Confucius My friend had an unexpected trip to the hospital this weekend. As soon as I heard, I dropped everything. All of our plans for the weekend took a back seat. The most important thing in that moment was my friend and his well being. Thankfully, after an ambulance ride and good medical care, he is doing well. As always, there is a business lesson from this experience. When something matters enough, you make...

28 days ago • 1 min read

The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority. —Ken Blanchard Charlie has an unruly client. It is a high growth company with a great product and powerful marketing. But the operations — Charlie’s area of expertise — are a mess. They hire good people but can’t keep them. The executives micro-manage decisions. And they change direction weekly. As an operations expert, Charlie sees the problem. But he spends most of his time picking up the pieces. When he does have the...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Every adversity… carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit. —Napoleon Hill After running a masterclass at Salesforce last week, I held revolving door 1:1 office hours. Each person had a 15 minute time slot for laser coaching. It was an opportunity focus on a specific challenge they have & develop an action plan. Think of it like having a new suit tailored to fit you perfectly. It looks great off the shelf, but the details matter. That’s what we did in the 1:1 laser coaching...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Intelligence is not only the ability to reason; it is also the ability to find relevant material in memory and to deploy attention when needed. —Daniel Kahneman Your brain is an amazing thing. Think of how a baby learns to walk. A clear goal, experimentation, failure, feedback, and adjustment. Your brain learns how to control dozens of muscles simultaneously and in close harmony… And you walk. But walking isn’t something you can figure out rationally. If you had to control each muscle...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. —Albert Einstein Vince was in a rough spot in his relationship with his boss. After 18 months of delivering exceptional results, and being recognized for it, His boss was holding him back. Micromanaging, checking his work, demanding time-consuming details that weren’t necessary. It was enough for Vince to consider changing jobs. He wanted to speak up, give his boss feedback — Vince is that kind of leader — but he didn’t know how. Not to...

about 2 months ago • 1 min read

In many situations, we don’t need to make a perfect choice but just a good-enough choice. —Gretchen Rubin Ben is passionate about leadership. So much that he is building an online learning tool at work with the best resources he knows. As a student of leadership, the resources he’s compiling are broad and powerful. His goal? Encourage his team to invest in their leadership growth. He explained to me that he has more work to do. The product — the collection of tools and resources — is not...

2 months ago • 1 min read
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