Madeleine Homan Blanchard

Dear Madeleine, I am the COO and founder of what is now being called a “mature” startup. We have been around for 12 years but have not yet exceeded 100 employees or reached our revenue or...

Dear Madeleine, I think I know the answer to this, but I thought I would just check my thinking. I work in the arts and have been an assistant to many executive directors. My experience is that...

Dear Madeleine, I was made supervisor for a team at a software company about six months ago. I like the job and the people on my team, and I’m slowly figuring out how to be a decent manager. I...

Dear Madeleine, I manage a large team of accounting professionals for a company of about 4800 employees. I have worked very hard to create a great team, and I have excellent, dedicated people. My...

Hello Madeleine, I have read your articles, and I wanted to reach out to you. I have an equal business partner with whom I have successfully run a restaurant for six years. While I have 30 years...

Dear Madeleine, I am the founder and CEO of a specialty investment services company, which I started—for fun—after retiring from my first career in investment banking. My executive team is...

Dear Madeleine, I am at a crossroads and don’t know which way to go. During Covid, I got a great idea and started a very cool online business. I did so well that a few people invested in my little...

Dear Madeleine, I have been managing people for decades. With the advent of Covid, I put a lot of focus on getting better at managing hybrid teams. (This blog really helped me.) I have some people...

Dear Madeleine, I work for a giant real estate company and have been selling houses in a big metropolitan city for a long time. Over the years, I’ve been heavily recruited and this is my third...

Dear Madeleine, I am an executive coach. An interesting thing came up in a coaching session today: one of my clients has been tasked with defining the difference between a manager and a leader....

Madeleine Homan Blanchard explores six learning myths particularly relevant to leadership and talent development professionals.

Dear Madeleine, I am a Boomer who is three or four years away from retirement (I hope). Over the last few years I have been working with many people who are much younger than my own children. I...

Dear Madeleine, I have a high performer on my team (HP) who does very good transactional work. They work with speed and most people outside our team like them. HP has managerial ambition but does...

Dear Madeleine, About six months ago, I went above and beyond to help out a new colleague.  He had misread a deadline and needed to scramble to get a bunch of time-sensitive work done over a long...

Dear Madeleine, I am a regional president for a global services company. One of my executive team members recently retired, leaving rather suddenly as the result of an unexpected health issue. We...

Dear Madeleine, I manage a team of customer support specialists. The job requires in-depth knowledge of our products (outdoor/climbing gear, some of it very technical), so we have provided a lot...

Dear Madeleine, I run a rapidly growing not-for-profit. I put together a great board, our fundraising efforts paid off, and I have a great team. In a recent chat, my head of accounting made a...

Dear Madeleine, I work on a team that has had a lot of turnover in the last couple of years. Although our company is very big, over time I have learned who to call to get things done. I am now...

Dear Madeleine, I had a big job and got a lot of manager training early in my working life. Then a series of events (I had a child with special needs, then another one, parents needing care,...