The Blog
Long-form essays, field notes, and frameworks from the FIRMSconsulting team — published weekly.
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Multi-Award-Winning Researcher Vanessa Druskat on Team Emotional Intelligence
Vanessa Druskat, organizational psychologist and professor at the University of New Hampshire, discusses team emotional intelligence (EI) as a predictor of sustained performance. Building on her foundational work with Daniel Goleman, Druskat focuses not on individual EQ, but on the group-level norms and practices that distinguish effective teams, particularly in complex, high-stakes environments. Druskat identifies…
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Former Biotech CEO and Harvard Medical School Faculty Member Margaret Moore on the Science of Good Leadership
Margaret Moore, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and former biotech CEO, brings decades of experience at the intersection of science, strategy, and human development to this conversation. In this episode, she unpacks The Science of Leadership, the forthcoming book she co-authored after reviewing hundreds of meta-analyses and large-scale studies, ultimately synthesizing leadership science into…
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How to Stop Oversharing at Work and Rebuild Your Executive Presence
Executive Presence Coaching to Prevent Oversharing Say the Wrong Thing Once, and People May… …Look at You Differently Forever. There’s a pattern I’ve seen over and over again, across industries, nationalities, and geographies. I’ve lived and worked in four countries this year alone, and we advise clients worldwide. Someone does well. They’re smart. Driven. They…
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Bree Groff, Advisor to Microsoft, Google, and Hilton Executives, Reveals How Leaders Create High-Performance Cultures Without Sacrificing Employee Joy
In this conversation with Bree Groff, author of “Today Was Fun” and has advised executives at Microsoft, Google, Target, and Hilton through periods of organizational change, shares specific observations about leadership blind spots in large corporations and offers practical frameworks for creating workplace cultures that drive both performance and employee satisfaction. Key Strategic Insights: The…
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You look in the mirror… and see a $1B gremlin
Some Days, You Look in the Mirror… …and See a Billion-Dollar Gremlin Staring Back. This is going to be a mega blog post because I have a lot to share with you today. It wouldn’t make sense to break it up. If you’re short on time, I recommend reading it in parts, because what’s inside…
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From Refugee to U.S. Marine pilot to NASDAQ-listed biotech CEO | Leadership & Fundraising Lessons with Quang Pham
Quang Pham went from being a 10-year-old refugee airlifted out of Vietnam to becoming a Marine pilot, and the CEO of a NASDAQ-listed biotech company. In this conversation, he shares the exact lessons that guided each transition. Key insights, with verified quotes: On decision-making: “As a young officer, we were taught to make decisions… there’s…
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Silicon Valley’s CEO Whisperer, Rich Hagberg, on Why Most Startup Founders Fail
Rich Hagberg, often referred to as “Silicon Valley’s CEO Whisperer, psychologist and co-author of Founders Keepers, has advised over 1,000 executives and founders. In this conversation, he outlines why most startup leaders fail, and what the data reveals about those who succeed. Some key insights include: “Founders, overwhelmingly, are visionary evangelists… but they’re not particularly…
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Founder and CEO of GK Training, Michael Chad Hoeppner, on Communicating Effectively to Live a Better Life
Michael Chad Hoeppner, CEO of GK Training and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, brings a deeply practical lens to one of the most undervalued professional skills: spoken communication. With roots in professional acting and over two decades coaching executives, Hoeppner challenges conventional wisdom, arguing that most communication advice is either vague (“slow down”) or…
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Yale’s James Kimmel, Jr. on the Science of Revenge
James Kimmel, Jr., lawyer, Yale psychiatry lecturer, and author of The Science of Revenge, joins us in the Strategy Skills podcast to explore the neuroscience and behavioral dynamics of revenge. Drawing on law, psychiatry, and over two decades of research, Kimmel offers a sobering view: revenge is not a form of justice, it’s a “pleasure-seeking…
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Powerhouse CMOs Katherine Melchior Ray and Nataly Kelly on Global Branding: Insights from Brand Global, Adapt Local
In this episode, global brand experts Katherine Melchior Ray and Nataly Kelly discuss how international brands must evolve to stay relevant in an era marked by cultural shifts, technological acceleration, and rising consumer expectations. Drawing on their leadership experience at companies like Nike, Louis Vuitton, HubSpot, and Zappi, they highlight the urgency of embedding trust,…
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Don’t invite saboteurs into your life
Don’t invite saboteurs into your life One of the reasons I stay motivated to work so hard on so many books, programs, AI tools, and other major initiatives, including our investment firm, is to see feedback from our clients and readers on the difference it makes in their lives. It brightens my day to see…
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The sales you don’t want
Are you focusing on the right kind of sales to grow your consulting practice? In this article, we wanted to share an answer to one of the questions about sales in consulting. Question: Should the goal be to double our sales or increase our sales by 50% or even 10%. What is the right percentage? We…