Life during these past few years has been stressful and unpredictable. (Can we get a hell yes?) But this global interruption-that-shall-not-be-named has given leaders a chance to dig deep and extract some real lessons about how to lead in times of uncertainty.  If you remember nothing else, remember this: There are things that are still within your control.  Now, try saying it out loud: “There are things that are still within my control.”  When things feel so out of your control and you feel at the mercy of the world, it can be hard to remember that. But it’s the key to staying ..read more

How would you feel having to journey alone through a dark forest? I think it’s fair to say that the absence of light, the unforeseen obstructions, and the exposure to potential dangers would leave you feeling vulnerable and afraid.  Now, how would this experience compare to having even a single companion by your side? Multiply that companion by several more. How might the confidence of having others at your side impact the success of your journey? Having a strong support system in place is vital to reaching your goals and to your overall resilience, adaptability, and even to great leader ..read more

When you hear the word confidence, what does it make you think of? In our years of leadership coaching, we’ve shared plenty of ideas about what confidence is, but also addressed some of our clients’ questions about what confidence is not. Confidence is not an elusive concept. It’s not something we think other people have. It’s certainly not something we have to pretend to have or to fake our way through. We don’t have to psych ourselves up to get it, and we certainly don’t have to go through life (or leadership) without it.  Confidence is a certain set of skills based on a rock-solid, im ..read more

One of the things we coach to a lot is community and its impact on work culture. So many organizations and individuals struggle with creating and fostering community at work. It doesn’t help that now, as so many are working remotely, this has become so much harder. Community is critical to maintaining a cohesive group that works toward a common goal. It’s critical to leading, in fact. Without a strong community, a leader doesn’t have much to lead, right? Having a strong support system in place is vital to achieving goals, practicing effective leadership, and being happy and healthy overall ..read more

Do you wear “busy” like a badge of honor? Busyness is sometimes a goal of its own for leaders. So many of our leadership coaching clients start out feeling like this: If they stop being so busy, they’ll feel like they’re not contributing. But when we’re too busy, our performance starts to suffer and our stress levels increase. The pandemic, in all its unpredictability, helped some people un-busy their lives, giving them a chance to slow down — stop, even — and reframe what’s important. They’ve been able to reframe what their real contributions are. Others, on the other hand, weren’t so lucky ..read more

If you’re wondering how to get unstuck, let’s start with some self-reflection. Do your days look something like this? You lead a meeting, check in to see how the team is doing on various things, delegate necessary tasks, tie up a bunch of loose ends, eat half of a sandwich while clearing 1/100th of your dreaded inbox, then push through an ongoing project that you really don’t feel like doing until after dark. Then after it’s all done, you switch gears to tend to your family, partner, or pets? Everything, including your team, is moving fast, but for some odd reason, you feel like you’re not ..read more

Back when I was getting my coaching certification, I had an extraordinary (and delicious?) experience practicing methods of giving feedback. And it stuck with me.  Instead of creating thoughts of “you’re not good enough,” we did something different, something magical. We created a space that felt like a leadership taste test. We reviewed the 360 feedback as though we were tasting different desserts.  As we went through each bite of feedback, we “tasted” each piece by digesting the words and deciding what it meant to our growth goals and our vision for an inspiring future…and that fe ..read more

Question: Are you stressing about a heated conversation you had with a colleague, struggling to let things go?  Do you find that you just can’t seem to get over that stupid mistake you made last week? Maybe you feel like you’re walking on eggshells or can’t bear the thought of conflict at work? Whatever it is that’s eating you up, it’s probably making you drained and clouding just about everything else you do. This, my friends, is leadership.  …Or, at least, it’s what we think comes with the territory.   Leadership and letting things go As a leader, you deal with the weight of ..read more

Everyday you set out to meet lofty goals… In your personal life, you strive to ‘have a great day,’ meditate, get healthy, be kind to everyone, and be present. At work you strive to get a lot done: complete your “to-do” list connect with your team take a lunch break stay focussed and manage your time well move the long-term project forward handle those HR priorities Yet you don’t often reach those daily goals, due to all the meetings, inevitable fires and splintered focus. If you’re not seeing measurable progress toward, and closure on the goals, what is your team seeing? Getting and keep ..read more