The Thoughtful Leaders™ Blog
Posted by Lisa Kohn on June 28, 2012
One of the greatest challenges my clients face is the balance between planning and doing. For some clients there never seems to be enough time to plan. They are hit constantly with urgent tasks and requests, and the ability to think through issues before taking action is viewed as a fantasy. For others, they get seemingly stuck in planning, thinking through issues over and over and feeling unable (or unwilling) to make a move.
I believe this balance challenges us all – or at least most of us – and therefore reached out to the LinkedIn community to gather a few best practices on creating, or maintaining, that balance. Here is the best of the best of what I heard:
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on June 25, 2012
“All you need to do is show up.” Cara Bradley
The other day I was noticing a pattern in my coaching sessions – somehow every client was talking about how hard they were trying and how difficult things were becoming for them. All I seemed to hear was, “I’m not getting anywhere with this project.” “Everyone is fighting me on this.” “I just don’t have enough time.”
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Posted by Robyn McLeod on June 21, 2012
 We sat on pins and needles as “Sam” perused his 360° feedback report. Sam had joined our team as the general manager about a year earlier and it was a difficult year for all of us who reported to him. Our previous boss was someone who had established great rapport with everyone, invested time in building trust within the organization, and focused keenly on developing people.
Sam, on the other hand, arrived like a bull in a china shop – questioning everything, micromanaging, withholding information, and treating people poorly. In one year he wreaked havoc on morale and created bottlenecks to progress that had been made within the organization.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on June 18, 2012
“There’s always a next time for something.” Max Trachtenberg
It was a nine-year-old who said this, while aiming for something else. I believe the saying he was aiming for was “There’s always a first time for everything,” but I think I like his mis-saying better.
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Posted by Lisa Kohn on June 14, 2012
 Sometimes you read something that you just have to share – and Jessica Hagy’s The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness) is one of them. Even if you saw this already on Forbes.com, I invite you to reread it as I find that each time I reread it I think and learn more.
Jessica shares how Availability, Ignorance, Committees, Comfort, Momentum, and Passivity can spoil our dreams, achievements, and even lives. And while we all may have thought these thoughts already, she shares them in a way that is illustrative (literally) and captures your attention.
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on June 11, 2012
“We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.” Wilbur Wright
When was the last time you were so excited by what you were doing that you could hardly wait to get up in the morning? What a concept – to love your work and your life so much that you want to jump into them as quickly as you can.
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Posted by Robyn McLeod on June 7, 2012
 The other day my daughter complained about her friend. “Mom, she was being so bossy, telling me how to do it,” she said. “I knew how to do it – and anyway, she’s not the boss of me!” It was one of those great parenting moments when you want to laugh but you have to keep a straight face and help your child think through a suitable solution. The discussion got me thinking about what bossiness has to do with being the boss, and I remembered a time when I was a bossy boss myself. I believed that, as the boss, I had authority over employees, and that being the boss meant exercising that authority. Back then I thought that was the way to manage, but now I wonder: is there a place for bossiness when you’re the boss?
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Posted by Chatsworth Consulting Group on June 4, 2012
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Recently a client and I worked through a huge leadership step for her – one that she was afraid to take. She knew that she needed to move on; she knew that it was most likely a right step; she knew that she wanted to go forward. But she was stuck, because she was scared.
“What if it doesn’t work out?” she questioned. “What if I’m wrong? What if I take this step, and I don’t know what to do next???”
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Dwight McLeod 
I have seen this movie before. Extremely destructive.
Thanks Karin. It’s all too common, unfortunately.