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Leap out of your comfort zone
This is one of my favorite infographics. It’s quite simple, yet so powerful. It tells you that you can choose to stay in your little circle of comfort or choose instead to venture out and hop into the big juicy circle where the magic happens. Many things keep can keep...
Ride the waves
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn Recently it seems as if many of my clients are surfing. Not the kind of surfing that first comes to mind – warm weather, big waves, Hawaiian shirts – but surfing nonetheless. They are facing huge...
How to mend a broken work relationship
Recently a client (we’ll call her Sue) shared her frustration following a conversation she had with a colleague. The discussion seemed pretty benign to me, so I asked Sue why she had such strong feelings about it. She then gave me the back story of an earlier...
Answering the question: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” ~Charles F. Kettering We write a lot about failure, because failure, or more specifically fear of failure, can so easily get in our way. We often share a question with clients – and strangers. In fact, this question...
Five ways to set your employees up to fail
We unfortunately set people up to fail all the time. We may have the best intentions, and we may think we’re setting our reports up to succeed, but we may be making things more difficult for them. We may not be giving them the resources and support they need, or we...
Walk in their moccasins
“Great Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked in his moccasins.” ~Sioux Indian Prayer “I would never do it that way,” we think when we see someone on our staff take a wrong stab at a problem. “What are they thinking?” we wonder, as we watch them...
The counterintuitive way to be more productive (and maybe less stressed)
You’re facing a deadline or feeling pressure to get a project done. You feel as if you’ve been staring at your computer screen mindlessly, unable to make a dent in the work in front of you. You’ve been at this for hours, but don’t seem to be moving ahead. As the time...
You don’t have to know it all
“Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn more than they teach.” ~Rosabeth Moss Kantor Somehow, we think that, as leaders, we need to know everything and then bestow this wisdom on those around us. We are afraid to show our foibles and concerned that...
Our brains are built for bias and how to overcome it
A few years ago, I was observing a meeting that one of my clients was having with his direct report. I listened to their conversation, heard the direct report share a seemingly simple story of the way he had handled an issue, and watched my client react with anger…to...
Letting go of what you are…to be what you might become
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~Lao Tzu We can limit ourselves by the stories we tell ourselves. If we’ve defined ourselves as quiet and thoughtful, we may rarely speak up in a meeting. If we’ve defined ourselves as brash, we might never make...
A quick, simple brain exercise to get your day (and leadership) off to a strong start
Velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good. That is the way our brains have evolved over time, to protect us from the lion hiding behind the tree or the meteorite that might hit our planet. The problem is, there generally isn’t a lion hiding behind the tree, and if a...
The hardest work of leadership
"Contrary to the opinion of many, leaders are not born. Leaders are made, and they are made by effort and hard work." ~Vince Lombardi "She's a born leader," people say. According to Vince Lombardi, leaders are not born; they are made. I have to agree. I have to agree...
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