Ever feel like your team has one foot on the gas and one on the brake?One moment they are buzzing with ideas, and the next they are stuck in their inbox like it is quicksand? You are not alone, and there is a brain-based reason for it. Leading a team is not just about...
Giving constructive criticism is notoriously difficult. Do YOU ever dodge a feedback conversation? You’re not alone! In our leadership development programmes we often ask our participants: “What conversations do you find the most unpleasant?” The answer across the...
Have you ever wondered how you can bring hope and optimism to your team without wearing rose tinted glasses? In the brutal environment of a Vietnamese POW camp, two men survived under the harshest conditions, but with very different inner compasses. Admiral Jim...
Knowing the ground you’re standing on matters, because You can trust yourself when you know what you stand for, and Your people trust you when they know what you stand for, even if they disagree with your decisions Sometimes something doesn’t go my way, but I cannot...
Are you feeling the pressure to lead during uncertainty without knowing what to say, promise, or do? STOP. The most important thing your people need from you is likely not what you think it is. It’s not authenticity. Not strategy. Not even vision. It’s hope. According...
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” (William Faulkner) Because the past doesn’t just live in memory, it lives in our nervous system. It lives in the “parts” of us that learned to protect, perform, please, or power through in order to survive and succeed....
Is this you? Michael generates an enormous output each day. No one gets it done like him! And it’s just as well that he is highly efficient, because he constantly has too much on his plate. There are meetings and committee work he cannot get out of - or so he...
“Don’t give scandal!”Growing up in an Irish Catholic family in Canada, this was one of the teachings drilled into me. For the non-Catholics reading this: scandal can be understood as either an action or an omission that leads another to sin or moral error. To give...
As I am immersed in team coaching, exploring what allows a team to flourish, and how to bring about systemic change, I keep thinking about my experience in my community garden. Back in April, seven of us were sitting in a circle in the sun with a cup of tea. We...
Do you have a thistle on your team? If yes, you know: those difficult people are tenacious. Constantly criticising, challenging, blocking. You don’t want a thistle on your team. No more than I want them in my lovely flower garden. When I spot a thistle, I pull it....
Do you have that one annoying person on your team? The naysayer, critic, show stopper. It’s exhausting. Meetings go as planned until that person starts talking. They elaborate on how the plan won’t work. They meticulously point out its shortcomings. The plan falls...
An adult male Indian elephant weighs between 2500 and 5000 kg. That’s the equivalent of a Land Rover Discovery on the lighter end or a Cadillac Escalade on the heavier. Have you ever wondered how such a powerful creature can be restrained and held captive by a small...
When stressed, you cannot distinguish what’s important from what’s unimportant. You act irrationally, without deliberation, but you don’t actually notice that yourself. On the contrary, shocking research on doctors' mistakes in hospitals have shown that in this state...
The most powerful step towards change is one small action. It’s not a big goal. Goals as starting points provoke a “should”. And “shoulds” rarely happen. It’s not a belief. Beliefs aren’t enough to lead to corresponding actions. It’s not a detailed plan....
People are bringing more and more anxiety and restlessness to work, and that’s not surprising. Recent political shifts in Western societies have increased the fear for democracy and human rights. AND Extreme weather events have been shaking people up for a while now,...
A number of my coaching relationships finished at the end of the year. I witnessed with great joy how crystal clear and confident my coachees were about their future. However, I was puzzled by a discrepancy I am observing all around me. Over the coaching relationship,...
Your unconscious thoughts are the true drivers of your life - if you let them. Is this you? Do you keep doing the same things, making the same choices, and feeling the same feelings? And all this despite your best efforts to make your leadership more effective, change...
Great leaders understand that imposing top down solutions often fails to produce the intended results. Even if the solutions are informed by the best intentions and employee engagement surveys, resistance is guaranteed. It’s befuddling. But when you take a...
Hey, newly appointed managers and emerging leaders. If this is where you find yourself now, it doesn’t have to be that way: Maybe it’s that conflict you have been avoiding The feedback conversation you have been procrastinating Keeping your hand down when you have...
Whatever decision you have to make, whatever action you’re about to perform, what’s your starting point? Here’s the thing. There’s only ever one of two starting points: Love or Fear Think about a situation you’re in right now, and ask yourself: Am I doing...
Brené Brown recently quoted America Ferrera, who said: “I can’t be the leader I am meant to be without all the parts of who I am.” She was talking about identity and integrated leadership. And about the importance of being able to bring all of who you are to your...
The 2024 IDG summit is coming up soon. And last week I participated in a pre-summit event with Frédéric Laloux, the co-creator of THE WEEK. He shared what drives him to do his work. One of his drivers is a need which consistently pops up in my coaching practice: We...
It’s a Wednesday, which means it was a bootcamp morning. Given that this body of mine is into its 50th+ trip around the sun, I want to take care of it by exercising, but doing it in a way that respects the miles on the odometer. (I don’t get that with the clicks) This...
Think of a task you dislike and on a scale of 0-10 assess how motivated you are to do it. Choose any task that is less than a 5 and more than a 1. Bear that task in mind. We’ll come back to it. When something just is not motivating The first leaves are falling off the...
During the summer holidays in Canada I drank lots of coffee and ate a lot of junk food. Getting ready to travel back home, I vowed to go on a caffeine and junk food detox. I just craved feeling healthy and full of vitality again. It turns out that I only partially...
rocrastination has a bad rep. But not all procrastination is the same.
Indeed, procrastination can be really good.
I have recently learnt that from…
Guilt – something even people who were not raised by Irish catholic parents can experience.
But what if guilt wasn’t all bad? What if it could be a useful emotion for a leader? How might that occur?
Simple stories get in your way when trying to solve complex challenges. Instead of making up simple stories, a beginner’s mind is the way out of this trap.
So I am in my thrice weekly morning boot camp. I’m moving to the last station in the circuit - the ski machine. My backside is starting to drag. It’s been a long session. And just as we were about to start, the song on the speaker switches from a Run DMC track to...
Most managers know WHY leadership is important. What they wrestle with is WHAT leadership looks like in the different situations they find themselves in, and then, HOW to lead in that moment. My leadership style has been profoundly shaped by my experience of the...