Part of my work involves helping newly formed teams bond and align quickly for the purpose of creating innovative solutions. I’ve written before about how valuable Improv can be as a tool to help groups get to that place of high trust, keen understanding and a...

The world is hungry for soulful connection. In a conversation today with a very accomplished woman in India, I heard that hunger. She has a stellar educational background with degrees from two of our most prestigious Ivy-League colleges. She founded a successful...

Have you ever thought about that natural element of curiosity we all share? Movie clips are designed to pique this very human desire to know more, to know the story, what happened and what does it mean? Many times when I see these clips before the main attraction, I...

During the first few years of coaching executives, I was surprised to learn that insecurities are universal to each of us. Over the last 17 years, I’ve listened to thousands of people share them and therefore developed a compassion for this common human frailty. We...

How do you manage a plateau in your career trajectory? Several have reached out to ask about how to respond to that feeling of being “in the doldrums” on their career/life path. Some have described feeling disengagement, boredom, or a sense of apathy about work which...

If someone you care about asks you, "What do you stand for?” how would you answer? What guidelines do you use to determine priorities and what you say “yes” to? Like many of my clients and me, you may find writing a personal manifesto very revealing and a useful tool...

Today, there was a break in my schedule that coincided with a beautiful, mild sunlit afternoon. My partner and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity with a bike ride for him, a walk for me on the Tobacco Trail not far from our home. I was five minutes down...

I've been doing an experiment with those I know lately to illustrate the point of this article. I asked them to tell me in a word or two the dominant image or feeling that comes forward when they think of these names: Mother Theresa Jerry Seinfeld Oprah Winfrey Howard...

More people have been reaching out lately to ask what to do when they get in a down mood, or a blue funk. No matter what title we hold in our organizations, we have this common humanity of navigating our emotions. It’s with us no matter how loved we are, or prosperous...

We tend to lean in the direction of those who think like we do. We say, “he’s remarkably intelligent,” about the fellow who has come to a similar conclusion as our own. If we want to come up with truly innovative solutions, however, we learn to invite dissenting...

Does a zebra know its unique contribution to all of us with its beautiful, one-of-a-kind pattern? Doubtful. The zebra probably doesn’t even think about his impact on the rest of us. Most of us are so immersed in our own areas of special interest and ability that we do...

A couple of years ago, I decided to take an improv class to have some fun activities to bring to my training events and to get better at thinking on the fly. I also wanted to have fun - I’d gotten a sample of improv at a leadership-development event and I wanted more....

Centuries ago, before we knew the world was round, mapmakers labelled unexplored regions with this warning: Here Be Dragons At the time, there were so many unknown factors about where no explorer had been or had lived to tell the tale, that this warning seemed...

When clients show up with a deep frustration in their work, one of the places we look is their top strengths to see whether one of them might be out of balance or, we might say, in overuse.  Here are a couple of examples from recent conversations.  David,* an internal...

Just as our gender or country of origin or religion colors the way we see ourselves in the world, our primary strengths color the way we approach innovation and creativity.  In interviewing people from the four strengths domains of Strategic Thinking, Executing,...

There is a tool executive coaches use to help clients frame challenges in a more approachable way so that whatever obstacles have bedeviled them can be more easily overcome.  We call it reframing.  In other words, we ask “what’s another way to look at this?” Often...

During my time in Redmond, Washington, I worked with several executives from a giant tech firm famous for its brutal performance review process. Some of these executives literally got sick each time reviews came around. They were required to cut the bottom 10% of...

We all have our hot buttons that—when pushed—send us into an emotional tailspin of anger, frustration, or another less-than-positive state. Would it surprise you to know that those triggers are tied to your strengths? Here’s how: Each strength brings a certain set of...

Just as a great football team is constantly revising and upgrading their playbook after reviewing game footage, we all can benefit from this strategy. Greatness or mastery in any arena or game is achieved by consistent practice and applying what we learn. Sounds...