Writing
Essays, articles & weekly Leadership Letters
On living in limbo
Our struggle exists in the limbo. I spend a lot of time with clients around making decisions. We talk options, opportunities, scenarios and play out all the possibilities with an eye toward making a decision (read: a commitment). Sometimes the answers come...
3 Reasons I Write
I've always wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, I submitted essays to my school newspaper and had a story published in a city-wide collection. At age nine, I wrote the editor of our city's newspaper, The Calgary Herald, requesting a kid section beyond...
Basecamp, Rachel Hollis, Human-Centered Leadership, and Vulnerability Hangovers
"Am I sharing too much? Am I being too vulnerable?" These were the questions I voxed a couple of close friends this week. I was having a vulnerability hangover of some description, and I started to question whether my content, specifically these Leadership...
We need to talk about loneliness in leadership. It’s bad for business.
Who lifts up the leaders? Over the past few weeks, I've been facilitating a 4-part Leadership Lab series on how to Communicate with Confidence. We've talked about communicating well, how to give and receive feedback, how to navigate courageous conversations and...
If you need me, I’ll be in my car.
"Fall in love with your solitude." ~Rupi Kuar One of the unexpected delights of my days since my kids returned to in-person classes in February happens between 8:50 - 9:10 am. If you were to drive by my kids' middle school at this time, you'd find me parked...
Over-connected, under-nourished
Over-connected, under-nourished Many years ago, a group of friends and colleagues gathered together at a local coffee shop to talk shop. We had set up a regular cadence of every two weeks, and we'd use each gathering to share ideas, brainstorm challenges and...
Ambition? Meet reality.
It's been my experience that when one person shares a challenge they're facing, five more will follow in short succession to share the same challenge. Nobody knows of the other person's struggle, and inevitably, each person feels like they're all alone in it. What I...
Just start
You don’t have to have it all together to start that project, that business, that career transition or that personal pursuit. You might be short time. You might be short money. You might be short experience. You might be short clarity. You might be short...
Focus is really about this.
When we talk about focus, we often talk about strategies and tactics to minimize distraction, clarify priorities and "do the work." We say to ourselves that if we could just get it together and stay focused on what matters, everything would improve. And so we go in...