I recently came across a new ‘fun’ formula that is quite different to the one my kids are learning in algebra: C = D* V + FS > R Or Change happens when the level of Discomfort (in your current context) multiplied by your Vision (for a future state) plus a...
Using My Dreams to Become a Better Leader
This is not a blog about dreams as premonitions or visions – although I googled ‘famous visions in dreams’ as I started writing this post and it is quite a rabbit hole to fall down – (falling down rabbit holes itself being the start of the dream sequence that is the...
Feedback That Helps: Five ways to get people to tell you what they really think.
Last year I wrote a blog post on how to get better at receiving feedback, as a counterpoint to all the articles out there that are helping us get better at giving feedback. But there is little more frustrating than building oneself up to asking for feedback, only to...
Mental Agility – Practicing Switching Perspectives
When I was young, one of the ways my father would entertain us during long car rides, was by picking a topic for us to debate. About five minutes into the debate, just as things were starting to get heated, he would suddenly should 'SWITCH!' at which point we would...
What kind of a boss do you want? And have you talked to them about it?
I spend a lot of time supporting leaders develop the skills to become good managers or supervisors. And through these conversations I’ve come to some insights that I wasn’t necessarily expecting: More often than not, people’s experience of being managed is...
Books That Stick
Many years ago, when I was working in Indonesia, my boss, who was a bit of contrarian himself, recommended I read The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, by Steven Sample. I did. And, over 20 years later I still circle back and refer to my key takeaways. One his...
Passive vs Proactive Procrastination – and How to Tell the Difference
It’s so ironic that I have been procrastinating on writing a piece about procrastinating! But I’m taking a deep breath and diving in. The motivation for writing this came from my new favorite book (I’d call it my book of the year but that feels a little presumptuous...
What Throws YOUR Mind Completely Off Balance
This is not the article I sat down to write this morning - it's the article about what I do when I get mentally thrown off balance!I wanted to write a piece this week about values. How if we can articulate our own values it can actually help in relating and being more...
Tips for Staying Focused in the Company of Others
This article about the ‘in between’ gatherings – not the ones that I love and want to be at OR the ones that I just shouldn’t bother with in the first place. These are meetings that I know I need to be at and yet for some reason it’s really hard to keep my attention. What can I do to show up and bring my attention where it is needed?
Networking or Net-weaving?
Several years ago I was about to leave for a conference on innovation in San Francisco when my boss asked me what my plans for networking there were. This threw me into a sense of panic for two, potentially contradictory, reasons. On the one hand, as a borderline...