Stress made me do it

March 29, 2019

True autonomy and choice comes when we are free of our own automatic responses.—Krishnamurti (an Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher) It is when we are under stress that we are most likely to lose control of our emotions and release an automatic behavioural response that we immediately regret. This is when those responses own you, […]

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Take your foot off the brake

March 15, 2019

As I said in the last leadership tip, change comes less from putting your foot on the gas with new behaviours, skills, etc. and more from seeing how you have one hidden (to you!) foot firmly planted on the brake. This is easier said than done. Those old habits are deeply embedded in us and […]

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Organizations don’t change, people do

March 1, 2019

We talk about how it is important to change the organizational culture. But culture change is an outcome of individual behaviour change that grows. To focus on culture change is kind of a cop-out. We all need to look in the mirror and ask and commit to what is it that I need to do […]

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We are all in over our heads

February 15, 2019

“We are all in over our heads”. –Robert Kegan, Harvard developmental psychologist. What does this mean? Dr. Kegan’s observation is that the complexity of life and speed of change has far outstripped most of our individual capacities to deal with it. Therefore as individuals on our own, we will likely drown from the Tsunami of […]

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Designing the Rest of Your Life

February 20, 2018

THE CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY The concept of “retirement” doesn’t make sense for many of today’s senior executives or business owners transitioning into another phase of their lives. These individuals are often between 55 and 65 years of age, healthy and financially secure, with another 10-20 productive years in front of them. This is a new […]

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Leading into and through Disruption

February 5, 2018

The pace of change is accelerating, and Digital Transformation (big data, internet of things, AI, etc.) is the primary engine accelerating this pace in businesses and organizations. More and more of us are becoming, or are already overwhelmed by a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) reality and finding it increasingly difficult or impossible to […]

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Executive Development: Wasted Potential in the Boardroom

October 16, 2017

Working with senior executive teams, I rarely hear complaints about the technical and business talent level of the individual members in the room. However, asking about the effectiveness of the team as a collective leadership body, to lead the implementation of strategy and change…that is a different story. Most of these executives will report that […]

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Coaching for Integration

May 9, 2017

Most of us have an innate drive toward health.  My doctor friends would tell me that the mind/body moves toward healing on its own, regardless of the interventions we engage in.  Effective interventions for promoting physical and mental health are the ones that unblock or pave the pathway for the natural healing process to occur.  […]

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Senior Executive Team Meetings, Often Resemble Junior High School Sock Hops

February 8, 2017

Mark Ridley delivered a fascinating TED talk a few years ago, titled, When Ideas Have Sex. He maintained that our species competitive advantage over other species has a lot to do with our ability to communicate ideas, which ideally meet and mate with other ideas.  This process gives rise to innovation and better ongoing adapting […]

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Resistance to Change is a Management Myth

January 25, 2017

How many times, and for how long, have so many of us said that “people resist change”?   I have said it for years, as one of those statements that I assumed was true but without adequately thinking about it.  Now, thirty-five years into the game of individual and organizational change, I see things differently.  My […]

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