I recently observed an interaction between two people that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. One person was sharing something difficult. You could tell the emotion it activated to share the details. Their voice carried a little more weight than usual. They were processing something meaningful to them. The other person listened for a moment, but then, with genuine warmth and the best of intentions, jumped in, saying, "Oh, that happened to me too!" And, unfortunately,

I've been traveling a lot lately. Keynotes, workshops, and organizational culture work have kept me on the road, partnering with leaders and teams on communication, self-awareness, and the kind of culture shifts that actually stick. It's meaningful work! And it also meant my front yard was largely on its own for a while. The trees had opinions about that. So did the weeds. One morning, as I was walking to my car, a man approached me. He was in the landscaping business. He di

I recently attended a seminar where I had the privilege of hearing Charles R. Scott speak about the idea of “meaningful discomfort.” The idea wasn’t new to me, but it gave language to something I’ve been aware of for a long time: an unspoken goal I’ve held for myself - to keep pushing just beyond my comfort zone in pursuit of growth, impact, and possibility. And as a leader, to thoughtfully and respectfully support others in doing the same, not by overwhelming them, but by he

I work hard to maintain a positive mindset. Not in a way that ignores reality or pretends life is always easy... but in a way that strengthens my ability to stay emotionally regulated and mentally flexible when things don’t go as planned. And lately, there’s a lot that doesn’t feel predictable. Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly. Global conflicts have escalated. Our political climate feel charged and uncertain. In moments like this, it’s easy to feel like the world

A leader I spoke with recently shared a situation that many supervisors eventually encounter. One of her team members had begun declining certain work tasks. The employee wasn’t loud or confrontational about it. They simply avoided the work or stated directly that they didn’t like doing those particular responsibilities. The complication? The employee’s role had evolved. The job description had shifted to include new responsibilities the employee didn’t prefer, didn’t feel

Leadership can sometimes feel like walking a balance beam. In my own leadership and supervision work, I am constantly aware of the tension between two things I believe are equally critical: empathy and compassion on one side, accountability and expectations on the other. Get too far to one side and you wobble. Stay there too long and you fall. And yet, both sides are necessary. The goal is never to pick one. It's to learn how to stand on the fulcrum. The Two Sides of the Sc

I spend a lot of time living in this space: The space where two things that appear to be opposed… are actually both true. In leadership, this isn’t a contradiction, it’s a skill. And more specifically, it’s a form of mental flexibility; one of the most important emotional intelligence muscles a leader can develop. When situations get stressful, our brains naturally look for simplicity. We want clarity. We want answers. We want things to fall neatly into categories: Right or

A CEO I spoke with recently shared a situation that had been weighing on her. She had a team member whose expertise she deeply valued. The person was knowledgeable, capable, and contributed important insight to the organization. But something had shifted. The employee had stopped returning greetings in the hallway. In team meetings they were visibly disengaged. And when they did participate, their comments occasionally carried a dismissive or disrespectful tone. None of the m

A leader I spoke with recently had just come through a high-stakes audit. A nyone who has lived through an audit knows the feeling: You prepare. You review systems. You check documentation. You cross your fingers that every process you’ve worked so hard to build will hold up under scrutiny. This leader had done exactly that. Their departments had strong systems in place. Teams were monitoring their work carefully and communicating regularly. Then one question from the audi

Recently a leader confided in me that they were struggling with how to balance the need for compassion and empathy with the need to also maintain expectations and agreements. We discussed how h olding expectations while showing empathy can feel like walking a tightrope. Lean too far one direction and accountability weakens. Lean too far the other and relationships strain. But there’s another layer leaders often overlook. Every relationship operates with an emotional bank a

Internal interviews can be some of the most delicate leadership moments. A role opens. An internal candidate applies. They feel like a shoe-in. They’ve imagined themselves in the position, told themselves a story about what it means, maybe even started planning their next chapter. And then… they aren’t chosen. As leaders, we often sit in the tension of wanting to be honest and protective. There are usually reasons someone wasn’t selected that aren’t appropriate, or helpful,

Of course, we don’t really know what lies ahead. In many ways, the future always carries some uncertainty. But right now, with the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence, that uncertainty feels particularly visible. AI will absolutely impact the way we work, communicate, and solve problems. What we don’t know is exactly how, when, or to what degree. And because of that, I’ve found myself thinking about a different question lately, "How do we become AI Resilient ?" We

I hear this concern often from leaders: “I don’t want to micromanage… but I also need to know what’s happening.” Ensuring accurate clock-in and clock-out times. Tracking task and project progress. Following up on deadlines and deliverables. Knowing where where and if hybrid staff are actually working. Sometimes, when some leaders work to increase awareness and follow through, some team members cry "Micromanagement!" However, these are not signs of micromanagement, they are s

A leader recently shared a situation that many leaders will recognize. The leader observed an employee respond dismissively and borderline insubordinately to a request during a large group meeting. Not egregious. Not a policy violation. But clearly disrespectful, and potentially influential, given how many others may have witnessed it. Including the leader's supervisor. The leader immediately felt the tension but hesitated on how to address it with her employee, so she di

A new supervisor recently shared a moment that stopped her in her tracks. She was adjusting expectations for her team, adding clarity, increasing accountability, and redistributing tasks to better meet current demands. The changes were reasonable… and necessary. And the response? “We’ve never had to do that before.” It came from the team quickly. Firmly. With more emotion than curiosity. The supervisor felt the pull many leaders feel in moments like this: the urge to explain,

When someone is new to a team, one of their strongest needs is simple: belonging. They’re learning the job, the norms, the unspoken rules. They’re watching closely. And often, the first people who reach out, the ones who offer connection quickly, become their anchor. A professional collegue recently shared a dilemma around this exact dynamic. A new employee had onboarded and, almost immediately, was befriended by a few team members known for their pessimism, disengagement, a

Every team member should be able to say, with confidence: “ I know what’s expected of me and I have the knowledge or support to accomplish it. ” When team members cannot say this with confidence , frustration grows, misalignment creeps in, and leaders often find themselves correcting behavior that was never fully clarified in the first place. This often seems like a motivation issue, but it's more likely a clarity issue . And clarity is one of the most powerful (and underrate

An executive coaching client recently shared their desire to reset expectations for their team. They had noticed that, over time, a few things had begun to slip: Some team members were no longer meeting full role expectations in what seemed like complacency. Flexibility that had been provided to team members had slowly turned into expectation. Grace had been mistaken for looseness and the eroding work ethic was showing. Others were showing signs of entitlement and a deterior

There’s been a common theme showing up in my coaching practice lately: the tension between empathy and accountability. Leaders want to be compassionate. Flexible. Human. At the same time, they’re carrying responsibility for performance, follow-through, and results. It can feel like standing on a fulcrum, trying to keep the scales balanced.Lean too far toward empathy, and expectations will soften into ambiguity.Lean too far toward accountability, and relationships can begin

A client recently shared how challenging it had become to juggle all the dangling pieces each team member was responsible for. They wanted to be supportive. They wanted to maintain accountability. But their own workload and the constant demands of leadership left little time, or mental bandwidth, to track every moving part. They said, “I know I need to follow up more consistently, but I feel like I’m barely keeping up myself.” I get it. Most leaders do. It's helpful to rememb