I sat in bed rubbing my eyes, trying to wake up. The clock read 6:29 am. Europe was well into their day. After navigating a tricky conflict the day before, my energy tank was dangerously low. I longed to stay in bed but five urgent issues loomed in Slack. I…

Leadership is not for the emotionally fragile. It can shatter you into a thousand pieces if not you’re careful. Leading has a way of revealing our biggest weaknesses. Many leaders didn’t realize how much it makes you confront your own personal failings. How much of leadership is having a mirror…

Here’s what to look for — When we step into leadership, our work extends far beyond the team we lead. The scope of our responsibility expands exponentially. Rather than manage the work or use our functional expertise, we have to work at the organizational layer. This means we have to give things away. In other words…

Finding your way through the confusion of change The macroeconomic environment is rippling through companies. The news is flooded with layoffs, reorgs and other big shifts inside companies. Change is afoot. This topic comes up frequently in my work as an offsite facilitator, workshop leader and consultant. Much of my…

At least for the first 90 days — The entrance to leadership is accompanied by the highest of highs. We have more responsibility and a title to go with it. Now we can have the impact we’ve always wanted. We can create the kind of org we long to be a part of. It’s all so wonderful, dream-like…

Why leadership can make you question yourself — Firsts are exciting, they’re also confusing. We flop about. We don’t know what we’re doing. I remember my early days of leadership. Though I never expected to be a COO I recognized it as a career pinnacle. It was also the most confusing time of my career. My brain constantly…

The answer might surprise you — I started my first podcast in 2016 interviewing creators. Since then, I created a leader interview podcast. I also host an interview series with authors. Over the past six years, I’ve interviewed over 100 folks. Someone once asked how to create a great interview. Here’s my secret. Create psychological safety. This might be…

A leadership consultant confesses their least favorite question — Our ideas about what it means to be a good leader have evolved over the years. A prominent theory of leadership is that history can be understood through the impact of superior men. This is known as the great man theory popularized by historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle in the…

It’s not the right tool for everything — Slack is a wonderful tool for collaboration. It allows us to connect asynchronously across time zones. This tool can help us cut down on costly meetings. There’s one Slack usage that indicates a sign of bigger problems — DMs during meetings. This kind of side conversation is one way I…