Thoughts. Reflections. Intentions.

Put yourself in this scenario: you’ve noticed one of your team members shuts down during meetings. Another reacts defensively to feedback. Someone else hesitates to speak up, even though you know they have something valuable to contribute. A leader observing behaviors like these might feel frustrated or confused. It would be easy to explain them away by thinking, “they’re disengaged,” “they’re resistant to feedback,” or “they’re lacking confidence.” But the truth is that behavior rarely tells the whole story. There’s likely a lot going on underneath what you see. Behind every reaction, hesitation, or communication style is a deeper narrative Read more.

As a young leader, there was one thing I valued above all else: harmony. I truly believed that if I modeled positivity for my team, we’d nurture a culture of cohesion, completely free of conflict. It sounds like paradise, but in reality, it’s more like Narnia: a mythical land that existed only in my imagination. It turns out that all my efforts to preserve the peace had left issues simmering beneath the surface. I’d inadvertently created an environment where it wasn’t ok to express dissent, voice opposition, or even raise a potential problem. The team sensed that I wouldn’t—or couldn’t—deal Read more.

At the start of the year, a lot of us are reflecting on goals and fresh starts. But we might also be recalling years past when we started out strong … and our momentum quickly faded. What happened? In most cases, the work probably felt hard. Let’s say you’re ready to start living your healthiest, most vibrant life. You’re excited to flip to a fresh page, and you go all in. You join the gym, you start meal planning, you reset your nighttime routine for sleep hygiene. In those first few days or weeks, you commit to doing it all Read more.

You may not realize it, but we all carry multiple narratives: The story we tell ourselves. The story we desire to live. The story others tell about us. These narratives are powerful. They shape how we show up, how we lead, how we’re perceived—in life and at work. But these stories also carry a real danger: misalignment between the three can create blind spots, missed opportunities, and even gaps in credibility. So, how do you bring all three stories into lockstep? It starts by understanding that leadership isn’t about perfect storytelling. It’s about aligning intention and perception. The Three Stories Read more.

Organizations today face complexity, ambiguity, and uncertainty at levels we’ve never seen before. In response, many are scrambling to develop leaders who can rise to these challenges with clarity, confidence, and focus. But despite their best efforts, the leadership gap is widening. Why? Because traditional leadership development methods—the ones we once considered “tried and true”—are no longer enough. For years, we believed strong pipelines were built by promoting employees who consistently hit their goals, exceeded quotas, and performed well. But performance alone doesn’t guarantee readiness. As it turns out, there’s a difference between high potential and hidden potential. Recent research Read more.