Thoughts. Reflections. Intentions.

This time of year naturally urges reflection. At work, you probably see it in the number of strategic planning and budgeting meetings that creep onto your calendar or the emails in your inbox with reminders about goal setting. In your personal life, you might see it in expressions of gratitude during the holidays or talk about adopting resolutions on January 1. Read more.

As the complex beings we are, it’s tough to decipher all the drivers of our personal growth. In one article, an expert will claim emotional intelligence is the most important ingredient. In another, someone will say it’s empathy or compassion. The truth is, all of these things—in different doses—are vital. Read more.

Over the past few years, we all shared a difficult—but uniquely felt—experience that shook our worlds, personally and professionally. And during this time, empathy rose to the surface as a trait that leaders need to cultivate. We can even find evidence of this in recent research that proclaimed “empathy” as the most important leadership skill. Read more.

Virtual connections, in-person connections. A lot of us have the tendency to categorize our relationships, thinking of them only in a certain context. But when we strip away that context and set aside the circumstances that influence our interactions with each other, relationships really boil down to the same thing: human connection. Over the last couple of years, when many of us experienced increased isolation, the importance of human connection became extremely evident. Even self-professed introverts (me!) acknowledged the need for such connection, recognizing that the bonds we form with others help us feel seen, heard, and valued. Read more.

I logged in to LinkedIn recently and was met with this headline in my daily wrap-up notifications: “How do you take control of your own growth? Chart it out.” Immediately, I balked at the idea. Surely, real growth doesn’t happen by following a formula or a carefully constructed plan, I thought. Real growth occurs organically, inspired by the natural flow of things and our need to adapt. Read more.

I visited a website recently that blasted me with a bold message, front and center on the home page:  The world needs leaders poised to handle anything that comes their way. When you put it like that, it’s hard not to conjure up images of a “hero,” a leader who many of us might describe as “tough,” “brave,” or “courageous.” But our idea of what courageous leadership is may be outdated—and likely even ineffective—for our organizations today. Read more.

In our work with people, we lean heavily into The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) to help our clients find their unique path to becoming the type of leader whose leadership brings out the best in them and in their teams. Our belief in the LCP stems from its human-centeredness, of course, and also its tested and true effectiveness. Years ago, The Leadership Circle undertook a study to measure how the LCP correlates to business performance and leadership effectiveness. The research revealed some strong connections between the LCP’s dimensions and business impact, suggesting that “creative” behavior dominates in organizations that perform Read more.

“The leaders who try and impose order in a complex context will fail, but those who set the stage, step back a bit and allow patterns to emerge and then determine which ones are desirable will succeed. They will discern many opportunities for innovation, creativity, and new business models.” – David Snowden We’ve said before that the capabilities leaders need today are different than the capabilities they needed in the past. And it’s true, because the world we presently live and work in looks so much different than it did ten or even two years ago. But what if we Read more.

The world we live and work in has become so complex. Change is bigger and happening more rapidly. Disruption—both intentional and unintentional—is everywhere. Uncertainty and ambiguity seem to be ever-present. Leaders everywhere have been tasked with navigating these complexities, and it isn’t easy. In fact, many leaders are coping with some of the biggest challenges they’ve ever encountered and discovering that the leadership “truths” they’ve relied on in the past no longer resonate in this new environment. That’s because the capabilities leaders need today are different from those they needed in the past. Now more than ever, leaders need to Read more.

Amid the “Great Resignation,” you’ve probably heard (and maybe said) that we’re all confounded. It seems employers don’t know why employees are leaving. And if you listen to feedback from the millions of people who have exited the workforce, things become even more perplexing. As it turns out, even employees don’t know why they’re leaving. A recent article from McKinsey explored the phenomenon in a new way, not for the sake of myth-busting but rather to apply a different lens to the way we’ve been thinking about it. The authors likened employees’ feelings to the feelings of soldiers returning home Read more.