The Gifts of People Pleasers: The Chain That Holds Teams Together

For a long time, I thought my people-pleasing tendencies were a flaw—something I needed to fix if I wanted to be a strong leader. I worried that my desire to keep the peace and make others happy made me weak, that it held me back from making tough decisions or setting firm boundaries. And in […]

Are Your People-Pleasing Tendencies Getting in the Way of Leading?

Leadership requires balance—between being approachable and setting boundaries, between collaboration and decisiveness, and between empathy and accountability. But for leaders with people-pleasing tendencies, this balance can be difficult to maintain. The desire to keep everyone happy can undermine your ability to make tough decisions, hold others accountable, and drive necessary change. If you’re unsure whether […]

Is Too Much Diplomacy Killing Your Team?

Diplomacy is often seen as a virtue in leadership—keeping the peace, ensuring everyone gets along, and avoiding unnecessary conflict. But what if I told you that too much diplomacy might actually be the thing that’s killing your team’s performance, engagement, and innovation? Many leaders believe that a harmonious workplace is the key to success. They […]

Field Work: How Tennis Is Helping Me Reflect

As a coach, I am deeply committed to walking my talk. If I wasn’t, how else could I be an effective coach? However, lest I begin to feel that I have it all nailed down, taking up a new sport is certainly one way to excavate hidden recesses where old thinking still lies. Here is […]

Befriending My Own Stuckness

I am feeling stuck. Like, really stuck. I’ve been stuck in one place now for about two and a half years. Yeah, it’s bad. Not only has it been a long time, but after a lot of effort I am feeling even more stuck. I don’t know about you, but my usual response to stuckness, […]

Appreciation – A Powerful (and Underused) Way to Connect

Humans thrive when our core needs are met – and appreciation is probably one of the easiest needs a leader can meet for members of her team. Simply, appreciation is the recognition of another’s positive aspects: either for who she is or what she has done and the impact. When someone expresses appreciation, we feel […]

The Gift of an Authentic ‘No’

If I you ask me something, can you trust that I’ll say ‘no’? Do you worry that I say ‘yes’ but don’t mean it and won’t follow through? Are you concerned that I’ll say ‘yes’ and feel resentful? How would our personal and professional lives be different if we could be honest with ourselves and […]

Pandemic Leadership 101

I think we had all hoped that we would turn the corner into 2021 and we would see the sun setting on the pandemic. The reality is that most of us realize we are really in this for the long haul. More and more, I am hearing things from my clients like: We are all […]

Find Focus in the Chaos

We are in unprecedented times. Most of us are experiencing some combination of fear, concern, worry, uncertainty, and information overload. Not to mention the challenges of working from home. Some of us are also suddenly responsible for home schooling. It’s no wonder we are distracted and having a hard time focusing. As a manager, you […]

Relationships During COVID

How do relationships develop? If we are too intentional in a relationship, does that make a relationship inauthentic? What is the risk someone might feel “used”? How do we balance this with the need to build relationships to be effective in work and life? Before the pandemic, many of us nurtured our relationships by running […]