We got four inches of snowfall last night. As I walked Axl through the fluffy white morning, with powder underfoot and the lightest, dreamiest flurries dancing around us, I found myself marveling at the fact that the thick blanket covering everything in sight was created by the gathering and settling of one tiny snowflake after another. It seemed impossible. Magical. But I had to remind myself, this is the only way it ever happens. Out of current conditions, a new pattern arises. As it...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Happy Solstice. It may be the darkest day of the year (up here in the north anyway), but the solstice reminds us that the light is ready to return. To mark the occasion, here’s a little gift: The 2026 Leadership Intention workbook is here! Ready to find your 2026 intention? Grab the 2026 Leadership Intention Workbook and find the noble quality that wants to guide you—in leadership and in life—next year. I’ll share more in the January newsletter about why intentional practice is a gamechanger,...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—time to reckon with darkness. The days are getting shorter and the nights are growing longer. My neighbors and I in the northern hemisphere are now living mostly in the dark, and as the solstice approaches I know it’s going to get darker before it gets lighter. And it’s been a dark year. More than 1 million people (and counting) were laid off in 2025, as economic inequality is at a record high. AI appears to be on an increasingly dystopian trajectory,...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Throughout this year, we've explored what it takes to lead in this stunningly complex and volatile moment—defining clarity, reframing confidence, and rewarding intrinsic motivation. Now, as year-end approaches, we turn our attention to results. The business world organizes its assessment apparatus around what's easily quantifiable. Billable hours. Revenue reports. Performance reviews. Returns on investments. Days in the office. But the leaders who are transforming their organizations into...
3 months ago • 6 min read
The ostrich burying his head in the sand. The chameleon changing her colors to fit in. The zebra who can’t change his stripes. The deer in headlights. The bull in the china shop, bucking around and breaking stuff. The seagull, overseeing from a distance before diving down just in time to be disruptive. Isn't it funny how we use these animal metaphors to capture our very human struggles with change? Especially because we have so much to learn from the natural world about how to navigate the...
4 months ago • 6 min read
What does it mean to be creative? My mind (perhaps like yours?) conjures artists, writers and makers of things. It is also quick (perhaps like yours?) to inform me that this is something other people do—that I myself am not a creative person. Fortunately, I’ve learned not to listen to my mind all the time. But because this notion of creativity being exclusive to a talented few is so persistent in my brain, I suspect it’s rattling around other brains too. So let’s talk about the kind of...
5 months ago • 9 min read
This one goes out to anybody currently looking at a calendar stacked with back-to-back meetings, an inbox with 47 unread messages, and multiple team members waiting for your direction on urgent decisions. I want to tell you that it doesn’t have to be this way, but I doubt you’ll believe me. So instead, let me tell you about the most challenging (and most rewarding) thing I've done in my career. It wasn’t leading a complex organizational transformation or building organizational culture during...
6 months ago • 6 min read
When you think of a toxic work culture, what comes to mind? Screaming bosses? Fierce competition? Endless arguments? Not me. In my experience, if there’s one telltale sign that a culture is in decline, it’s not shouting. It’s silence. “We’re polite to death,” a client recently told me. “Nobody says what they actually think. We smirk and nod in meetings, then spend the next week in sidebar conversations complaining about what we just agreed to.” Sound familiar? We've been conditioned to see...
7 months ago • 5 min read
We adopted a puppy last week. His name is Axl. When Axl sits, he gets a treat. When he stays, he gets a treat. When he comes when called, another treat. The simple system of training a dog works beautifully—desired behavior, immediate reward, quick results. It’s easy to see why we’ve designed our organizations with this strategy of rewarding specific behaviors with external prizes—it works. Axl is learning to sit because I am teaching him what I value and giving him something he values in...
8 months ago • 4 min read