Peak performance can be a warning sign. Here’s how to read it before the slide begins. Dear Change Leader, Let me ask you a question that might be uncomfortable: Is your current success setting you up for future decline? Sit with that for a moment. It sounds counterintuitive. Things are working. People are delivering. The […]
Is Your Success Setting You Up for Decline? Read More »
Dear Change Leader, “I need to protect my team from all this chaos,” Priya told me during a recent coaching session. As CEO of a growing company, she’d been absorbing every shock from the organization’s turbulent environment — shielding her directors and managers from the worst of the uncertainty. She meant well. But when I
Disruption Is Your Teacher: Developing Leaders in Today’s Environment Read More »
Dear Change Leader, Janus, the Roman god of doorways and transitions, possessed something most gods lacked: two faces, looking in opposite directions. One gazed backward, at the path traveled. The other looked forward, toward the road ahead. The Romans weren’t being whimsical. They understood something essential about transitions: you can’t move forward well without
“Looking Both Ways: The Janus principle for leaders navigating year-end transitions” Read More »
Leading with presence when you don’t have all the solutions Dear Change Leader, “I need to have the answer before I can talk to my team,” Jennifer said during a recent call. As a senior leader, she’d been dealing with shifting customer demands and three rounds of budget revisions in the past six months.
Why Your Team Watches Your Calm, Not Your Answers Read More »
Finding Clarity in the Year-End Clearing December brings a peculiar challenge. As a leader, you’re expected to plan for the coming year—to set goals, establish priorities, and project confidence about a future you can’t fully see. But reacting and adapting to the current year’s constant disruptions has left you feeling exhausted, and the
Leadership In Action: Perspective Building Read More »
The Transparency Paradox Every Leader Faces Dear Change Leader, “I can’t tell them the whole truth,” Marcus said quietly. As Executive Director of a regional nonprofit, he’d been carrying difficult news for three months—uncertain funding, potential program and staff cuts, strategic questions about the organization’s future. “If my team knows how serious this is, they’ll
What Leaders Fear to Say (But Teams Need to Hear) Read More »
When Everything Is a Priority, Nothing Is You have too much on your plate. You’re wearing yourself out by trying to attend to everything you believe you have to do. What’s worse, you are not leaving yourself any ‘strategic slack’ to either deal with unexpected developments nor prepare for the future. I’ll be frank––you
Leadership In Action: Priority Anchors Read More »
Dear Change Leader, “I thought being steady meant staying still,” Marcus told me during our coaching session last month. As the newly promoted Director of a fast-growing tech startup, Marcus had been trying to project unwavering confidence and consistency. He believed that good leadership meant being the organization’s anchor—solid, immovable, predictable. But the more he
The Art of Dynamic Balance Read More »
Dear Change Leader, In 1972, a small team at Royal Dutch Shell gathered to do something that seemed almost absurd: imagine a future in which oil prices would skyrocket. At the time, oil had been cheap and stable for decades. The entire industry operated on the assumption that this would continue. Planning for anything else
The Leadership Trap That Creates Tomorrow’s Crises Read More »
How leaders can reignite purpose and hope when teams are running on empty Dear Change Leader, “I look around the room and see people who used to light up when we talked about our work,” Stefan shared with me last week. “Now they just look… tired. Really tired.” As Executive Director of a community
When Your Team’s Spirit Feels Broken Read More »