Could one cause of burnout be something as inconspicuous as this: we have come to believe there is something wrong with us, constantly? My short answer is yes, with a very important qualification. Burnout is not caused by an inner critic alone. The research continues to point to chronic workplace stress, excessive demands, inadequate resources, low autonomy, role conflict, and insufficient support as major contributors. But an inner critic can intensify those conditions by pe

Beneath burnout, quiet quitting, and the reorganizations that never seem to end, there's often a quieter pattern: a leader stuck in reaction, cut off from what creative, sustainable leadership would actually require. The phrase "sustainable leadership", gets used almost exclusively for climate action and corporate sustainability reporting. That's not what this article is about. This is about a leader's inner game, and how that inner game shapes the culture underneath you. The

We humans have a curious relationship with definitions. We crave them. We want to know what something is, to draw a line around it, name it, and make the uncertain feel a little more certain. Or, sometimes, to undermine it. If you’ve been anywhere near leadership development over the last few decades, you’ve seen the endless search for the definition of a great leader, as if somewhere out there exists the perfect mix of qualities, behaviours, and competencies that will finall

For years, I’ve been interested in why some approaches help and others don’t. Before I dismiss a practice, I like to understand the deeper mechanism behind it. That has led me to a simple but important observation: the mind is not only trying to move us forward, it is also trying to keep us safe. The problem is that what once felt safe may no longer be helpful. So this is not another list of quick fixes. It is what I’m currently advocating, practicing, and finding useful. And

You know the moment. It’s late, the work is technically done, and yet something in you won’t let go. Your shoulders are still up near your ears. Your jaw is set. You’ve answered the messages, closed the laptop, and the bracing hasn’t stopped. The day is over and yet it isn't. This is the exhaustion that surprises us. We expect to be tired from the workouts or from moving furniture, from cooking a holiday dinner, travelling or working on a weekend. That tiredness makes sense;

There's a skill nobody puts in the leadership development brochure. It's not strategic thinking. It's not executive presence. It's not even emotional intelligence, at least not the version we usually talk about. It's this: the ability to disappoint people. The exhaustion nobody names Most leaders I work with arrive burnt out. Not from the work itself, but from everything happening around the work. I myself used to joke, not joke: if only work didn't get in the way of my work.

I was sitting across from my boss at the time, over coffee, telling him I was leaving. In many ways I had been his protégé. It wasn't the easiest mentoring relationship, but he had invested in me, and I think we both knew this conversation mattered. He listened. He accepted. And then he asked what I would do in between jobs. I told him about Annapurna Base Camp. My eyes lid up. The trek had been living in me for a long time. He paused. Then he said he hoped I would find a w

On Stillness, Defiance, and the Art of Authoring Our Own Life Rest is one of those concepts we think we understand, until someone asks us to define it. Then we realize we've been confusing it with sleep. Or vacation. Or the absence of work. Or collapse. None of those are quite it. Rest Is Not One Thing This is the first truth worth naming: rest is plural. It takes different forms for different people, in different seasons, at different hours of the day. What restores one per

For years, photography guided me into presence. When my life took a turn I thought was for the better, which turned out to be for the worst, photography became the thread that led me back. Back to presence. Back to awe and back to joy. Through the lens, through walking in nature, through paying attention, I begun discovering something: My thoughts are not facts. And I am not my thoughts. This was a captivating revelation. The Discovery If we can notice our thoughts, then log

A friend once handed me a reframe so simple it has followed me for years. I complained that I never bring my son a beach chair because he never sits with us anyway. My friend paused and said: "Maybe he doesn't come to sit because you don't have a chair for him." That sentence casually revealed a pattern that shows up everywhere: we often mistake absence for disinterest, when it's really about the conditions we've created, often unconsciously, for who can belong. The cha

“I'm stuck.” I hear this in conversations about careers, relationships, leadership, team development, community work, basically wherever we humans are trying to do brave things.. while having a nervous system. Here is what I came to believe: stuckness often isn’t a lack of options. It’s not even a lack of courage. It’s a devotion to thinking, specifically, the belief that if we think long enough, we’ll eventually earn certainty… and then we’ll move. Except we don’t move. We

There’s a moment many seasoned leaders recognize:“I have all the tools. So why does this still feel so hard?” You’ve read the books, attended dozens of training programs, survived the 360s. You know how to run a team, an organization, a transition, a strategy session. And still, some problems don’t respond to what you already know. These are the moments when the challenge isn’t asking for another framework – it’s asking you to grow. Not horizontally (more skills, more tips, m

“Leaders who lead from a creative, vision or outcome-based orientation outperform those who lead from a reactive orientation…” - Bob Anderson When I say “leadership,” I couldn’t be further from political headlines, hierarchical ladders, or the alpha-performance model that often comes to mind. The kind of leadership I believe in, and coach clients into, is not about titles. It's not about charisma an it is not about control. It’s about creating the world we need, a world roote

Do you really know who you are as a leader? Far too often, we step into leadership because we excelled at our last role. Maybe we were high-performing individual contributors, technical experts, or founding members of a small team that grew quickly. Maybe we inherited a leadership position in a family business. One day, we looked around and realized: “I guess I’m in charge now.” Without ever being explicitly taught how to lead, most of us unconsciously begin to imitate the le

Even if you’ve never watched Grey’s Anatomy, there’s a scene that captures something important about leadership. Dr. Cristina Yang, ambitious, brilliant, and laser-focused, is being mentored by a senior surgeon. She’s asked to narrate her actions to others in the room. She resists. It feels trivial. But the feedback she receives is humbling: sometimes, before we chase complexity, we need to revisit the basics. After over 20 years in leadership, as both student and teacher, I’

We don’t like defiance. Not in teenagers, not in colleagues, not in ourselves. It disrupts. Refuses. Challenges the norm. And yet, defiance might be one of the most essential leadership qualities we never talk about. Especially when it comes to leading our own lives. Defiance isn’t just rebellion for its own sake. It’s the refusal to shrink into expectations that don’t fit. It’s a boundary line that says: not this . In psychological terms, defiance often emerges as a protec

Whether we speak or remain silent, show up or withdraw, every action, or inaction, sends a message. Communication isn’t just about what we say; it’s also about what we don’t say. Silence, hesitation, and avoidance are just as communicative as words. And in leadership, these unspoken messages often speak the loudest. “One cannot not communicate.” — Paul Watzlawick Avoiding hard conversations erodes trust. When we sidestep giving feedback, delay naming tension, or choose silenc

And Why Most of Us Are Settling for So Much Less There is a question I hear underneath almost every coaching conversation I have. It is rarely spoken directly. It lives in the pauses, in the exhaustion behind someone's eyes, in the way a high-achieving leader will sometimes stop mid-sentence and say, almost surprised by themselves, "I don't actually know if I'm happy." The question is this: Is this it? Is this what a good life feels like? If you've ever asked yourself some ve

In a world saturated with likes, shares, and applause, the pull of external validation can feel inescapable. Yet when we’re caught in this cycle, the moments between the hits of approval or admiration often feel strangely empty, and that’s the best-case scenario. They can feel much worse. Liberation from this cycle is an act of reclaiming our power. “What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think … or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?” Brene Br

Avoid trying to mimic someone else, be it a guru or a role model, as this approach rarely works. Success comes from being authentically you.