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 keeps rearranging my leadership brain. It 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 un

You can meditate at dawn, optimize your calendar, track your steps and drink water, and still feel bone-deep exhausted if your days are filled with ambiguity, tension, an d unsaid truths . You can love your work and still dread your meetings. You can believe in your mission and still go home feeling strangely empty. That’s not a failure of mindset or self-care. It’s a signal about your relationships. Most of us were taught to think of thriving as an individual project: better

If thriving isn’t just being happy or the absence of stress… if it’s not simply a good week, or even success, then what is  it? Thriving is the feeling and the reality that your life is going somewhere good: with enough stability, meaning, connection, and inner capacity to keep moving… even when the world is loud, fast, and complicated. In the research, thriving is often described as more than mood, it feel more like momentum. As organizational scholars Gretchen Spreitzer a

Ideas are fragile things. They arrive soft, incomplete, easily startled, like small animals stepping tentatively into the open. And yet most of us, meet them with reflexive judgment. We evaluate, categorize, critique, or dismiss them before they’ve even taken their first full breath. Too expensive. Too risky. Too unrealistic. We tried that. We don’t do that. Not the right time. We don’t notice how fast we do it. We don’t notice how many ideas we kill. And we almost never ask

For thousands of years, cultures around the globe have told a version of the same story: the hero leaves home, faces trials, slays the dragons, and returns with treasure that saves the community. Joseph Campbell called this the Hero’s Journey, and it has shaped our imagination of what leadership should look like. Even today, we unconsciously expect ourselves as leaders to embody this myth. We look up to that elusive notion of a heroic solver of all problems, the one who leave

I watched an interview with musician and songwriter Phil Cook recently, where he said something that stuck with me: “When you’re...

It’s Friday afternoon. You’ve worked hard all week, but instead of feeling accomplished, you feel wrung out. It’s not the workload that...

And How to Use Them to Strengthen Yours When Fin took over a passionate literacy team, he thought things would click quickly. Seven staff...

Great leadership requires humility, it means recognizing that the route you took to success isn’t the only valid route. When we hire...

How to replace dread-inducing reviews with talent, engagement, and belonging It’s Time to Retire the Old “Performance Machine” Picture...

We live in a culture that’s obsessed with what’s broken. Somehow, criticizing and pointing out flaws is considered a sign of...

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...

Even if you’ve never watched Grey’s Anatomy , there’s a scene that captures something important about leadership. Dr. Cristina Yang,...

Why slowing down, asking better questions, and being present still changes everything. In leadership, we often talk about communication,...

You’ve felt it before, that moment where everything in you wants to speak up, but something holds you back. Maybe it’s fear of conflict,...

“Studying the impact of the natural world on the brain is actually a scandalous ly new i dea.”— Richard Louv, author of  Last Child in the Woods It should have been studied 30-50 years ago. So why now? Perhaps because we are losing our connection to nature more dramatically than ever. Thanks to a confluence of technology, modern lifestyles, and shifting demographics, we’ve moved further away from the natural world than any generation before us. In 2008, for the first time in

Good leaders never stop learning. Great leaders, the kind who leave a positive lasting impact not just on organizations, but on people’s...

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 silen

A much-discussed and often worn-out topic, and yet, one that holds an awe-worthy brilliance in how its deep complexity can, surprisingly, be understood and explained. Is there anyone among us who hasn’t wondered how to be more happy ? At some point, we’ve all searched and found overwhelming doses of advice, theories, and websites telling us how to “get it.” From the meaning of life to hormone-boosting tricks, we’re told how to manufacture happiness, joy, and pride. And yet, t

Thriving and happiness are often used synonymously, but positive psychology distinguishes them in meaningful ways. Ha ppin ess is typically understood as a fleeting emotional state, moments of joy, pleasure, or satisfaction. Thriving , on the other hand, is a deeper and more sustainable state of well-being. It encompasses not just positive emotions but also a sense of purpose, engagement, and growth. Psychologists like Martin Seligman, a pioneer of positive psychology, descr