Your brain’s first instinct is to mistrust your strengths . CliftonStrengths matters precisely because it gives that suspicious brain something concrete to work with, so you can move from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What’s available in me?” in a way that’s grounded in research, not wishful thinking . ​ From “what’s wrong?” to “what’s strong?” CliftonStrengths grew out of a deceptively simple but radical move in psychology: instead of only cataloguing problems, Don Clifton sp

There’s a moment many seasoned leaders quietly 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, m

Conflict can be creative. There is no creativity without tension. Constraints matter. Yes, there’s risk. But if your team looks to you for facilitating their collective creativity, the sooner you can learn to appreciate conflict, the better. When I say to be “good with conflict ,” I don’t mean being aggressive or initiating conflict. I mean that when it arises, and we know it inevitably does, we can meet it with calm, curiosity, and a gentle detachment from our own stance, an

Some of us are wired for harmony. Wait, all of us are. From an evolutionary standpoint, our brains are wired for connection and for minimizing social threat. Harmony can be external, when the people and systems around us are in sync, or internal, when our thoughts, values, and actions feel aligned. Both create serenity and flow. But harmony left unchecked can slip into avoidance. Not because we’re weak, but because as humans we associate tension with danger. Our nervous sys