We tend to read burnout as a matter of too much. Often it is a matter of fit: a mismatch between how we are wired and what our work asks of us, day after day. Two kinds of misfit are worth separating. Values misalignment says: I don't believe in what we're doing. Strengths misalignment says: I believe in it, but I spend my days working against my grain. The first is well researched. The second is rarely named. It is also coachable. That starts with keeping our strengths in vi

Like athletic coaching, executive coaching is not remedial work. Athletes don't hire a coach because they don't know how to run. They hire a coach because they're already fast, and they want to find out what's possible beyond that. My clients usually want to become better at something they already care deeply about. They are already capable, accomplished, and respected. They may have built organizations, led teams through uncertainty, created meaningful growth and change, or

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

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

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 spent

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

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

Imposter syndrome is the persistent feeling of self-doubt and inadequacy despite evident success. It convinces us that we are frauds,...

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

When was the last time someone truly listened to you, not to fix, judge, or offer an opinion, but simply to witness you, with openness and without expectation? Many of us go through life feeling unheard, constantly adapting to meet the expectations of others or to navigate the demands placed on us. A coach offers something rare, an opportunity to be fully seen and heard, with empathy and without judgment. In that space, you’re guided to safely explore your unique thought patt