Expectations are the ultimate killer. And they get you in all different ways, especially when you set them yourself, and you don't even know they’re the culprit.  You could lose 45 pounds and still feel like you’ve failed yourself by not losing a full 50 pounds. It...

If you’re one of the 34% of Americans who make a resolution or set a goal for the new year, and if you’re struggling to stick to what you set out to do on the first of the month, you’re not alone. An estimated 80% of people lose their resolve by mid-February.  We...

When I’m working with a dysfunctional organization, more often than not, the core issue has to do with multiple breakdowns in communication that derail teams, erode trust, and poison morale.  To address the problem effectively, I help teams identify and examine the...

This time of year can really be the pits. There’s so much pressure to look and act like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. So many of us overcompensate and experience a ton of unnecessary stress just trying to hold it together.  Sure, plenty of us experience...

If you’re like most of us, you’re in the midst of a dead sprint into the holiday season, juggling professional commitments with personal obligations — and feeling like you’ve somehow been conscripted into a three-ring circus. With the holidays just around the corner,...

Fear is a universal human experience. We all experience it, in different ways and to different degrees. But we have one thing in common: Everything boils down to our default reptilian mode of survival. Our fight, flight, and freeze instincts are always ready to...

Earlier this year, I had a conversation with a woman in southern Oregon that really got my wheels turning around fear, success, failure, and what the heck we do with it all. We talked about how there’s a significant difference between having a negative experience and...

Earlier this month, I challenged you to see your organization in a new light with vertical coaching. And then I made the case for how vertical coaching can foster understanding, build trust, and inspire contributions — for an organization everyone is proud of.  You...

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a friend of mine (we’ll call him Bart). He made a bold claim: he said that the questionable morals of some wealthy people are justified because, in Bart’s view, that’s what it takes to become wealthy. The ends justify the...

If you’ve been around my work for a while, you might have heard me talk about vertical coaching (I reference it in this recent blog post). It grew out of my work with law enforcement and their hierarchy of rank and came from one of the chief deputies I’ve worked with...