4 Leadership Lessons to Get You Through Q1
I’ve said my New Year’s resolution is to answer a bigger call, and I meant it. The problem is that Q1 doesn’t politely make space for transformation. It shows up with pressure, deadlines, and an endless list of reasons to default to old habits. So if I’m serious about answering a bigger call this year, I can’t rely on motivation. I need lessons […]
Jessica Kriegel – The Today Show – What Happened To Happy Hour
Choosing to be a World Champion at Life
Yesterday we hosted our first ever Surrender to Lead Summit, and what struck me most was how quickly the conversation moved past aspiration and into responsibility. My highlight take away was about judgment, specifically the kind required when pressure is high, visibility is real, and the consequences of poor decisions do not show up all at once. That theme came into […]
My New Year’s Resolution Is to Answer a Bigger Call
Last year, my New Year’s resolution was simple. I wanted to raise the stakes. I wanted to stretch myself, take bigger risks, and stop playing at the edges of my own potential. I wanted to feel like I was making the most of the time I have and the work I am doing. And I […]
2026 Is the Year of Playing Offense
As organizations look toward 2026, many leaders are asking what it will take to play offense in an increasingly uneven environment. The answer shows up less in new strategies or harder pushes and more in the belief systems shaping daily behavior. Teams that sustain momentum are led by people willing to examine and release fear-based assumptions that […]
Drive Results – With or Without Committees
My newsletter on culture committees back in November stirred up more reaction and a healthy discussion than anything I have written in months. People spoke up from every corner of the organization chart. Some agreed that culture committees had reached their limit. Others argued that committees had changed their company for the better. The discussion itself said something important. Culture work is […]
SHRM Is Forcing a Reckoning in HR
Last week Business Insider ran a hit piece on SHRM, and they got it all wrong. The reaction to SHRM says more about the state of HR than anything SHRM actually did. People are outraged, stunned, and disappointed, and that response exposes tension that has been building for years. SHRM is changing the way it operates, and a lot of […]
Predictions For 2026
It’s that time of year again. Time to look into our crystal ball and figure out what is to come. Through conversations with CEOs, research and client work, we’re beginning to see trends emerge that are shaping the future of work. Before we jump into predictions for 2026, a quick note on last year’s: they aged well. Not because I’m clairvoyant, but because the signals were already flashing for […]
The Leadership Cost of ‘Needing to Know’
Last week we explored the quiet ways uncertainty shapes leadership behavior and culture. There is another pattern that appears in the same conditions. Instead of moving faster or tightening pace, some leaders respond by holding more firmly to structure and control. It is a natural human tendency to want to grasp control of what feels […]
Leaders… Press Pause
I have been on vacation this week, reading Miracles of Love by Ram Dass on the beach. The ocean behind the pages made one theme stand out more clearly. He was describing moments in history when people sensed that the structures they relied on were shifting, and how unsettling that can feel. He talked about […]
The Death of the Culture Committee
For years, many organizations turned to culture committees with genuine hope. We supported them in that work because participation matters. People want to feel heard. Leaders want engagement to be more than a slogan. For a while, culture committees felt like progress. They brought people together, surfaced ideas, and signaled that culture was a priority. […]
When AI Fails, Accountability Still Belongs to Us
Last week we talked about what happens when everything goes dark. When AWS, CrowdStrike, or another global system collapses, companies rush to explain that it was out of their control. What we found then was a pattern. The more connected we become, the more blame gets outsourced. Now that same story is unfolding again, only […]