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Professional Identity Crisis: When Expertise Becomes Obsolete

Professional Identity Crisis: When Expertise Becomes Obsolete Why your most valuable employees may become your biggest transformation obstacles—and how to turn expertise into an advantage Assess Your Transformation Readiness The Paradox of Expertise in Transformation The employees you rely on most—your experts, your go-to problem solvers, your institutional knowledge keepers—are often the ones most psychologically threatened by transformation. Not because they oppose progress, but because change threatens the very expertise that defines their professional identity. When someone’s sense of self…

Invisible Friction Is Slowing Your Strategy

Invisible Friction Is Slowing Your Strategy Issue 231, September 25, 2025 Earlier this year, the new CEO of a high-tech organization rushed to get an AI tool that promised to revolutionize customer onboarding into production. She was recognized as a “hot shot” talent who had staked her reputation on being a visionary and early mover. She was always several steps ahead of everyone else. She was also very persuasive and had convinced the board to invest in the tool, but…

Institutional Knowledge vs. Innovation: Resolving the Identity Crisis

Institutional Knowledge vs. Innovation: Resolving the Identity Crisis Why your most experienced employees become transformation obstacles and how to honor expertise while driving change The Institutional Knowledge Paradox Your most valuable employees—the ones with the deepest institutional knowledge—often become your greatest transformation obstacles. Not because they’re stubborn, but because change threatens their professional identity. Sarah has worked in accounts payable for 15 years. She knows every vendor quirk, every approval exception, and every workaround that keeps payments flowing smoothly. When…

The Positive Resistance Trap: When Helpful Employees Sabotage Change

The Positive Resistance Trap: When Helpful Employees Sabotage Change Why your most helpful employees unintentionally sabotage transformation and how to channel good intentions into transformation success The Positive Resistance Trap Your most helpful, well-intentioned employees will sabotage your transformation—not maliciously, but because they’re trying to protect the organization from what they perceive as risk. This “helpful resistance” is harder to identify and address than outright opposition because it comes from good intentions. Maria is your best team player. She always…

Coaching Across Generations: Why One Size Never Fits All

Coaching Across Generations: Why One Size Never Fits All Issue 230, September 18, 2025 Over the past two weeks, we have focused on executive burnout, exploring why, in today’s complex business environment, executives are considering alternatives to management strategies to regain mental equilibrium. Leaders are also innovating ways to manage a workforce to reduce the mental drain of today’s management pressures. We conclude this three-part series with an exploration of how to coach a multi-generational workforce. As always, the human…

The Mental Overload of Modern Leadership: Why Today’s Executives Are Burning Out Differently

The Mental Overload of Modern Leadership: Why Today’s Executives Are Burning Out Differently Issue 228, September 4, 2025 Productivity solutions are creating productivity problems. Consultants preach “work-life balance,” and executives install meditation apps and block calendar time for “strategic thinking.” Relaxation tactics aside, many successful leaders are quietly admitting something ominous: They’ve never worked longer hours, and they’ve never felt more cognitively exhausted. A 2025 HR Dive survey found that 70% of C-suite executives are considering leaving their roles to…

Resisting the Escalation Trap

Resisting the Escalation Trap Separating Smart Persistence from Stubborn Commitment Issue 223, July 31, 2025 How do you balance what you think your customers need versus what they want? Let’s say you are ahead of the trend curve in your industry, and are launching an event that is so forward-thinking that it challenges current status quo thinking. Here’s a real-life example. In the past, a marketing director produced an event for CFOs on sustainability initiatives and cost-savings and how they…

How Drift Can Derail an Organization

How Drift Can Derail an Organization The Dangers of Complacency and Insular Thinking Issue 222, July 24, 2025 Could your organization be the next Blockbuster? Imagine this familiar scenario: You are drifting downstream, gently course correcting to avoid the random log or rock, enjoying the scenery and lulled into becoming a passenger, not a steward or captain. There is something so tempting about letting go as the current moves you forward, and you enjoy the ride. You have a goal…

Why Doing the Right Thing Is So Hard

Why Doing the Right Thing Is So Hard Issue 220, July 10, 2025 Imagine that you live and work in a surveillance state—a place where things just happen with no explanation, people show up and disappear, everyone is being watched, everything is being reported, and no one can be trusted. Surveillance disintegrates trust, making people anxious, paranoid, and mistrustful. It creates a climate where fear overrides integrity and self-preservation stifles action. In Hamlet, Denmark was such a surveillance state, and…

True Loyalty: The Best Last Experience Is Your Next Minimum Expectation

True Loyalty: The Best Last Experience Is Your Next Minimum Expectation How Does an Organization Create True Customer Loyalty? Issue 219, July 3, 2025 Sam Walton said, “Your best last experience is your next minimum expectation.” In 2025, these words of wisdom have become a double-edged sword as the greatest opportunity and biggest threat to customer loyalty. Based on Walmart’s longevity and performance, his motto seems to be proving out in the retail marketplace. But Walton’s business philosophy works both…

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