Skip to content

Managing Your Own Change and Transformation Psychology

Managing Your Own Change and Transformation Psychology Leaders Experience the Same Psychological Transitions They’re Asking Others to Navigate, But They’re Expected to Hide It: How to Process Your Own Grief, Uncertainty, and Competence Threats While Supporting Others Through the Same Experiences The Hidden Burden of Leading Change When leaders announce organizational change and transformation, they’re expected to project confidence, provide direction, and support others through uncertainty. What’s rarely acknowledged is that leaders are simultaneously navigating their own psychological transition. They…

Leading With Measured Vulnerability

Leading With Measured Vulnerability The Specific Types of Vulnerability That Build Trust Versus Those That Undermine Confidence, How Leaders Share Uncertainty Without Creating Anxiety, and the Art of Modeling Learning Without Appearing Incompetent The Vulnerability Paradox in Leadership Leadership literature increasingly celebrates vulnerability. Brene Brown’s research has made “vulnerability as strength” nearly conventional wisdom. Leaders are encouraged to admit mistakes, share struggles, and reveal their authentic selves. The underlying premise is sound: vulnerability builds trust, creates psychological safety, and models…

The Transformation Plateau: Why Change Stalls in the Messy Middle

The Transformation Plateau: Why Change Stalls in the Messy Middle Issue 241, December 4, 2025 The early enthusiasm everyone on the team had was palpable. Six months ago, leaders announced a sweeping digital transformation initiative with all the fanfare that major change initiatives deserve. The town hall was packed, Slack channels were full of employee chatter, and everyone seemed optimistic. Executives spoke passionately about the future and the problems being solved. Early adopters volunteered eagerly for pilot programs. The organization’s…

Ideas and Innovations Thanksgiving Week Sampler 2025 – A Season of Reflection and Gratitude

Ideas and Innovations Thanksgiving Week Sampler 2025 A Season of Reflection and Gratitude Issue 240, November 27, 2025 As we gather around tables this Thanksgiving week, we pause to recognize what truly matters in our organizations and our lives. The season of gratitude invites us to reflect on the connections we’ve built, the communities we’ve fostered, and the shared purposes that bind us together. This week, rather than exploring a single topic, we’re offering a curated sampler of seven Ideas…

From Boss to Coach: A Strategy for Executive Burnout

From Boss to Coach: A Strategy for Executive Burnout Issue 229, September 11, 2025 As we kick off the Fall 2025 sports season, it’s an opportune moment to examine a fundamental shift that can help lighten leaders’ burnout: pivoting from boss to coach. Successful athletic coaches don’t play every position themselves – instead, they develop each player’s individual skills to strengthen the team overall. Similarly, leaders can’t know everything, but they can empower others to contribute their expertise to collective…

How Human Emotion, Identity, and History Shape Decisions

How Human Emotion, Identity, and History Shape Decisions Issue 224, August 7, 2025 It is human emotion, identity and history that shape our culture and inform our decisions. So, here’s a question that should keep every leader awake at night: In an era where data-driven decision-making and AI-powered analytics lead strategy, why do so many consequential business choices still get made in conference rooms based on gut feelings, unspoken fears, and organizational memories? There appears to be an ongoing debate…

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…

The Costs of Driving Efficiency

The Costs of Driving Efficiency Organizational Transformations We Live Through But Don’t Notice Issue 221, July 17, 2025 What is the cost of driving efficiency? In the process of ensuring the sustainable profitability of an organization, the business model becomes subtly reshaped. It may not be obvious at the time, but short-term financial and structural decisions in the interests of long-term success remold the workforce, the organizational culture, and can trigger larger socio-cultural trends. Rewriting History Historically, organizations seek to…

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…

Signal vs. Noise: A Mid-Year Framework for Navigating Transformation in the Age of Overload

Signal vs. Noise: A Mid-Year Framework for Navigating Transformation in the Age of Overload A Summer Solstice Pause for Strategic Clarity Issue 218, June 26, 2025 With a continuous barrage of public opinion about the pros and cons of new strategies, tactics, and tools, we’re taking a Summer Solstice-inspired, mid-year pause to curate three important signals organizations should consider in being ready and prepared for transformation. Because like it or not, transformation is not nice, it’s messy and it’s stressful…

Back To Top