Business owners and managers know they’re supposed to set challenging goals to motivate themselves and their teams. Most often, business goals prioritize sales targets, profit margins, and productivity. And as a business […]
Leadership
Is What You’re Doing Telling, Teaching, or Training?
Lots of folks say they love “teaching,” but, in reality, they love telling. That’s mostly because they love the attention and praise that comes from telling. Telling, teaching, and training are three […]
4 Ways to Lead in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous (VUCA) World
Considering the last two years of COVID, George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement, the capitol riots, and now the war in Ukraine — it’s clear that we live in […]
Become a Stronger Leader by Embracing Your Contradictions
A few years ago, I commissioned a painting from a member of our community, Cristina Kramp. In the painting, a woman is basking in the light of the sun, her face tipped back […]
Belonging Not Burnout
Belonging and meaning are at the core of heart-based leadership. But I never saw clearly how belonging could directly help fight burnout, until we offered a workshop on scaling back from burnout […]
Empower Your Team (and Yourself) by Asking for Help
Ever since I was a child, I’ve put the needs of others before my own. I’m a Type Two on the Enneagram — the Helper — and I’ve always been highly sensitive […]
Thinking Abundantly: Who and What Are Already Available?
“What if everything you need is already available?” This is a message we kept posted on a shared whiteboard in our kitchen downstairs for the last few months. It was meant to […]
Taking Off the Earmuffs of Comparisonitis
I consider myself an excellent listener, but there’s one area in my life where I have a hard time hearing what others say — and a few months ago, a friend put […]
We Are All Leaders
Our culture tends to define leadership narrowly. The word itself conjures a certain series of traits: bold, decisive, action-oriented, charismatic. It brings to mind a specific type of person. A person that […]
How to Improve Employee Experience by Using Your “i’s”
Gone are the days where you can treat your employees like replaceable cogs that don’t have other options. Let me rephrase: Gone are the days where there are no visible consequences for […]
3 Ways to Deal with Your Crisco Watermelons
Most collaborative projects start out simple enough but somehow can end up getting slipperier and more chaotic as time goes on. Here are 3 things that you can keep in mind when […]
4 Statements Leaders Need to Be Saying More Often
A client of mine is going through a catalytic shift in her career where she’s bringing on someone to manage her current business while she’s moving on to manage someone else’s business. […]
Launch Your New Career: Leading Turnarounds and How It Shaped My Career
Leading through a turnaround or big mess scenario creates springboards for your career. In today’s atomic essay, I share the two most significant big mess scenarios that shaped my career. In The […]
3 Ways to Pay off Dunkirk Spirit Debt
Dunkirk Spirit is the extraordinary effort that teams have to muster to accomplish strategic imperatives while overcoming the effects of poor planning, coordination, communication, or unforeseen developments that require an urgent response. […]
Making Space to Let the Truth Come Out
Oftentimes, it’s only after space is made for the truth to come out that we can find the clarity and support we need. Recently, one of my favorite clients and humans felt […]
A Push to Get Clearer About Your Pull Factors
All too often, we decide to do things based on push factors, but it’s our pull factors that keep us going when the new devils who accompany the new levels show up. […]
Is Your Leadership Posture Working for You and Your Team?
This morning, I texted Cory the following: Remember to have fun today, bro. Especially during the dress rehearsal. We’ve got four-five months of ready-aim-fire-aim-fire in front of us and your first of […]
How to Improve Team Productivity with the Weekly Cadence
I wrote recently about how we were shifting our operations here at PF, and another concept we’ve been implementing lately is the weekly cadence. This is something Charlie’s been doing implicitly for […]