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  • Dominoes being stopped from falling by an extended hand.

Three Essential (and Overlooked) Skills for Crisis Leaders

By |2023-08-24T01:23:45+00:00August 24th, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership|

BOOM! It’s the moment when everything goes sideways. The crash. The shot. The lawsuit. The technical meltdown. In that instant, time blurs. Pressure spikes. Vision narrows. The crisis is real. Based on my years of researching and working with crisis leaders, here are three underappreciated things that the best get right and the worst, well, you get it. First, is breathe to center and calm yourself. Second, don't get sucked in. Step back to get perspective. And third, create ...

The Courage for Bottom-up Change

By |2023-06-21T01:09:18+00:00June 21st, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership, Writing|

For as long as I can remember, organizational change has been cast as something that cascades from the visionary CEO to the reluctant frontline. Many of the big changes we've seen in recent years, however, have surged up from below. From #metoo to the "great reassessment" to the demands for DEI, the energy fueling change has come from workers in the trenches, not executives ensconced in the boardroom. "Leading here requires speaking — and hearing — truth to power. ...

Time for Leaders to STFU

By |2023-05-12T00:16:20+00:00May 12th, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership|

If you want people to follow you, this three step recipe will get you started: show up, step up, and shut up. Your presence is essential. So is your courage in difficult situations. Finally, listening is an underrated leader superpower. Read more on Medium.

Books for Crisis Leaders

By |2023-04-04T00:17:52+00:00April 4th, 2023|Featured Articles, Leadership, Thought Leadership|

The good folks at Shepherd Books asked me to recommend five books for crisis leaders. I love sharing some of the books I've read that have influenced my thinking and practice. I could easily have listed a dozen. I also wanted to be provocative so I skipped some of my faves in favor of a couple of unconventional choices (read the piece to find out how Braiding Sweetgrass made the list). Do you have faves on this topic? Typewriter ...