Coach Insights
The Terrible Power of Anxiety
When my husband and I were engaged, we got into a car accident on the way home from seeing a movie. A blizzard had started up while we were at the theater. It was clear when we got there, an icy mess when we left. Josh lost control of his car on the ice-filmed road…
Read MoreLeading Yourself – Part 3: Rejuvenation
(This is the third of three posts on Leading Yourself. If you haven’t already, you may want to read Part 1 and Part 2.) Let me share another lesson about Leading Yourself that I learned in the the last decade. I had been living at point C for about three months, knowing that it would…
Read MoreLeading Yourself – Part 2: The Signs and Symptoms of Living at C for too long
In my last post I shared how my misplaced beliefs drove me to live at point C for so long that it pushed me over the edge to a Red-X moment (where life falls apart). If only I had enough courage, wisdom, and experience to pay attention to all the warning signs that were telling…
Read MoreLeading Yourself – Part 1: What’s Underneath?
If you recall the topic of Leading Yourself (Chapter 11), we touch on some key points around needing margin in your life, having a governor or dashboard to help you stay at a healthy level of activity, the Red X, how to say no (or at least not say yes immediately), and looking back on…
Read MoreDiversity in West Michigan Part 3
This is the third of a three-part posting I’m doing on diversity in West Michigan. First let me say that I am no expert on diversity. However I am very interested in it and feel it is an important issue to explore if our community is to be among the best in the country. As…
Read MoreDiversity in West Michigan Part 2
Last month I started sharing my long-time thoughts on diversity. Today and next week I want to continue sharing my thoughts about what I believe is an important topic if West Michigan is to become the Silicon Valley of leadership. As I mentioned in my first posting on this topic, I’ve wrestled deeply for fifty…
Read MoreJust Say the Word
In July of 2013 I learned that the organization I worked for was restructuring and that my position was one of several that would be eliminated at the end of the year. I was blindsided by this and completely devastated. I loved my work and believed I’d been doing it well. My mind was all…
Read MoreDiversity in West Michigan
I have a client who has become a fast-friend over the past two years since he’s lived in West Michigan. He really likes what we are doing at Leading by DESIGN and agrees with us that West Michigan could be the hotbed of great leadership in the country. It’s really good to have this affirmation…
Read MoreLooking Back and Forward—A New Year Ahead
It’s that time of year again. The start of a new year, right on the heels of the closing of last year. I once heard someone say that looking back is a good thing, but probably only in the same ratio that the rear view mirror takes up in your field of vision when driving.…
Read MoreAn Unfair Advantage, Part 1
(This post was first published here on May 22, 2017.) Over my twenty-five years of studying great leaders, I’ve come to believe that some leaders, maybe only ten to twenty percent, have an unfair advantage when they compete against other leaders. This unfair advantage isn’t really unfair because any leader can do the things that I’m…
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