When I talk about annual reviews, I talk about how we create and foster a culture that makes real-time feedback possible and why that matters, how being beautiful, messy humans often interferes with direct communication, how

My brother died from COVID the week of Christmas, after four weeks in ICU. (For those of you reading this who’ve also lost someone to COVID, I hope you’re finding comfort in whatever form it takes for you.) When he was first hospitalized,

One of my favorite activities to do with teams starts by handing out a list of values (trust, respect, humor, autonomy, etc.) Each participant 1) circles the four that are most important to them 2) next to each value, writes the emotion they

In 2016, I visited friends currently living abroad in The Netherlands. One day we drove from their home to a market in Rotterdam. I was blown away by the traffic — tons of cyclists, pedestrians, buses, and cars everywhere you looked!

I adopted a co-worker named MoMo. He spends his days playing with his toys, slowly pulling at the threads of my beautiful rug... as much art as a cozy place to cradle your feet. This morning I laid down with scissors, cutting back fluff

This is Chamel. She was a reservations agent at Wyndham when I was there, years ago. Every leader wanted to take her under their wing. She came to us for advice so we started giving her tips — mainly how to present herself differently in

June 1 kicks off Pride Month here in the US; honoring the Stonewall Riots, a 6-day violent clash with police in June, 1969 in NYC. The queer community, fed up with endless police brutality and discrimination, finally fought back during a raid at the Stonewall Inn

My mom is in her early 70’s. She lives across the country, in Maine, where I grew up. She walks with a cane, diagnosed with MS when I was 19. This morning as I sat drinking coffee and reading the news, she texted to let me know that

I watched his car approach on my app. His headlights appeared down the street and I waved my illuminated phone in his direction. “How’s your day going so far?” he asked, as he heaved my giant bag into the trunk. “Good!” I said, “It’s so early though!”

It's Monday... across the globe many new hires are experiencing their first day at companies, battling Imposter Syndrome, and wondering if they made a good choice accepting their new roles. As Talent Development leaders, we

Years ago, I was talking with a friend about desperately needing to resign. I was on a super dysfunctional team that was eating at my well being a little more each day. I had an upcoming business trip to Italy a month later though

I was recently debriefing some 360 feedback with a client, who’s relatively new to leading others. One of the concerns that surfaced through this process was their struggle to listen well and make people feel heard.

If we’re ever going to change the face of leadership in our companies, we have to rethink the way we assign and/or offer development opportunities. Many organizations align these experiences based solely on an employee’s level or title.

Five years ago today was a Thursday. I got up that morning, packed a couple of things for a long weekend in San Francisco and headed to work, like any other day.

Sharing a consistently observed leadership challenge from 2019 as many of us begin drafting our 2020 business goals. Productivity is lost when teams cannot easily identify the ultimate decision maker for their body of work.

Just before a recent trip to Italy, I touched base with one of my executives. “This feels like the worst time to head out,” I told her. “We’re deep in OP1, preparing for that big meeting on the 17th. I’m really sorry.” She was, as expected, gracious and supportive.

I recently flew down to Silicon Valley to spend the day with some of my internal customers. At the end of the first activity, we debriefed as a group. One of the first volunteers to share was a woman sitting at a table towards the back of the room.

Years ago, as I sat talking to a senior leader I barely knew, he mentioned an email he’d recently sent to his team. A few weeks before our conversation, he’d strongly disagreed with a decision that one of his employees had made and didn’t hesitate in letting him know,

Last week I got to travel to Spain for Amazon. I was part of a team debriefing 360 feedback reports with senior managers participating in an international leadership program. I count this type of work in the top five things I love to do professionally.

“I know we don’t do emotions much here, but I’m going to ask you to go there for a minute,” I said. The leaders around the table looked up from their phones and laptops, their faces reflecting equal parts skepticism and amusement.