Lessons from outdoor challenges

It is so easy to intellectualize about leadership, risk taking, and team communication when you are safely in an air-conditioned training room. So I decided to lead leadership retreats at the world-famous resort, Miraval, to integrate their outdoor challenges into my curriculum. When you are focused on the activity, your primal brain takes over. There’s … Read more

“POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd” makes you outstanding in business

My friend, bestselling author Sam Horn has a new book out, POP!: Stand Out in Any Crowd. There are many great techniques in the book you can apply to make your ideas, proposals — and yourself — to get acceptance. Over brunch a few days ago (where we serendipitously were served POPovers), she shared some … Read more

Who’s accountable for personal improvement?

Sounds like a dumb question, doesn’t it? Of course, it is the individual who is responsible and accountable for improving their skills. But I’ve found it is not often seen that way. Recently, a corporate group I’ve been telecoaching has not been showing up for their monthly calls. There have been reasons, some valid, some … Read more

As a leader, you’re never “off stage”

I know this may sound like common sense, but even the best of us forget it. Or we forget to teach our mentees this lesson. I was serving on a Board of Directors and was one of three Board members running for President, elected by fellow Board members, not the membership at large. In the … Read more

Are you a good model?

Once I used an assessment as part of a training program I conducted for a client’s managers. Everyone really liked the assessment and the insights gleaned from it. The owner of the company told me he’d like to use the assessment on everyone in his company. “Great” I replied, “I can work up a quantity … Read more

Do you know the three key people responsible for effective training?

You’ve decided your staff needs training. You know it will cost you some money, even with an internal trainer. So how do you make sure the training has the biggest ROI possible? There are three key people responsible for making the training a success. Unfortunately, most people only think of one — the trainer. If … Read more