The faster change occurs around us, the more crucial it becomes to pause and reflect on who we are within it. This reflection helps us stay grounded and aligned with what’s ultimately important and where we ultimately want to go – in our organizations and in our lives. By slowing down to know ourselves better, we can handle change with greater resilience, speed and clarity.

Content is information, ideas or materials shared. Context is the circumstantial, conditional and cultural framework that influences how that content is understood. The real worth is found not in the content itself, but in the context that shapes our understanding of it. Content isn’t king. Context is.

Leaning out robs you from understanding the heart of your challenge, sentencing you to repeating it over and over again. Leaning in reveals what there really is to deal with, hard work that when addressed, forever frees you from the source of the challenge. Lean in for liberation. Leaning out will only keep you stuck.

We don’t grow by denying the hard realities that we may be facing or trying to run away from them. That likely makes them worse and leaves us victimized by their effects. We grow by the presence to acknowledge and truly own our challenges.

Supporting others through challenging times isn’t just about solving their problems. It’s about the presence to acknowledge their hardships, stand in them and face whatever is to come, together.

Developing real psychological safety doesn't mean staying in a static, comfortable bubble. It means developing the resilience and flexibility to handle more diverse and challenging scenarios. The once formidable becomes the familiar. We don’t become more psychologically safe by avoiding or denying the things that make us uncomfortable. But rather including, embracing and expanding beyond that discomfort.

Confidence is a deep self-trust. A cultivated belief that no matter what happens, we know who we are to navigate it. It gives us the internal strength to confront anything we’re presented with. Circumstantial confidence, derived from status, money, relationships or anything externally will yield a fragile, false confidence at best.

Shifting our beliefs will always out perform working more, trying harder or even learning new things because those approaches miss the place that results shift from. As you shift your beliefs, new ideas, pathways and opportunities emerge that create a meaningful, transformational and sustainable difference.

Give and take is fundamental to any human relationship over time. Without clear intentions we can be left in-tension feeling like we’re against each other, but with them we can align our greater aims to grow, together…

Sometimes it feels like we’re awash in generalities, broad-stroke strategies and sweeping statements – the noise is hard to cut through. It’s only in the nuances, the details, the specificity of our questions and answers that the difference gets made. Our results will transform in direct correlation with our willingness to dive deep, have the hard conversations, ask the tough questions, interrogate our beliefs and be rigorous in our thinking. Only within the real work of specificity can we find the alignment and clarity we need to propel ourselves forward.

I love writing, speaking and running workshops with leadership teams… but do you know what I love the most? Seeing the impact of our work. Especially engaging with people who really take it to heart and use it to create an inflection point of change in their work, relationships and lives.

Fear is winning as record numbers of people worldwide believe the future will only be worse than today. Economic uncertainty, global instability, AI disruption and rapid change everywhere we turn is leaving people feeling scared, powerless and lost. Unaddressed, it can’t help but stall our personal progress and business growth. And while moving away from those fears and toward growth might seem like a linear path leading to similar outcomes, they actually diverge towards fundamentally different places.

Travel comes with the territory in my line of work, and honestly, I love it. It's not the flights or the hotel stays that get me excited—it's the vibrant tapestry of people I meet, the genuine connections I forge, and the spark of inspiration that seems to strike in the most unexpected places. With the amount of time I spend journeying from place to place, I've developed a bit of an obsession with maintaining my health and ensuring I'm always on top of my game. So, here are a few things I don’t travel without…

In a world that relentlessly pushes the narrative of goal-setting, vision crafting, and benchmarking as the ultimate roadmap to success, there's an essential, yet often overlooked, component that distinguishes the truly successful from those perpetually chasing their tails. Yes, having goals and objectives is crucial—they give us direction and make our aspirations tangible. However, there’s a nuanced layer beneath the surface that can significantly influence our ability to build and achieve these goals and sustain high levels of performance over time.

At a time when AI converses with us like friends, augmented reality changes how we see the world around us and computer-generated content blurs the line between fiction and reality, what can be trusted? The very senses we rely on to interpret and navigate our surroundings are under siege by technologies that can mimic, manipulate, and manufacture realities seemingly indistinguishable from the truth. We need to understand what’s real in our work and our lives to be able to take the right actions.

Reasons may be valid. But they don’t have to be an excuse for why we don’t have the results we want. Of course there are always reasons why things are the way they are, but it’s actually not the reasons that matter alone. It’s our response to them. Only once we take the wheel back from circumstances driving us can we steer towards our real goals.

We’ve all struggled, but that capacity to struggle can be the defining factor of success and growth. Typically, we often opt for the easy route. Asking easy questions that usually yield comfortable, but superficial and impact-less answers. It turns out, that it’s the deeper, harder, more challenging questions – and our response to the struggle they entail – that truly catalyzes growth and learning. Up to 450% improvements in one case…

I’m asked after nearly every keynote what books I recommend. And there are many. Different people in different situations I recommend different books. But here are the top 9 books that have made a huge difference for me in my life and business through it all. And, I bet they’ll have a positive impact on you, too. Check them out here and let me know what you think. In no particular order…

There are magical rubber duckies. You heard me right – they’re little yellow rubber duckies that have continued to magically show up – in the hundreds in every shape and size you could imagine – around my nieces. Big yellow ones, small pink ones, halloween ducks, and New Year ducks, ducks with mohawks and ducks dressed as other animals…

Imagine that within each of us lies an innate force, a compelling essence that naturally pulls us to ascend to great heights and the best versions of ourselves. What would that be like?It might sound like a philosophical dream, but it’s more reality than we often realize.