Yup, this sucks.

COVID-19 is highly dangerous, highly contagious and spreading exponentially across the globe. The stock market has plummeted. Plans are delayed. Events are cancelled, travel is over and most of us are working from home while trying to entertain bored children. The world is rife with complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. And no one knows when it will end.

It seems none of us are in control of our lives at the moment.

So the way I see it, we have two choices:

a.) A nightly wine-soaked Netflix binge.

or...

b.) We can get up and get going.

Just what are we supposed to get up and get going at, you ask?

Well, first, your job. But then, how about your tax return? Or cleaning out that out of control junk drawer(s)? Or organizing your closets? Or painting that thing that needs p...

For the past two weeks, I’ve been writing about astronaut Jim Lovell’s astounding courage and ability to overcome failure. These are exceptional qualities indeed, but I think the real reason he’s my hero is his capacity for wonder.

In the sixties, winning the space race was very serious business critical to not only national moral, but also national security. It was a dangerous business too as most of what NASA was attempting had never been attempted before. Imagine being one of the first people to enter outer space, venture out for a spacewalk, leave earth’s orbit or see the back side of the moon. All of the astronauts in the Apollo program were well aware of the importance and danger of what they were doing and were rather stoically focused on completing their tasks and getting home safel...

Last week, we talked about my hero, Jim Lovell and the astonishing courage he and his fellow crew members displayed during the Apollo 8 mission when they became the first humans to escape earth’s orbit.

But what most people don’t know, is that during that mission, Jim made a mistake. A big one. A potentially fatal one, in fact.

It happened on the journey back to earth. While physically and mentally exhausted, Jim entered the wrong command into the onboard computer. As a result, the spacecraft thought it was back on the launch pad; so it flipped from its proper nose forward attitude, to a nose up one, as if waiting to blast off. And each time Jim tried to force it back into the correct nose-forward attitude, it just popped back up.

Not good.

Ultimately, Jim was able to reorient the spacecraft b...

In my last post, I wrote about courage. This week, I’d like to take that up a notch by telling you about my hero, Jim Lovell. In this post, we'll learn about his incredible courage. Next week, we'll talk about his ability to overcome failure. And the week after that, we’ll learn about his capacity for wonder.

Jim Lovell is best known for being the Commander of the “successful failure” that was Apollo 13 (and for subsequently becoming a member of the “Tom Hanks played me in a movie” club). Apollo 13 was indeed an astounding feat, but ultimately, it wasn’t nearly as important as one of Jim's earlier missions, Apollo 8. And that’s because up until that time, though nearly two dozen people had been to space, no human had ever left earth’s orbit....

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues,

because it allows us to practice the others with integrity."

- Maya Angelou

Last week, my friend moved her 92-year-old mother into a seniors home. This was, as you can imagine, a huge moment for the entire family. The day after the move, my friend showed me a picture of her mother sitting on a sofa in her new room. Mom was wearing a red sweater and sat with a nice straight back, smiling gamely for the camera. She’s a pretty woman. But her most defining characteristic in that moment was the look of quiet determination on her face.

And I thought, what a lovely gift my friend’s mom has been given – the opportunity to be brave, even at this time in her life.

And she took it.

Somewhat traumatized by the move, my friend and her sister visited their m...

In the coaching business, when someone says they’re stuck, we consider it to be excellent news. Suddenly, that person doesn’t have all the answers. There’s an opening. They’re ready to consider new possibilities and new ways of being.

Through my work as a leadership coach and trainer and my interviews during The Unstuck Project, I’ve talked to hundreds of people about their experiences with being stuck and getting unstuck and here’s what I know for sure:

Stuck is pervasive – everyone gets stuck from time to time

Stuck is personal – what feels stuck to you, might not feel stuck to me

Stuck is perplexing – we often don’t know how or why we got stuck.

And, if left unaddressed, stuckness can leave us feeling disconnected, disillusioned, extremely frustrated and at worst, depressed. Rather than thri...

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A great leadership book is a small miracle. By the end of it, you not only see the world differently, but you also see yourself differently. And as a result, you're better able to create meaningful change both at work, and in your life.

Here are the five leadership books that have influenced me the most, both as a coach and as a person who runs her own business. Without them, I can honestly say I’d not only be a different person, but also not nearly so good at what I do.

I hope you’ll give them a look.

Book 1: The Fifth Discipline - The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization 

by Peter Senge

Written in 1990, just one year after the world wide web was invented, and several years before anyone really knew what it was or what it could do, Senge was seemingly able to predict the world of c...

2020 may be the coolest sounding year since 2000, but let’s face it, it’s likely to be a challenging one. What's in store? Only the most contentious US election in history, the realization of Brexit, massive uncontrolled wildfires, and millions struggling to save their democracies, not to mention accelerating climate change, growing nationalist sentiments and the ever-looming possibility of a global economic turndown.

Most of my clients have identified their growing dissatisfaction with the way the world is going as a major source of anxiety in their lives. We feel small. We feel insignificant. And the problems seem so big. Is there anything that a small, insignificant person can do to solve them?

The answer is no.

But luckily, you are not small and insignificant. You’re big and importan...

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