The Power of Mental Models: Coaching Clients to See New Possibilities
The Power of Mental Models: Coaching Clients to See New Possibilities If you’ve coached long enough, you’ve seen it: a high-performing client, capable and respected, sitting across from you, stuck in a belief they’ve never questioned. “I’ve always been this way.”“This is just how I operate.”“That’s not really in my DNA.” In many cases, the […]
Your Coaching Climate: Let’s Improve It
Why Your Organization’s Growth Depends on the Conversations You Normalize Every leader wants better outcomes. Higher engagement. Better retention. Stronger performance. More innovation. But here’s a truth that often gets overlooked: outcomes are the trailing indicator of conversations. If the conversations happening in your organization are unclear, inconsistent, surface-level, or overly directive, then performance, trust, […]
Staying Out of the ICU: Intensive Conversations Unit
Why Avoiding Tough Conversations Puts Your Leadership—and Your People—at Risk Every coach, leader, and manager knows this moment. You see something going wrong. A performance slip. A brewing conflict. A teammate disengaging. Maybe it’s tension in a relationship, lack of follow-through, or a values misalignment. You sense it, but you hesitate. You tell yourself it’ll […]
Coaching in Uncertainty: How to Help Clients Navigate Change, Ambiguity, and Stress
If you coach leaders today, there is one common thread running through nearly every conversation: uncertainty. Restructuring, AI disruption, shifting economies, evolving customer demands, and the relentless pace of change have created an environment where ambiguity is not the exception—it’s the norm. This environment tests leaders in ways traditional management never prepared them for. As […]
Emotional Intelligence: A Quick Overview
Emotional Intelligence: A Deep Dive Into the Most Valuable Leadership Skill If you’ve worked in leadership for any length of time, you’ve likely heard the phrase “Emotional Intelligence is more important than IQ.” But here’s the truth: That statement isn’t just a catchy phrase—it’s a neuroscience-backed reality. In fact, the higher up someone rises in […]
Change Barriers: What Are They and How to Avoid Them
Understanding how the brain responds to change (what we call Change Barriers) is one of the most important tools a coach or leader can have. You’ve seen it before. A leader walks out of a workshop fired up about new strategies. A team leaves a coaching session with clear goals and fresh motivation. But a […]
Harnessing the Brain’s Reward Pathways: Positive Reinforcement in Coaching
Jason lit up when we talked about the team win. Not because it meant hitting quota. Not even because of the recognition he received from leadership. It was the look on his team’s faces—the pride, the momentum, the belief that they could do it again. “You know what’s weird?” he said. “I didn’t think I […]
From Awareness to Action: Using Mindfulness to Enhance Coaching Outcomes
Carla always came to our sessions prepared. Bullet points. Status updates. Action items. On paper, she was crushing it. But under the surface, something wasn’t landing. She was moving fast, executing well, but repeating the same leadership patterns that were burning her out, holding her team back, and giving her the same coaching outcomes. Halfway […]
NeuroAnchoring in Coaching: How to Create Lasting Behavioral Change
It was a Wednesday morning in Chicago, in a quiet suburban office just off the highway. I had flown in the night before, grabbed a protein bar from the hotel lobby, and walked into a training room where 50 seasoned leaders sat in folding chairs with their arms crossed and their skepticism fully activated, and […]
Building Cognitive Resilience: Coaching Techniques to Strengthen Mental Toughness
Lena was one of those leaders everyone admired—sharp, empathetic, steady under pressure. But in our third coaching session, something cracked. Her voice lowered. Her eyes darted. “I’m exhausted. I’m second-guessing myself. I don’t feel like I can keep this up.” She hadn’t lost her skillset. She’d lost her resilience. And she’s not alone. In today’s […]
