Early in my career, if I had a question, I asked it. Didn't think twice about how to phrase it, how it would be received, or whether it might upset someone. I just charged ahead, oblivious to the wreckage I was leaving behind. If something frustrated me, you knew it. My face told the whole story before my mouth even opened. I thought passion and authenticity meant wearing your heart on your sleeve and letting people know exactly how you felt in every moment. I wasn't entire

And you know what happens? When politics enters the workplace, trust exits. Because people can tell. They always can. No matter how polished the performance, people sense when their leader isn't being real. And once they sense it, everything that leader says gets filtered through that lens of skepticism. That's why authenticity isn't just a nice to have quality in leadership. It's essential. Not because being real makes you likable, though it might. But because leading

I worked with a team once whose leader had a habit of taking credit for their work. Not in obvious ways. It was subtle. In meetings with upper management, the leader would present ideas the team had developed without mentioning where they came from. When projects succeeded, the leader's name was front and center. When things went wrong, suddenly it was a team effort and everyone shared the blame. The team noticed. Of course they noticed. And once they did, everything changed.

A few years ago at a leadership conference, someone pulled me aside during a break. They needed to vent about their boss. What they described stayed with me because it wasn't just frustrating. It was a masterclass in how leadership falls apart when one fundamental skill is missing. Their team had been dealing with project timeline issues. Instead of explaining the actual resource constraints they were facing, their leader told stakeholders the organization had implemented

But that change required brutal honesty with myself. Reflecting on situations and really thinking about my role in the status of the relationship. Understanding what I'd done to cause the problems and then owning it. Hindsight is said to be 20/20, and it certainly can be if you have your eyes open. You just have to be willing to open your eyes. I had to look at relationships that weren't working and ask myself hard questions. What did I do to contribute to this? How did my

Social awareness is your ability to accurately pick up on emotions in other people and understand what's really going on in social situations. It's reading body language, noticing tone shifts, picking up on group dynamics, and understanding the unspoken undercurrents that affect every interaction. It's not mind reading. It's observation. Attention. Tuning into the people around you instead of being so focused on yourself that you miss everything else.

Self-awareness isn't just knowing you exist or being able to list your strengths and weaknesses on a resume. Honestly, it’s hardly any of that. It's the ability to understand how you're showing up in real time, how others are experiencing you, and how your internal state is affecting your external impact. It's reading the room. It's catching yourself mid-sentence. It's recognizing when your approach isn't working and adjusting before you lose the room entirely.

I think the most interesting story about emotional intelligence I can think of involves a person who told me they didn't need any training on emotional intelligence because they were "a professional at it." At the same time, members of their team spent most of their time working around this person and rolling their eyes at them.

So, you set your New Year's resolutions. You did the work. You made them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. You broke them down into steps. You felt motivated and ready. And now here we are in mid-January, and the momentum is already starting to fade. Sound familiar? Here's the uncomfortable truth: I have set more goals and forgotten about them than I can even remember. And I'm someone who TEACHES this stuff. I write blog posts about it. I help org

Here's what nobody tells you about leadership: you can't fight every battle. You literally do not have the energy. Every time you engage in something, whether it's a conflict, a debate, a correction, or a defense, you're spending energy. And that energy is finite. When you spend your energy on the wrong battles, you don't have it for the right ones. You don't have it for your team. You don't have it for strategic thinking. You don't have it for the work that actually matter

I apologize when I have to bother someone to get details about a personnel matter. Even when that matter is as important (or more important) to the person I'm "bothering" as it is to the employee involved. Even when it's literally part of their job to provide me that information. Then on the flip side, I apologize when I have to deliver news that isn't what someone wanted to hear. When a project didn't make the priority list. When the outcome of a situation isn't exactly wha

Let me be clear about something right up front. The number changing from 2025 to 2026 doesn't magically transform anything. January 1st is just another day. The sun will come up the same way it did on December 31st. You'll wake up as the same person with the same life and the same challenges. The calendar switching doesn't create a fresh start. YOU create the fresh start. The calendar just gives us the kick in the pants to do it.

It's the last Monday of the year, and if you're on social media at all, you've seen them. The posts about New Year's resolutions. The ambitious lists. The grand declarations of transformation.

Perfectionism is killing your productivity and stressing your team. Here's why "excellent and done" beats "perfect and never finished" every time.

Just promoted to manager? Delegation is one of the hardest skills to learn. Here's your practical, step-by-step guide to delegating tasks without micromanaging or overwhelming your team.

Overwhelmed by holiday expectations? Here's how to actually enjoy time with family and friends without losing your mind, from someone who became the Bridezilla of Christmas Eve.

Constantly checking work email at night and weekends? You're not alone. Here's why this habit hurts your leadership effectiveness and 5 practical strategies to finally set healthy email boundaries.

Here's the thing about leadership: we accumulate baggage. Not just physical clutter on our desks (though let's be honest, that happens too), but mental and emotional weight that limits our effectiveness. Habits that made sense at one point but don't anymore. Beliefs about leadership that sound noble but actually hold us back.

But here's what I've been thinking about: gratitude in leadership isn't a once-a-year, around-the-table exercise. It's a daily practice that either strengthens your team or, when done poorly or not at all, slowly erodes the foundation you're trying to build. And before you roll your eyes thinking this is going to be some fluffy feel-good post about participation trophies and everyone getting a gold star, stick with me. Because I'm going to tell you about the time gratitude l

I wasn't setting my team up for success. I was holding everything so close that they couldn't function without me. And if I'm being truly honest, many years back I was probably a little too insecure in my role. There was some fear that went along with holding it all so close, fear that someone might take the ball and run with it, fear that they might not need me as much as I thought they did.