Insights Newsletter
This is where I share what I’m thinking, what I’m reading, and what the leaders and organizations I work with are wrestling with.
A few things you’ll find here:
- Hey Babs: leaders write in with real challenges and I respond with what I actually think. No hedging. Anonymity protected.
- The List: a periodic round-up of the readings, viewings, and listenings that have caught my attention. The librarian in me cannot help it.
- Reflections and Musings: longer essays and shorter takes on the complicated, fascinating, occasionally absurd business of leading well.
Everything here is free. If you’d like it delivered directly, subscribe at the Courageous Leaders Project newsletter in the black box to your right — I’d be glad to have you there.
Latest Articles
Hey Babs, “Gravy Train” and “You’re Fired”
Babs pokes at managerialism, restructuring, reorganizing, and outsourcing judgement. Hey Babs, In 2022 and again in 2024 we worked with a management...
The Failure of Leadership Development Programs
And why we keep propping them up. Finally Forbes published the article that had been stewing in my mind for a handful of years. Admittedly and...
Public Library Boards, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
Filing away a research project dear to my heart. Admittedly, this is a bit of a self-indulgent post as I regrettably file away a research project...
March 2026 List
Uncertainty, the "age of immorality", Brené Brown, AI (again), talking with strangers, and Japanese snack bars. 1 To Lead Through Uncertainty,...
Reflections on Your Everyday Brilliance
An invitation to take your brilliance bigger, bolder, and higher. It isn’t easy to be brilliant when the world around you is rewarding cookie-cutter...
Hey Babs, “None of it Was Wrong Per Se”
Babs responds with, "this is seriously shouty red flag stuff". Hey Babs, I just got shoulder tapped for an executive position in the organization...
Updates and New Email
Catching up, smoothing out the business bumps, and making time for something new. I love my work, but I’m not so keen on sending out invoices or...
How We Talk About AI
My grandfather said “pony up” to me a lot when I was a kid. I was one disappointed kid waiting for that pony. Too many of us are still...
Winter Renewal Coaching Offer
I am offering, just for subscribers, Winter Renewal coaching sessions at a 50% discount. Each 55 minute session is held via Zoom and includes a...
December 2025 List
1 Today Was Fun, A Book About Work (Seriously), by Bree Groff (2025) This book is an engaging and easy read that pokes at things that need...
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