Insights
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: Dreading Upcoming Team Retreat
Facilitators, Ice-Breakers, and Not Trusting the Process. Hey Babs, I’m dreading an upcoming team retreat. While we work well as a team, we haven’t...
Reflections on Picking Leadership Pals
Looking for something more than monkey bar antics and blowing smoke rings. We tend to want to hang out with people who make us feel good about our...
Leadership, AI, and Writing Lousy Poetry
Using AI to write emails, memos, reports, blog posts or any other communications will undermine your leadership journey. My big question about AI in...
Musings on Investing in People During Times of Economic Uncertainty
Babs shares a cautionary tale of what happens when you don't. The OECD projects that Canada's economic growth will slow from 1.5 per cent in 2024 to...
Hey Babs: Talking About Psychological Safety and Feeling Humiliated by Staff
Babs responds with, stop talking. Hey Babs, I’m part of an Executive Leadership Team (the ELT) in a mid-sized public sector organization where I...
Reflections on Asking “How am I Doing?”
Leaving the safe zone of "what am I doing?". “Its hard to ask a question if you’re scared of the answer.” Henry Mallet, Spirited, season 2 episode...
April 2025 List
Election night speeches, an opinion on leadership language, George Clooney and org charts, civility, personality types, self-help, and the ever...
Musing on Radical Candour
Radical candour, like so many other leadership and management resources, tools, assessments, frameworks, and step programs, is only as good as what...
Hey Babs: Lost Temper, Questioning Leadership Abilities, and Looking for a Way Back.
Babs responds with there is no way back, only forward. Hey Babs, I consider myself to be a courageous and caring Executive Director / CEO. I care...
Leadership Practice: Sleep
Uncertainty, chaos, stress and the need for a good night's sleep. Sleep is often one of the first things to go when people feel pressed for time....
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