Leadership 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 on Substack — I’d be glad to have you there.
Latest Articles
May 7th List
Mental Health Week in Canada, more poking at performance reviews, convivencia, and finding the influential Schein at Faking Sanity in Dawson Creek,...
Hey Babs: Mid-career, successful, and not always feeling the passion
Hey Babs, I’m what you might call mid-career and successful. I lead a team of tech service managers who I like, and I believe that what we do is...
Musings on Asking Questions
The unasked, the hesitant, the closed, the prickly, and the curious. We ask a lot of questions in our lives. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty...
Reflections on the Here and Now
Where I have a freaky line of thinking. Being in the “here and now” may feel a little obvious and yet I am hearing from so many friends and clients...
April 9th List
Mary Oliver, Gorbachev, Thatcher, Mr. Rogers, Court Jesters, and Bhangra 1 The Guardian article, “The one question we all need to ask ourselves –...
Hey Babs: Deputy CEO, Fires, and Not Wanting to Quit
Hey Babs, Two years ago, I took on the role of Deputy CEO of a mid-size organization. Before this I was the manager for community programs where I...
Musings on Rejection
Reject Better Rejection is a common work experience. We need to be good with rejection as it isn’t possible to accept all ideas, proposals, job...
Reflections on Boundaries and Armour
When I first heard someone at some conference somewhere talk about the difference between boundaries and armour, I felt defensive and dismissive,...
March 12th List
AI, honesty, rudeness, curiosity, and Bank of Dave Sort of didn’t want to include this in the list as I feel AI inundated these days (do you?), but...
Hey Babs: Restructured out of a job and feeling great
Hey Babs, I think you would be interested in something that happened to me recently. My company merged with another and as suspected there were...