Leadership Insights

When a senior leader joins a new organization, most companies move quickly to cover the basics: a system login, an org chart, a round of introductory meetings, and a 90-day plan with defined deliverables. That process is what most people mean when they talk about executive onboarding. It describes the structured set of activities an organization uses to orient a new executive to their role, their team, and the business. What it does not describe, and what most organizations never quite get...

Psychological safety at work is the shared belief among team members that the environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson coined the term after studying hospital nursing teams and discovering that the highest-performing units reported more errors than lower-performing ones. Those teams had higher report rates because safety made surfacing problems culturally normal, and catching errors early kept mistakes from compounding, while...

What is Leadership decision-making? Leadership decision-making is the process a leader uses to choose a course of action from among competing options, while accounting for the effect that choice will have on strategy, people, and the health of the organization. That definition is accurate, but it understates how much is actually happening when a senior leader makes a real call under real pressure. Most frameworks on this topic treat decision-making as a primarily cognitive challenge. Gather...

Inclusive leadership is the practice of consistently showing up so that every person on your team feels seen, heard, and able to contribute fully. It is not a diversity initiative, a communication style, or something you either have or do not have. It is a set of behaviors, shaped by self-awareness and practiced over time, that either builds or erodes a team's willingness to engage. When those behaviors are absent or inconsistent, people notice, even when the leader does not. TL;DR Most...

What Is "Leadership Training"? Leadership training is a structured process that helps individuals build the skills, habits, and self-knowledge needed to guide other people effectively. It can include workshops, one-on-one executive coaching, 360-degree feedback assessments, team coaching, organizational diagnostics, and digital learning tools. The goal is to produce a more honest and effective leader, not a perfect one. I have been an executive and business coach for 29 years. In that time,...

What Is Heart-Centered Leadership? Heart-centered leadership is a way of leading that places the whole person their values, dignity, and growth at the center of how decisions get made, how feedback is given, and how organizational culture gets built. TL;DR Heart-centered leadership is a people-first approach that puts trust, empathy, and authenticity at the center of how you lead. It is not vague or overly idealistic. It is a disciplined, evidence-backed way of running teams and...