Over this last month, I’ve had the privilege of working with a few high-level leadership teams. Each of these teams are made up of leaders who are responsible for leading their own teams.     Together, we’ve been digging into the 8 step difficult conversations model for navigating important conversations.     Last week, we touched on the role of leaders when others on the team are in conflict.     Leaders are the people who call on me for help. Leaders are also

In the last month, I’ve had the privilege of hosting conversations with two different teams in two very different organizations. They are both equally great.     Each team is made up of collaborative, creative, savvy leaders. Each leader heads up their own team. Each works in complex, dynamic environments that require strategic thinking and excellent people skills, which they all have. They also share a drive for excellence and a burning desire to meet the needs of those they serve.     My

When I was about 20 years old, I hand-crafted a business card and wrote the words “Creative Solutions” as a dream business I would own one day. I had no idea what that vision would look like. At the time, I was working for a theatre company that would go on to produce the first Fringe Theatre Festival in Victoria. I was deeply committed to creativity and the arts. As my career as a mediator and conflict educator grew, I would soon forget the

My colleague Gordon White and I had a fascinating conversation recently with a leader we really admire. This leader has a collaborative style of communicating. There isn’t anything you can’t explore with this person: they are accepting, encouraging, listen well and assert cleanly. It’s a joy and an adventure to talk and discover together. So, what’s the problem? Believe it or not, being nice can be a problem. I’m being a bit facetious, but consider times in your relationships when: the vibe is good

What’s become obvious to me as I coach many high-powered, heart-centered leaders and teams, is there are some fundamentals that, once mastered, take difficult conversations from stressful and destructive to flowing and constructive.     That is, there is an art to conversations. Mastering the fundamentals allows you to acknowledge there are differences to work through and to engage with those differences creatively.     A key fundamental is understanding some basic brain biology. It’s a complex topic and can easily become reductionist. Having

I recently attended a very stimulating conference, participating digitally while it was going on simultaneously in-person in Stockholm, Sweden. It was called Connecting the Dots – From inner growth to outer change. The conference was put on by a collective which promotes the Inner Development Goals (IDGs). The IDGs initiative was started in 2020 by a group of thinkers who came together with the desire to strengthen the inner capacity of individuals and the collective to respond to the mounting challenges we are facing individually and collectively.