Reflections and activities
Our latest news and reflections:
Give It Back
It happens in almost every coaching engagement, at some point, in some form. The language varies. "What would you do?" Or: "Just tell me what you are seeing." Or, most directly: "You have been through this before. What is the answer here?" The request feels...
The Batteries
Nobody talks about the batteries. Leadership conversations at CxO level focus on vision, decision-making, stakeholder alignment, strategic clarity. The instrument metaphors are always about the light itself. The reach, the direction, the beam. What depletes the...
There Is an Art to Holding It
Most leaders, once they accept the dark exists, want to illuminate everything immediately. Wide beam, full sweep, as much visibility as possible as fast as possible. That instinct is understandable. It is also how you get lost. We worked with a CFO transitioning...
The Flashlight You Did Not Know You Needed
She had been in the role for four months. Competent, energetic, well-regarded. The organization had moved fast to appoint her, and she had moved fast to deliver. In our first real conversation, she described her priorities, her stakeholders, her plan for the next...
You Think You’re Walking in Daylight
A CEO of a mid-sized industrial company came to us six months into a major strategic reorientation. He had the data. He had the team. He had the board's confidence. The direction was clear.He was not asking for help navigating uncertainty. He was asking us to...
The future a board imagines
Non-executive board appointments rarely receive much attention. A short announcement appears. A biography follows. Experience, continuity, governance. Then the board returns to the agenda. During a recent board review of a European company, we spent time looking at...
Playing to win or playing to lose
We see a familiar pattern in boardrooms. At some point, the conversation splits: those who play to win, and those who play not to lose. Both positions are understandable. We encounter them in many leadership teams, often side by side. Especially when pressure is...
The employer role boards talk about least
When Supervisory Boards speak about their role as employer, the language is usually procedural: Selection. Nomination. Evaluation. Termination. Clear moments. Clear deliberations and decisions. Clear paperwork.What quietly slips through the cracks is development....
When silence becomes a leadership risk
As CCO of a multinational, she was recognized for her commercial judgment, her credibility with clients and her ability to deliver results in a difficult market. Inside her own leadership group, however, rivalry, exclusion and behavior that crossed professional...