Your rollercoaster life
Amusement parks are what often come to mind when we think of summer. Roller coasters are one of the favorite rides for some, but what we don’t think about is the roller coaster we live with all year round. I’ve been watching my mind lately going up and down like a roller coaster. I think […]
Giving Yourself Permission When Others Won’t
At DisruptHR May 2026, standing on stage at the Victoria Conference Center, I told several hundred people what didn’t want to hear: you are part of the problem. Not because you don’t care. Because chronic reactivity, that constant firefighting mode most of us live in, quietly erodes our ability to be present. When you’re reactive, […]
Why home gets the worst of you, not the office.
I’m proud to say I’ve been accepted, two years in a row now, to speak at the annual conference for the Association of Engineers and Geoscientists BC this fall. This year’s talk is called “Managing your reactivity before it manages you.” Here’s what motivated this topic. As an executive coach working with leaders and teams, […]
Conflict Isn’t Really About Who’s Right
I was brought in to facilitate a conflict between two colleagues (Claire and John) who had reached a point where working together had become almost impossible. Their differences had begun to impact the entire team and the department’s ability to function well. On the surface, it looked like a personality clash. Two different approaches, two […]
Repair Is a Leadership Skill that Most Leaders Don’t Use
We can all remember a time when someone said something slightly offensive to us. An offhand comment from them landed badly on you. I’d bet you can still remember exactly how it felt, as if it happened yesterday. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself how your comments may have landed for someone else? […]
You Always Have Two Choices
We all know we have two choices: react or respond. The reality is it’s a lot harder to respond when every cell in your body wants to react. Here’s a recent example from my own life. My teenage son often gets behind on his chores. One day the kitchen was a mess, he’d forgotten to […]
What AI is stealing from you
I’ve been working on a book. As I’m hoping a publisher will look at it, I cannot touch AI to help me write it. Not even remotely. In writing every single word in my book, I’m noticing how much I relish the feeling of deliciousness when I put two words together or craft a sentence […]
The Question I Was Afraid to Ask
A few years ago, I was in a meeting with a potential client. Big company. Great opportunity. And I had no idea what they were talking about. I did something that felt terrifying at the time. I stopped them mid-sentence and said: “I need to be honest. I don’t understand what you mean by that. […]
What No One Tells You About Hiring (or Firing) a Coach
I recently ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. She mentioned she’d been working with a coach for a year. Here’s what stopped me cold. She said her coach had looked at her, exasperated, and said – “You’re not listening to me!!”. My friend felt shame. Like she’d done something wrong, and […]
The hybrid team insight many leaders miss
I was talking to a CEO recently who’s been wrestling with getting his team back into the office, at least part-time. He knows that being together would strengthen relationships, spark better collaboration, and build the kind of trust you can’t always get through a screen. But here’s his problem. His team works in tech and […]