Coach Don

“People leadership primarily focuses on inspiring, guiding, and empowering individuals and teams to reach their full potential”. It goes far beyond solely concentrating on tasks, processes, or individual results. People Leadership truly emphasizes the human element within an organization. So, what potentially holds us back from advancing as people leaders? For many of the coaching

In my pre-coaching career, I found that one of the most challenging aspects of my roles was how to communicate decisions to others (e.g. team members, peers, customers, etc.) that I did not agree with. These decisions involved actions such as employee separations, performance discussions, changes in business strategies and tactics, and letting go of

As I reflect on my life to date, from my earliest childhood memories to my current experiences as a “newly minted” Medicare cardholder, I realize that I am riding quite an emotional roller-coaster when it comes to INNOVATION.  There have been times in my life when I have been excited and even passionate about creating

May 31st will mark six years since I “retired” from my first career. After 38 years with ExxonMobil and its heritage companies, it was time to explore the “what’s-next” phase of my life. May is “Mental Health Awareness” month. I want to use this post to explore the mental health impacts of retirement and to

It has been over forty years since Jon Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith first published their ground-breaking research on the effective use of teams to create high-performance organizations.  In their book, “The Wisdom of Teams”, Katzenbach and Smith proposed that “teams outperform individuals acting alone or in large organizational groupings, especially when performance requires multiple

As far back as I can remember, any book I read or course I took specific to effective communication referenced the “7-38-55 Rule”.  The concept is derived from research completed by Dr. Albert Mehrabian in 1971, specific to the communication of emotions. In summary, the rule describes the three critical elements for effective communication and

“Our connection with others can only be as deep as our connection with ourselves.” This is a quote from Dr. Brene’ Brown’s most recent book, “Atlas of the Heart”. Dr. Brown goes on to discuss that the confidence to “cultivate meaningful connection” with others comes from knowing and understanding who we are and what we

Whether triggered by the recent horrible events in Israel and Gaza or by events occurring “closer to home”, an increasing number of my recent coaching conversations have centered around understanding emotions. Whatever the trigger, the inevitable questions follow: How long should I cry? How long should I stay angry? How long should I stay fearful?

Many of the clients I collaborate with face hurdles when it comes to the art of delegation. Some grapple with the fear of releasing control to their team members, while others, particularly newly promoted managers, worry about potential resentment from their employees. There’s also a common misconception that doing everything oneself enhances team efficiency and